https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBNGY2ZgMro&w=700&showinfo=0&rel=0

I’ve started to post this video several times but it’s been hard for me to get past the stupidity. The broseph you see in this video decided he would use a photographer’s images that he “found on Google . . . freely available” in his Shopify “business.” The problem, however, is that he didn’t get a license or permission from the photographer.

The photographer then sued the thief with evidence supporting his slam-dunk case. Moron rightly decides to settle the case for $27,000 plus $10,000 in court costs and attorney’s fees.

His defense is a maddening riddle:

“There are malicious people who put copyrighted images all over the internet without letting clearly know that they’re copyrighted. And then these same people search for the instances of images used and sue people. They work in groups, that’s their business model.”

I can’t do much more than throw my hands up at this. While I’ve heard the “freely available on Google” schtick many times before, it’s still shocking to hear the defiance in this guy’s rant. And he still doesn’t get it after paying out $37,000.

This is the stupidity that photographers are up against.