Dasilva snagged an image from Google's image search and used it on a website he set up for one of his clients. The photographer who took the picture -- Michael Grecco -- sued Dasilva for infringement, ultimately ending up with $27,000 settlement and $10,000 in legal fees.
There are extra gems to be present in Dasilva’s video, together with his assertion he is not going to decelerate his infringing use of different folks’s pictures. However then once more, what do you count on from a video that leads off with “my lawyer informed me to not make this video?”
Dasilva has seemingly learned nothing from this experience. In fact, it appears the lawsuit may have actually made him stupider.
"The reason I was sued was because I used a picture that I found on Google Images," Dasilva says in his warning to other content creators. But instead of simply warning people about the dangers of infringing on photographers' copyrights, Dasilva decides to warn people about "malicious" people out there who are trying to profit off their copyright.
"I never really thought that there are malicious people out there… there are people out there who maliciously put pictures on the Internet," Dasilva states. "They copyright pictures that they take, and what they do is, they'll get a copyright on it, and they'll put it out on the Internet, and it's freely available on the Internet. If you run a Google search their image will appear."
Yes, Dasilva somehow believes copyrighted photos returned in Google image searches are honeypots created by photographers. But that only scratches the surface of Dasilva's ignorance. He also appears to believe photos need to be watermarked clearly with copyright symbols in at least 12 point text so people like him won't fall into the trap of being sued for grabbing images off the internet and treating them as their own.
There are more gems to be found in Dasilva's video, including his assertion he's not going to slow down his infringing use of other people's photos. But then again, what do you expect from a video that leads off with "my lawyer told me not to make this video?"
Dasilva appears to believe he should have been given a warning by Michael Grecco, rather than sued. But given his grasp of the underlying issues (and his plan to continue his infringing acts), it's hard to believe a mere cease-and-desist would have been sufficient. He does suggest viewers search for Creative Commons images, which is a start, but seems to imply it's a last-ditch option for people with a reasonable disinterest in being sued. He also fails to clarify that Creative Commons is not nearly the same thing as public domain. Some CC licenses forbid commercial use.
If Dasilva knew anything about Grecco, he would have known the photographer is an aggressive litigant. He's sued plenty of publishing industry giants for alleged infringement. Grecco's litigation history may appear troll-like, but he's not in the business of suing IP addresses en masse or targeting individuals who may have posted his photos on their personal blogs. Grecco's aggressive litigation stance in no way validates Dasilva's claims he's the real victim here. And it must be noted Grecco has taken a far more progressive stance than many engaged in the business of infringement litigation. When he noticed PDFs of his photography book being shared at filesharing sites, he took it to mean he needed to create an electronic version to serve this underserved market.
If Dasilva finds himself sued again, it's doubtful he'll be able to secure the same representation. Unfortunately, the fallout from his lawsuit means thousands of people looking to him for e-commerce advice have just been made stupider.
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