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Bogus Takedown Notice Lands $150k Settlement In Australian Court
Fluffeh writes "Richard Bell, an Australian Film Maker, on a fellowship in New York, produced and directed approximately 18 hours of raw footage for a film with the help of an assistant called Tanya Steele and paid her for these services. Ms Steele, through her American lawyers, sent letters to Mr Bell and his agent claiming that she owned the copyright in the footage and demanding that the trailer be removed from the Internet. She also caused the Vimeo website to remove the trailer. In response, Bell went to the (Australian) courts, which declared him the owner of the copyright in the film, and deemed Steele's threats "unjustifiable". Bell then asked for damages. These were granted in the latest judgment because Bell had lost the opportunity to sell some of his works, which typically cost tens of thousands of dollars, as a result of Steels' threats. The Australian judge awarded over $150,000 in damages plus another $23,000 costs against her."
A settlement involves an agreement between two parties. Nothing of the sort happened here. The Australian court said this woman had to pay the money. Thats a "judgment". Its quite irritating that immediately after this verdict, the relisted trailer on YouTube got blocked by the same person again...
Does this mean that karma will catch up with this idiot too?
Not necessarily. In your case, her victims would have to prove that they lost money as a result. Did they?
In this case of Steele vs. Bell, I know that everyone is making light of the amount of money he won, but this guy Bell really didn't have any problem proving that he was already making $150,000 selling his paintings in just a few of months, so the amount he was awarded is probably just a very conservative estimate of what he could have earned if she had not prevented him from appearing at an art show, and blocked the online promotion of his movie showcasing his story.
I suspect he is a complete liar /hr
here are the paintings he claims are up to $60,000 a piece (what a joke)
http://www.kooriweb.org/bell/art.html
http://www.milanigallery.com.au/artwork/her-thous-shalt-not
I've had way better pieces custom made (oil on canvas portraits) for a fraction of the price
here are his real market prices
http://www.findartinfo.com/search/listprices.asp?keyword=113297
And then he claims in one website to have spent $80k on legal services, the court found he only spent $23k on lawyer fees at a rate of $500