NT Detectives - Copyright Law VOL: Possible Hoax?

I have a possible issue I need to run by someone who is familiar with copyright law. NT houses people from all walks of life, so I was curious if anyone knows about it.

Last June I received a demand letter in the mail from some law firm (Sanders PLLC) in Long Island claiming I used an image on my site that was copyrighted. I spoke with a co-worker who was a criminal defense attorney who told me it was a demand letter and not a lawsuit.

Initially when I received this, I reached out to a few colleagues who run very big and famous film websites and they were contacted by the same law firm claiming the same thing, but chalked it up to being a possible hoax and trying to extort money.

I didn't hear from them again.

On August 5th, 2014 I got an email from the same company claiming the same thing. Again I made sure it was just a demand letter and not a lawsuit, it's even signed by a paralegal and not an attorney, which I was told is a bit fishy as well.

I've done a bunch of research lately on them and it seems like they are a troll organization that have been messing with people for a few months trying to get them to settle for any and every amount of $ they can.

Any help?

Don't know much but I do know you can use parody law to circumvent copyright law

Hit the PM.

added info for potential help

Well what's the image and did you check the ownership?

I wasn't even the one who put the post up originally it was one of my writers who doesn't write for me any more, he left last summer. It was a google image search that's where he got it from

Good News

I just got off the phone with a lawyer who specializes in Copyright law who told me that this is a money grub ploy and it's a firm that's looking to scare people initially and have them pay. If they wanted to do anything to me or really take the post down they wouldn't have sent me the mailed letter they do or the email they sent me over a year later.

He suspected that they have some sort of automated system that sends out "threat letters" to people who don't respond to them. There is a 3 year statue of limitation on this. And he said that he is 99.9999% sure they won't do anything. It doesn't make financial sense, they would literally be suing me for about $18.

So I'm glad that was addressed. Thanks to those who tried to offer advice.

Glad it worked out for you man.