Website Owner Beware!

I haven't posted before, but I feel impelled to do so as what has just happened to me may very well have a very negative impact on your finances as well.
Approximately a year ago..my wife was interviewed by the online magazine, "The Daily Beast" about a book series she has published. After the interview, the Daily Beast Journalist published the article and sent a copy of it to my wife. The article was accompanied by an image with my wife's book superimposed upon it.
We added the image to our website as we have added other images, videos, and audio clips from local and national news organization interviews with no issue. We thought nothing of it as the article was about my wife, her book series and had her book in the image.
However, in this instance (approximately a month after we placed the image on our website), we received an email from an unknown sender warning us we were in violation of federal copyright laws. Furthermore, if we did not remove the image immediately they would take legal action.
Rather than create legal trouble, we removed the image immediately thinking that would be the end of that. Unfortunately, it was not.
Today...over a year since the image was taken off the website, we received an email from a law firm in Los Angeles by the name of Higbee & Associates. They're a law firm that specializes in copyright law.
The email is very threatening and in a nutshell says...we are in violation of federal copyright laws. We have 14 days to respond or we will be taken to court for copyright infringement.
The letter further states...if we want to avoid a costly court battle and lawsuit in the $100,000+ range...we can send payment of $2,170 by credit card or ACH Direct Deposit to the Higbee & Associates Law Firm. They even provide a form to enter our credit card info. How nice!
My first thought was who are these people? Their client is not "The Daily Beast", but rather, some press agency from France by the name of "Agence France-Presse" (AFP).
We contacted the Daily Beast reporter and asked where the image in question came from? She said her photography department created the image, so we have no idea how this "Agence France-Presse" (AFP) figures into the equation as of yet.
This whole thing seemed suspicious and is extremely concerning as we are not wealthy by any means. That being said I decided to do some research on Higbee & Associates.
I learned Higbee & Associates is notorious for using a software program to scan websites, blogs and social media accounts to find images that are not licensed (even if the image has not had a copyright registered).

I also learned Higbee & Associates are well known by Copyright Attorneys around the United States for walking the line ethically when they send out their demand letters.

Their MO is to scare website owners, bloggers and folks with social media accounts into paying a several thousand dollars to settle out of court. If they refuse...Higbee & Associates threatens to sue for $150,000 or more if you go to court. This is apparently a huge cash machine for them as they alledgedly send out thousands of letters monthly.

I read however, that when one of their targets hires a copyright lawyer...Higbee & Associates tends to back off, as they know (in most cases), they have no legal leg to stand on. Unfortunately, many folks can not afford a lawyer, so rather than fight, they just pay the ransom money.

So to reiterate... what Higbee & Associates is doing is preying on those of us who cannot afford to hire a high caliber Attorney. They send thousands and thousands of demand letters to unsuspecting targets with a threat to pay a few Thousand or they will destroy you financially.

It's shocking that this lawyer still has his law license when it's apparent many Copyright Law Firms are aware of his shady practice. All I can figure is that he is smart enough to walk just inside that very thin ethical/legal line.

I did however, read that there is discussion of a class action lawsuit by victims he has targeted.

Again..I wanted to make sure all the members of the WA community are aware of this as I do not wish this on any of you.

If any members who read this have been contacted by the Higbee & Associates Law Firm please let me know. This firm needs to be served with a class action suit so they cannot prey on online entrepreueurs like you and me any longer.

Thanks!