How bad can lack of protection be? MyPosture v. Anodyne
Anodyne is a firm selling posture-correcting clothes, helping with back injuries and similar issues. MyPosture was a scam, promising the same kind of product as Anodyne and trying to piggyback off the marketing content created and purchased by Anodyne. How successful was that approach?
MyPosture was able to make marketing videos with models posing in Anodyne’s products and use that to sell their own counterfeiting goods. They also copied the logos and other marketing content that Anodyne owned, and, because MyPosture’s wares were counterfeited goods of much lower quality, they could use their competition’s marketing content while offering significantly lower prices. The consumers’ confusion was so great that Anodyne routinely received complaints from MyPosture’s customers.
Unfortunately, Anodyne was a little slow to act. Once they got going with pursuing MyPosture’s content theft through the legal system, they were able to get backing from courts and MyPosture ended up owing Anodyne hundreds of thousands of dollars. But by the time the courts had settled everything, MyPosture declared bankruptcy. Anodyne now stands with a damaged image and no compensation to show for it.
If authorities are slow to act when it comes to copyright protection, what can be done?
Ideally, the legal systems would handle these things in a manner where needs for time and quality are both respected when it comes to protecting your work. And, maybe someday, systems can be worked out where those needs are met. Sadly, “someday” isn’t going to cut it for content creators who want to protect their content online, whether that be for a hobby, business, or a mixture of the two.
Until governments figure out how to bring laws to the wild west of the internet, the responsibility falls on you to either get legal help on your own or to police the internet for content theft. If you feel like striking out on your own, we have an article [here] about how you can be the sheriff protecting your own content. To sum up the article: you can make a habit of using reverse google image search or TinEyes to find people stealing your content and tell them to take it down. And, with this approach, it really must be a habit. Like we saw with Anodyne and MyPosture, the consequences of acting too slowly and not protecting your content in real-time can be pretty severe.
Is that type of protection too time consuming? Then maybe the CatchScan solution is right for you.
We made CatchScan because we saw the injustices content creators had to deal with on their own, getting little-to-no help from the people who were supposed to protect them. Simply put, we don’t think it is fair that you need to deal with this on your own, and that is why we are here to help you protect your content. In fact, it is why we offer a free subscription option and why we ensure that you always get the bulk of any compensation that we secure for you. It is simply a matter of how things should be.
If you are a content creator, that is probably because you have found a way to spark joy or inspiration in others. Few things can kill joy and inspiration faster than dealing with scammers, thieves, and the dry processes of the legal system (that last point is exactly why I think the legal department should make their office more festive with cowboy hats!). If you want to face the wild west of the internet on your own, we are happy to teach you how and to help content creators in general by giving advice on our site. But if you want to focus more on sparking joy and inspiration, we are ready to help you focus less on scammers and thieves by offering the real-time protection you need.
