First, visit http://extortionletterinfo.com and check out the forums. You'll learn that there are hundreds if not thousands of people in the same situation. Image copyright trolling is a booming business!
You should know that any legal advice given on the internet is probably worth every penny you pay for it. That said, if you read up on this you can educate yourself and make your own decisions on how to fight.
In general, you need them to start making some demands of your own. They need to establish who holds the copyright to that image. You need to find out if that image has been registered with the copyright office. They may have the rights to the image, but if it has not been registered, what they can collect is severely limited. And finally, I would push back on the issue of having them provide a model release too.
By the way, if you truly have no money, then you are judgement proof and any attorney pursuing this claim would be a fool.
I doubt LiLo or her representatives are even aware of this. I have been in contact with the original recipient and I'm suspicious that neither AKM Images nor CEG have a model release from Ms Lohan. There is such a thing as a right of publicity. She has the right to control the commercial use of her name and likeness. Since the letter hardly mentions her, I wonder if there is a release. I have asked the recipient to insist on documentation from CEG -- a model release and proof that the images were previously registered with the copyright office.
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Just educate yourself and push back
You should know that any legal advice given on the internet is probably worth every penny you pay for it. That said, if you read up on this you can educate yourself and make your own decisions on how to fight.
In general, you need them to start making some demands of your own. They need to establish who holds the copyright to that image. You need to find out if that image has been registered with the copyright office. They may have the rights to the image, but if it has not been registered, what they can collect is severely limited. And finally, I would push back on the issue of having them provide a model release too.
By the way, if you truly have no money, then you are judgement proof and any attorney pursuing this claim would be a fool.
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