Why moderator intervention?

[Scott Blair]

I would like to express a thank you to all those that showed support to me and others when this situation was brought forth. It was refreshing to see the storm chase community come together to fix a problem that affected many people. Secondly, it perhaps helped set a standard if a similar situation ever arises. Hopefully these discussions and feelings on this forum might deter anyone from considering such an act in the future.

It appears all my photographs used without permission have been removed off Billy Griffin’s page. Unless they reappear, I plan to no longer pursue this matter any further, yet move on and concentrate on potential chases in the northern plains. Again, thank you for your support and discussions.

Scott Blair
http://www.targetarea.net

 

[fplowman]

Ok.. im not really involved but what the hell..

Allow me to attempt to put on my mediator hat.

If Billy Griffin (whom i do not know nor ever met) < --- disclaimer.. lol

1. takes down the pics as he has done.
2. publicly appologizes sincerely and wholeheartedly here in this thread or a subsequent thread he makes himself.

would the injured parties be satisfied with that? Would this fix this problem?

I would say this. The few people effected im sure would like to see a resolution.

Would they be able to post here stating that they will no longer persue legal action here in hardcopy within this or a new post? Thus allowing Billy to admit his guilt, save face and appologize without repercussion legally?

I would ask:

1. each chaser who feels they were infringed upon to state:

I will hereby discontinue any lawsuit previously engaged and or any lawsuit brought forward in the future related to the matter at hand (copyright infringement) with Billy Griffin.

This of course is contingent upon Billy Griffin making a formal appology here within this thread or within a new thread he starts within this forum and in addition no longer using the copywritten material either now or in the future without the owners permission.

Otherwise guys im sure his attornies will ask him to not make any statements whatsoever. Billy cannot apopologize thus accepting guilt to a crime. If he was given this out though i think it would allow the chasing community as well as Billy Griffin to move forward and on with life.

Is this possible??

Any thoughts or suggestions? Mike P I hear your an attorney.. Maybe you could word my disclaimer better as I am not.

Thought i would try to do a good thing..

Fred

 

[Mike Peregrine]

No Fred ... not an attorney here, nor do I ever claim to be in false emails. ah hem ... just a paralegal for about 12 years.



And yes, I think an apology would do wonders for making this thing go bye bye.

Scott Blair - you are a true chaser and a good role model for others.

 

[David Drummond]

Yeah, would that be the fake attorney the most of us got the email from that would be advising him?

I won't put what you stated, but that is all I have been asking for....an admission, and apology, and perhaps and explaination of why?

 

[Darin Brunin]

I can not speak for the other persons involved in this matter but here is my position as of right now.

I think that me issuing a statement saying that I will not take legal action against Billy would be incredibly stupid on my part right now. For all I know he could put the pictures back up 30 seconds after I posted that. At this time last night if he would have posted an apology I could have forgiven. It has gone way too far now and there is a good chance that I will take legal action against Billy Griffin.

Following up what Mike Deason said earlier. On the chase in question I spent 24 hours straight on the road, spent over $100, and put a lot of time and effort to get the photo in question. When someone tries to take my hard work and call it their own even after they have been proven wrong it really hits me down low that someone could do this. There is no way even if Billy was to issue an apology that I would be able to forget this and fortunately Billy is going to get everything that he deserves and the judicial system will take care of that.

I ask anyone who may of made physical threats towards Billy, his family, or his personal property to stop. This only makes the people who are the true victims look like they are the perpetrators in this whole ordeal. It is absurd that someone who isn't even involved in this situation would make personal threats and possibly get lawsuits thrown against them. Please stop because it isn't doing anyone any good except for Billy.

As Nick pointed out earlier. Billy taking the photos off of his website only further proves that he is guilty. This is a situation too serious for only a slap on the wrist and I encourage all other parties involved in this matter to not agree to anything along the lines of what Fred proposed. Fred no offense to you because I know that you are just trying to help out the situation. Maybe in the future Billy will come to realize that he made a mistake and I would be willing to forgive but right now agreeing to any kind of commitment would only hurt me and all of the other photographers involved and for that reason I will not agree to anything along the lines of what was proposed.

Darin

 

[Fabian Guerra]

my 2 cents

Billy,

What a mess you have created for yourself. I hope you have learned some kind of lesson from this. It's painfully obvious that you stole the pictures...I know it, you know it, we all know it. You should really just admit that you did it and that it was a stupid thing to do. We have all done dumb things in our life but hopefully most of us can learn from our mistakes and resolve not to repeat our bad behavior. For Christs sake just fess up already and be honest! How hard would that be? If not to appease the people you "stole" or "borrowed" from then at least do it for YOURSELF. You only get one shot at this life and the path of lies can only lead to sadness, frustration, and people resenting you. Not to mention lawsuits.

About these so called "threats" on you and your family and the supposed theft of your gear, I sincerely hope no one here would ever do that kind of thing as that would be far worse than your act of stealing a few pictures and calling them your own. That being said, I honestly believe you are outright lying or grossly exaggerating these claims. I see it as a poor attempt to create a smokescreen that would make yourself out to be the victim. It is a common technique used by people who are guilty of something and want to divert attention from the truth.

Again, I hope you learn something from this and realize that you brought this upon yourself.

 

[fplowman]

David, Darin and gang.. Billy wont appologize if he is admiting guilt. He cant. Think about it. The only way you can get an appology and admonishment of the situation is to say hey.. i will drop everything if the guy appologizes.. there needs to be give on both ways. otherwise youll spend 10k to get 10k if that makes sense and it will never be resolved...

I tried.. the rest is up to you guys.

My 2c

Fred

 

[Darin Brunin]

Fred,

From what I have learned about Billy in the last couple of days I bet that if I agreed to something like that he still wouldn't make an apology. In my opinion the things that have happened are still too fresh on people's minds and it would be best to let things settle down first before doing anything of that nature.

Darin

 

[David Drummond]

Originally posted by fplowman
David, Darin and gang.. Billy wont appologize if he is admiting guilt. He cant. Think about it. The only way you can get an appology and admonishment of the situation is to say hey.. i will drop everything if the guy appologizes.. there needs to be give on both ways. otherwise youll spend 10k to get 10k if that makes sense and it will never be resolved...

I tried.. the rest is up to you guys.

My 2c

Fred

It's not about the money Fred. It's the principle of the thing. If they guy can stand up and take his oats then he deserves whatever he has coming. Anyone would be stupid to forgo any legal position they have to get an apology. He's just going to have to take that chance that if he will stand up and be a man about it that those of us who were stolen from won't pursue it further.

I already stated I don't want to, but if he can't stand up and admit, apologize and move on, then it's a matter or principle, and if we can't stand up for principle then what is the point of anything really?

To have so blantantly stolen the images right under all of our collective noses, and then turn around and thumb his nose at us when caught sets a precedence not seen before in the chase community. If we don't take a stand here and now as a community, well then expect this sort of crap to happen more and more and more.

IMO this is a critical point for the community, especially the Storm Track community since it played out here. To not take a definitive stand on this now is to condone it. Any of you willing to condone this sort of thing in the future?

 

[Scott Olson]

I just can't believe this guy is for real. That he would invest in all that equipment and do some actual storm chasing just to illustrate it with other peoples photos. It almost seems as if he enjoys the controversy and infurating people. It would be nice if he totally came clean and gave a sincerely apology but I don't expect this. I do want to say however that I stand in solidarity with all of you who have had your pictures stolen from you. I know how much work and passion goes into getting those pictures and what Billy has done is just terrible.

-Scott.

 

[Melissa Moon]

Billy, we all know you did it...people aren't stupid, and it's beyond obvious. Why not just issue an apology to those people directly involved? I'm sure they will forgive you; I think what is making people more mad at this point is that you're denying that you did it and you won't say you're sorry for it. Just be a man, suck it up, and apologize.

Alright, that's all I have to contribute to this thread since I'm not directly involved.

 

[Alex Lamers]

Originally posted by Pete Johnson
Haha, we need to form a group for this - maybe SCACI (storm chasers against copyright infringement). Maybe others will have better acronyms...

SCAT...storm chasers against thieves? :wink:

Well I am not getting involved anymore, I'll let y'all sort it out on your own. Just wanted to inject my idea for an acronym.

...Alex Lamers...

 

[George Flickinger]

Wow...take a day off from reading Storm Track and I missed all the excitement.

I had previously viewed his 3/21 tornado picture near Seminole, ( which is the one he likely stole from Paris) and thought he had the date wrong and or wrong location. Those of us who chased the Seminole/Okemah area tornadoes that day will tell you the visibilty was awful, and tornadoes were unphotogenic.

The tornado picture ( though stolen) may be real, but the perfectly flat terrain doesn't even match that of areas east of OKC!

 

[Doren Berge]

Actually, Fred is quite right. Now that y'all have brought lawyers into this Billy CAN'T apologize. Even if he wanted to. An apology would make him liable.

The goofy thing is that given the cost of law suits, I'm confident that no one here would actually follow through with more than a "cease and desist" letter penned by a pit bull anyway. Regardless of all the chest pounding and righteous indignation. And now that the pics have been taken down it would only be a waste of your $$$ anyway. There are no substantial damages incurred. Other than having several talented youngsters and oldsters feeling violated (and rightfully so) any lawsuit would be a monetary joke. The plaintiff would pay the bill. (Nick? are you reading?)

Guilt means nothing. Prove your damages.

Billy may be a a pr!ck. But he did not cause anyone substantial, or even incidental, monetary damages. Any lawyer worth a sh#t. wouldn't waste their time other than to write a letter (and charge you $200 per hour to run his/her spell check.) Unless you already have one on retainer or on staff it would be a complete waste of time and $$$. I doubt any of you have one on retainer or on staff. (I'm about to marry one)

Billy is an A-hole. He got called out and humiliated. GOOD!!! But now he cant' even fess up and apologize because y'all have brought lawyers into it and an apology would make him culpable. He's doing the smart thing. Keeping quiet.

If any of you kids are serious about suing, I hope you have a good paper route. It will cost you way more in time, money and effort than it would EVER be worth. You could spend a fortune and never be satisfied.

I hate to break it to y'all. But it's 2005. 72 DPI images of tornadoes and low res video frames on an amature web page have no value other than bragging rights (you can't use them on TV) . They are priceless to us because we work so hard to get them. But to the rest of the world they are basically worthless. A guy plucking lobsters out of the Atlantic ocean has more value to the average American than a torno photo on a web page. They are less than a dime a dozen. And worth less every year.

Don't believe me? Show me your P&L for the last year. Then get over yourself.

BG is a loser. We all know it now. Shut him down. Tune him out. Get over it and get on with your lives. And If you follow through with a suit let us know how it turns out.

Groove,

db

 

[Alex Lamers]

Originally posted by Doren Berge
I hate to break it to y'all. But it's 2005. 72 DPI images of tornadoes and low res video frames on an amature web page have no value other than bragging rights (you can't use them on TV) . They are priceless to us because we work so hard to get them. But to the rest of the world they are basically worthless. A guy plucking lobsters out of the Atlantic ocean has more value to the average American than a torno photo on a web page. They are less than a dime a dozen. And worth less every year.

Well put! Hopefully one of these times the point will get across.

...Alex Lamers...