Technology is Degrading

We are experiencing peak technology

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Technology has crossed over from saving us time and being helpful to costing us time and being almost too frustrating to use. Most of this is because of greed.

Take GoDaddy, for instance. Their customer service has degraded so much that I even moved my domain names away from there. Unfortunately, the one service I still use there, because it always worked and is cost-effective, is now also degraded. It has not been working properly for weeks and is an integral part of my business. It is where I backup and update all my client websites. Lately, after I have it open for about 30-60 seconds, it just reverts back to the previous screen with no warning. I just don’t even know what to do.

One of the plugins I use on many client sites has always automatically updated if I’m connected to the vendor. Now, they require that you pay annually for a support agreement in order to get automatic updates. That means I now have to manually update this plugin on 20 websites every time it’s updated. When I bought it, I was promised updates for life, and they’re like, “You still get the updates. Just not automatically anymore.” What a bunch of fucking greedy assholes who care nothing about small businesses.

Customer service on almost any tech is either non-existent, takes forever, or is just really, really bad. It's such an incredible waste of my time, and in my industry, time is everything.

On top of that, big tech companies are always allowing our passwords and personal information to be stolen. Most recently, Gmail (Google) and Facebook lost a bunch of our data. Every time this happens, it creates a financial and personal risk to all of us, but somehow, we now accept it as normal.

The bottom line is that tech needs more regulation. There seem to be few standards that govern the quality of product and service being put out. What's it going to take? More class action suits that don't seem to have much impact? This is a prime example of how capitalism is broken.

Something’s gotta give because consumers and small business people are fed up.

Extortionist Attorneys

Photo by sour moha on Unsplash

I very briefly mentioned last week that I had some attorneys on my ass about copyright infringement. First, let’s talk about the importance of copyright. The real purpose of copyright protection is so that no one else can make money off the shit you create. That’s the basis of it. Flashback to 2010… I had a blog where I talked about environmental issues and simple living. It was not monetized. I was not selling anything, advertising the site, or trying in any way to make money off it. It was mostly just me talking into the ether. I made a post based on an AP article about the 2010 BP oil spill. I included a cropped thumbnail (tiny) image from the article and a larger image with the Greenpeace logo on it, along with a link to the article. (It said, “These images are from this article.”)

Over the years, that blog came down, but for some reason, I imported the posts into my current ElsieGilmore.com artist website in the last few years. I don’t even know why, because they don’t relate to it at all. During whatever time period that blog post was up, hardly anyone saw it. It was about holding corporations accountable for their pollution, and it was buried in the website.

Fast forward to November 2024. I got an email from “PicRights” saying I was violating the copyright of AP by having that thumbnail image on my website (which I’d forgotten was there at all). I found the image and saw all the blog posts that didn’t really belong on that website, so I just took them all down. I honestly was not sure if this PicRights was legit, though. They were asking me for $400. I filed the email away. Months later, I got another email from them. I filed that away also.

Fast forward a few more months, and the Higbee & Associates law firm sent me an email about the same issue. Great. So, I Googled this law firm and this issue, and, as it turns out, they have quite a hate club online. Lots of people were saying that PicRights is a scam… basically, an AI bot that scans the internet, and then they claim to represent the owners of various images they find. Folks were also pretty insistent that Higbee was also a scam, essentially participating with PicRights.

Here are some of their accolades:

“Many recipients have described the experience as intimidating and predatory, especially small business owners or bloggers who don’t have access to legal resources. The firm’s aggressive posture and demand for fast payment give it the air of a copyright scam, even though it technically operates within the law.”

From this article.

“Mathew Higbee and Higbee and Associates is known for their predatory copyright trolling. They specifically prey upon people they believe cannot afford counsel. Not only that, he’s buttfuck ugly, and I’m extra annoyed at his Neville Longbottom looking face. (Google him, you will know what I mean)…”

“I hope Mathew Higbee and those who work for him all promptly get cancer. Absolutely scum of the earth folks.”

From this thread on Reddit

Here's a whole thread of complaints about them. And people think some of the commenters are plants to scare others into the fear of being sued in court. Out of hundreds of thousands of people they contact, they take less than .1% to court.

And that's only the beginning of what you can find online about them.

After finding all this shit, I filed their email away but thought that maybe I would need to look into it more. They sent another email about a month later. I still was not convinced, though. I have been super stressed with moving, and I was hoping I could wait another month to deal with the matter. But then they sent me another email a week later.

Now, I know that they know that the way I used this image fell within the spirit of fair use. These bloodsuckers were out to get as much money as they could from everyone they contacted, even people it would be nearly impossible to sue. But they definitely threatened to sue every single time. Their goal was to intimidate with mystifying legalese and precedent cases. But I was not having it. If you know me, my best writing comes out when I'm pissed.

My first communications were with a paralegal named Lee Mendoza. I explained to Lee that I used the image within fair use, and he told me the attorney disagreed.

“Of course he disagrees, Lee. It's his job to disagree.”

He told me to stand by for the attorney to contact me. It was all I could do not to reply that I was waiting with baited breath.

So, the attorney (Theodore Sell) emails me with all his copied and pasted precedent case bullshit.

Me: “I love how you copied and pasted stuff that you clearly sent to an attorney before without changing the language. I certainly wouldn't want to spend any extra time or money on this issue either since the spirit of the law does not apply to how I used this image.”

Attorney: “Your sarcasm is noted.”

What just really made me shake my head was that, according to him, if I lived in a different district, my thumbnail would've been fine. That's how screwed up our laws are. A lot of “precedent” law is just people trying to stretch the law to their benefit.

I knew I was just going to have to offer these extortionists money to get them off my back. Dealing with them was really stressing me out. I found where you can license the exact image for $35 a year, so I multiplied that by how many years this image MAY have been online (according to the folder they found it in). I know it wasn't online for all those years, but I was trying to come up with a number that would make sense to them. So, I offered them $490.

“If you send me a link, I will pay that money immediately, and you will never have to hear my sarcasm again.”

One of the last emails from the paralegal said, “We're confident we can bring this to a close smoothly and respectfully.” If you saw some of the emails I forced myself to delete before sending to these crooks, you would be impressed with my self control. The fact that I didn’t commit murder or arson in this matter is a testament to the emotional control possessed by women. This was a classic capitalist ransom demand.

They kept trying to negotiate me up, but I told them I didn't have any more living expense money to give them. They were trying to get almost double what I offered, but all the numbers were arbitrary. They were just trying to get as much as they could for no justifiable reason. I went up $60 and would not budge. They must've been sick of dealing with me because they stopped negotiating and accepted it. I ended to paying these fuckers $550.

They have sued about 170 people and won, leaving those folks to pay thousands of dollars in fees to these attorneys, but there was no clear case here. (And this is a volume game to them. They intimidate you for money and take very few cases to court.) If it wasn't so stressful, I probably could've paid less (or nothing), but I just needed them to stop contacting me. I'm sure they count on this happening.

I just found this article that would've given me a couple extra arguments before offering them money. In particular, de minimus use and lack of willful infringement.

But it's too late now, and the thieves have my money and the money of many other people who were not doing anything wrong.

I'd like to know if the Associated Press, a non-profit organization, knows how sleazy Higbee & Associates is. Do they know they're shaking down people whose intention was not to infringe copyright and who did not use images in a commercial way? Because this looks really bad for AP. Maybe they also just care about the money and not the integrity of what's happening. If that's the case, fuck them.

Fuck all these capitalist pigs!

⏰️ Currently

📦 Still sitting in an apartment full of boxes wondering if I'm actually getting this mortgage

☀️ Working to stay optimistic in a world that is cruel to so many

👭 Enjoying spending time with friends as I anticipate leaving soon