On May 5th, we have received an Abmahnung from Kanzlei Lutz Schröder in Kiel. They demand 6XX€ in reparations for using their client's photo with an incorrect attribution. They give us 10 days to pay.
What did we do wrong?
In our guide, Steuerberater or Buchhalter: what's the difference?, we used a photo with a Creative Commons licence as the header image. Although we gave credit to Christopher Scholz for his photo, we did not do it in the correct way.
Under the CC BY-SA 2.0 licence, the attribution must include the Title, the Author, the Source and the Licence (TASL). We only included the author and a link to the source. This is a common mistake. Over 90% of Creative Commons images are not attributed properly1.
This is how we attributed the image:
Cover photo by Christoph Scholz.
This is how we should have done it:
Cover photo: "Kleingeld vor Taschenrechner in Buchhaltung" by Christoph Scholz, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
Creative Commons attribution: a lucrative business
Pursuing people for copyright infringement is a very profitable business in Germany. There are several law firms that specialize in aggressively pursuing people for minor infractions. Many people cannot afford a lawyer to defend themselves and simply pay the "fine".
All About Berlin's case is not an isolated incident. Kanzlei Schröder sent similar "fines" to several websites over Creative Commons misattributions. Christoph Scholz, Dennis Skley and Dirk Vorderstraße are known for sending Creative Commons Abmahnungen through Kanzlei Schröder.
Here are dozens of articles describing this practice:
- Abmahnung bei Verwendung von CC by SA 2.0
- Achtung: Foto Abmahnung wegen fehlendem Link auf Pixelio.de
- Abmahnung des Herrn Christoph Scholz durch die Kanzlei Dr. Schaefer […]
- Rechtsanwalt Lutz Schröder mahnt für den Fotografen Christoph Scholz ab
- Rechtsanwalt Lutz Schröder mahnt jetzt auch Bilder von Flickr.com ab
- Rechtsanwalt Lutz Schröder mahnt für Dennis Skley und VSGE auch Bilder von Flickr.com ab
- Urheberrecht: Unberechtigte Bildnutzung (page 5)
- Flickr Abmahnung: Lutz Schroeder Dennis Skley / VSGE
- Vermehrte Abmahnungen bei Creative-Commons-Fotos
- Creative Commons-Abzocke ist wohl bald Geschichte – schlechte Nachrichten für TW Photomedia, Dirk Vorderstraße, Dennis Skley und Christoph Scholz
- Abmahnung bekommen – was nun?
- Die Cider Connection: Abmahnungen gegen Nutzer von Creative-Commons-Bildern
- Creative Commons: Abmahnung Skley / Schröder
- Zeitbombe Abmahnung bei der Verwendung von Creative Commons (Skley, Schroeder, VSGE)
- Abmahnung Kanzlei Lutz Schröder für VSGE
- Die flickr-Abmahnung ist da! Aber ist die auch berechtigt?
- Abmahnung gegen Nutzer von Creative Commons Bildern, öffentlich lesbarer Teil
- Spontis erhält Abmahnung wegen falsch genutzter Creative Commons Lizenz
What do the courts think?
Kanzlei Schröder is demanding 3XX€ in reparations for using a free image for non-commercial purposes. The image was free and the author was credited for his work, so it's hard to claim that any business was lost because of our mistake.
The Cologne Higher Regional Court ruled that no compensation is due for misattributing Creative Commons images. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court also issued the same ruling.
How did we react?
May 5, 2018: We immediately removed the image from the website, and filed a request to remove the image from Google Images.
May 7, 2018: We contacted a law firm who already dealt with Creative Commons litigation: Kanzlei Ostermaier. Herr Ostermaier already helped clients defend themselves from Kanzlei Schröder.
May 15, 2018: We sent our answer to Kanzlei Schröder: we caused no harm, so we won't pay anything. An incorrectly formatted attribution for a free image is not losing the pursuant any business, so there are no grounds for reparations.
May 24, 2018: We paid our lawyer a flat fee of 275€ (327.25€ with taxes). We did not pay Kanzlei Schröder anything.
May 28, 2018: Kanzlei Schröder replied to our letter. They do not accept our objection, but offer us to settle amicably for 400€. We maintain our position, and refuse to pay anything.
June 20, 2018: We have not received any answer from Kanzlei Schröder.
July 10, 2018: We still have not received an answer from Kanzlei Schröder.
September 21: After months of silence, we have received another letter from Kanzlei Schröder. This time, they threaten to take us to court unless we pay 400€ by October 1. We decided to pay. That was our last interaction with Kanzlei Schröder.