I’ve hinted a few times on this blog about how I was taken to the cleaners legally by a massive company (can’t give any details) a few years ago, so I’m always looking for legal advice and trying to educate myself on how to make myself less vulnerable to being bent over by another high powered law firm again. So I was excited when I saw that Shoemoney was going to make a video called “Kicking Legal’s Ass”.
This is the latest video in Shoemoney’s newest training series and he talks about how he and his legal team burn people to the ground for using his copyrighted and registered images and materials. It’s funny how a friendly “leave our shit alone” cease and desist letter that could be taken care of by simply removing the offending content, ad or whatever, turns into potentially a $500k – $1Mil settlement just because the douche bags stealing his content think that he’s bluffing.
Watch the video. If you’re in the make money online scene, or do any business online, you’ll appreciate it. PLUS the Shoe gives like 13 COMPLETELY FREE example legal letters & documents including: legal affidavit, disclaimer & terms of service, privacy policy, and tons more. I’m ALWAYS looking for stuff like this so I really appreciate Shoe being this candid about all of this legal crap. Obviously, if you’re going to use his example letters, have a lawyer look over them to make sure they work for your particular business.
Lessons Learned
- Don’t #*#@ with the Shoe.
- Hiding behind anonymous WHOIS info only makes the settlement amount larger when they finally track your ass down if they have to subpoena for your information
- Trying to get a dismissal based on jurisdiction is a long shot.
- Shoe & his legal team is batting 100%.
- Refer to #1.
Lessons I Learned From My Legal Battle
- If you’re on the defense, you’ll end up paying for your opponents legal fees.
- Every time you want to “respond” to a legal notice, add another couple grand to both your legal fees, and your opponents.
- You will feel like settling ASAP for their ridiculous, baseless, overpriced, unfair, bullshit demands all to avoid racking up legal fees from going back and forth.
- Pro Bono lawyers are bad ass.
- For whatever damages you actually did to a company, they are going to come knocking for roughly 300% more than whatever amount is fair. Not to mention, “fair” in their minds is probably 50% more than what they could break even at.
