So I received a nice email last night from the attorney of a well known billionairess and talk show host. Yes, her.
I was promoting an email submit to win tickets to her show and inadvertently used a photo of her DVD on my site. I know the whole thing about royalty-free images, and this was a mistake, but I'd seen the picture on so many other sites that I thought it would be ok to use. Anyway, basically her company complained and sent a rather stern email to my hosting company, HostGator, who suspended my account. I telephoned HostGator to clear the matter up and was treated as a criminal. They did reactivate my account, after I dealt with somebody else, but the telephone operator was awful.
I know it was my fault, but I fail to see why they couldn't have sent me an email telling me to change it within x hours rather than be over zealous and suspend my account, thus losing all of my sites for a bit. Anyway, it happened, and I live and learn.
Interestingly, I received an email from Copeac within minutes of the attorney's email saying that that particular offer was, with immediate effect, being redirected to another. Looks like they complained about the offer too!
Now, rant over, this leaves me feeling a bit nervous about future sites. For example, let's say I want to promote boots from a certain manufacturer. Do you think photos of said boots would land me in hot water? What if I was promoting jeans by, say, Levi. Would the same happen if I use a photo there?
I know the best thing is probably to telephone each company involved before I do a site but I just can't see many other people doing that!
If you've had similar experiences I'd love to know.
I was promoting an email submit to win tickets to her show and inadvertently used a photo of her DVD on my site. I know the whole thing about royalty-free images, and this was a mistake, but I'd seen the picture on so many other sites that I thought it would be ok to use. Anyway, basically her company complained and sent a rather stern email to my hosting company, HostGator, who suspended my account. I telephoned HostGator to clear the matter up and was treated as a criminal. They did reactivate my account, after I dealt with somebody else, but the telephone operator was awful.
I know it was my fault, but I fail to see why they couldn't have sent me an email telling me to change it within x hours rather than be over zealous and suspend my account, thus losing all of my sites for a bit. Anyway, it happened, and I live and learn.
Interestingly, I received an email from Copeac within minutes of the attorney's email saying that that particular offer was, with immediate effect, being redirected to another. Looks like they complained about the offer too!
Now, rant over, this leaves me feeling a bit nervous about future sites. For example, let's say I want to promote boots from a certain manufacturer. Do you think photos of said boots would land me in hot water? What if I was promoting jeans by, say, Levi. Would the same happen if I use a photo there?
I know the best thing is probably to telephone each company involved before I do a site but I just can't see many other people doing that!
If you've had similar experiences I'd love to know.
