A journalist finds himself targeted by a fake AI law firm over a copyright-free photo published on his website, but the law firm is exposed as a fake and all is said and done. is different from its original appearance.
Ernie Smith, an online publisher and writer for the newsletter Tedium, appeared on Mastodon at the end of March to share his first email from law firm Commonwealth Legal Services and the conversation that followed.
First, a DMCA copyright infringement notice was received, with trademark attorney “Will Thomas” stating that “we must immediately add credit to our client” for the use of the image.
Visible and clickable links to Tech4Gods are said to be “required” and must be linked within the next five business days.
The email states that removing the images “does not resolve the issue,” and if “appropriate action is not taken within the prescribed period,” we will “activate Case No. 86342 and file DMCA Section 512. “We need to take the measures outlined in the following.” (c). ”
The image in question comes from the website Unsplash, which gives downloaders the ability to “copy, modify, distribute, and copy the photo for free, including for commercial purposes, without seeking permission or attribution to the photographer or Unsplash. gives you the right to use it.
Law firms consider responding to DMCA threats
Journalists then checked out some of the firm's “Lawyers” section of its website, which contained all “AI-generated” photos.
404 Media supports this, saying that the alleged lawyers are giving “vacant thousand-yard stares,” and no one comes up in a search for lawyers or LinkedIn. Their reverse image search results point to a now broken website called Generated.Photos.
Mr. Smith then looked up the address listed as being on the fourth floor of the building. A quick search on Google Maps revealed that the proposed address was actually a one-story building.
Tech4Gods is a gadget review website run by Daniel Barczak. When 404 Media contacted him, he said in his email: “I don't own any of the images on the web.”
He also said he had previously purchased backlinks to his website for SEO purposes, but said he did not know who did it or why. It certainly has nothing to do with me.
“However, recently someone has been building spam links against my site that I deal with…
“Link builders used to suck. I wonder if he's mad at me for letting him go…The web is far from huge and anyone can link anything they like.”
Featured image: via Ideographic