CopyTrack Copyright Claim: How to Respond

This post is solely intended to warn readers about these types of practices and is not intended as a defamation or smear campaign. The article contains only facts and does not disclose any privacy data that is not already publicly available on the internet. Despite repeated requests to the claimant to further substantiate his claim, I have never received a response (except for legal threats).

Recently, I received an email from copytrack.com. A company that tracks misuse of visual material. If you don't have a license for a photo you're using online, they track you down and ensure the rights holder still receives compensation.

At least, that's in an ideal world where companies are honest and citizens sometimes violate copyright without really having malicious intentions...

I recently discovered that practice is much more stubborn than that. With this article, I want to help everyone who finds themselves in the same situation. In my case, a claim on a photo I had bought from a legitimate stock photo website. But it could also be the situation where you didn't buy the photo at all but just downloaded it somewhere (stupid, stupid, stupid...) But even then, this will surely help save money!

May 13, 2024 10:05 - A claim email from copytrack.com

On Monday afternoon, May 13, 2024, I received the e-mail. In short, you are using a photo on your website for which you have no license. Because you have used the visual material, the request is to transfer €350 to Copytrack as compensation. If you want to use the photo for another year, you can transfer another €300 or remove the photo immediately.

I immediately became nervous - those are quite some amounts. Particularly high amounts, by the way... Where had I gotten that photo again? In recent years, I only use photos from free stock photo websites and paid websites with a subscription. I was theoretically fine, but how can I prove that? Do I still have the license? With free stock photo websites, I don't always download the license. How do I have proof then?

May 13, 2024 17:03 - License found

I have, oh what luck, found my license: I had purchased the photo via Envato Elements and it was neatly in my portfolio. Good, that's nice. Send it and then we're done with that too... But... wait a minute... Suppose I hadn't found that license, how do I solve this then, I thought to myself. Suppose the license was lost, how do I deal with this then? I'm not going to pay €350 for a stock photo... when I simply have a valid license (which I admittedly can no longer retrieve, but still...)

May 13, 2024 19:30 - The first response to Copytrack

With these kinds of things, not responding is usually not the best option. Copytrack wants a response within 7 days, that's fine. That doesn't mean you have to pay during that period. If you want to get rid of it quickly, money doesn't matter, then you can always bargain about the price and still pay. I would never do that. Don't bite too quickly, just give it some time.

I wasn't planning to pay. And I realized that I'm not the underdog (that's how it feels when that email comes in) but an equal party to Copytrack. I devised an email to Copytrack that looked like this in summary:

• I will take the claim under consideration.
• Request 1: Send me proof that Copytrack acts on behalf of the rights holder of visual material.
• Request 2: Send me proof that the rights holder is the undisputed owner of the visual material.
• We need 30 days after the response to this email for processing
• We would like to resolve this

See here the email I sent.

 1Good day,
 2
 3We hereby confirm receipt of your claim regarding case number: XXXXXX.
 4
 5You claim ownership of a photo with Hit No.: XXXXX, description: Man with helmet in foreground and excavator in background. According to you, the rights holder is: CONCEPT-PRODUCTION
 6
 7To be able to process the claim further, we request you to:
 8
 9- Provide authorization stating that you are entitled to act on behalf of this rights holder.
10- Provide proof (on behalf of rights holder) of ownership of the relevant material.
11
12I request you to send us these documents by email at the address myemail@maildomein.com no later than May 23, 2024.
13
14We will process the claim further within 30 days after receiving the evidence.
15
16Kind regards,
17
18Ton Snoei

May 15, 2024 12:54 - Response from Copytrack

Copytrack sends me an email with a 3-page PDF in which one Mr. Dayang from CONCEPT-PRODUCTION from France has authorized Copytrack to act on his behalf. OK, request 1 is answered. But a response to request 2, the ownership, was nowhere to be found. However, payment of the claim amount is urged. We're not going to do that again.

May 16, 2024 19:33 - Response to Copytrack

We again make a request to Copytrack to provide proof that the rights holder is the undisputed owner of the visual material. This time an explicit request with explanation of how they can prove to me that Mr. Dayang from CONCEPT-PRODUCTION is the rights holder of the relevant photo.

Meanwhile

Between the exchanges, I haven't been idle. Now that I had a name of the 'rights holder', I did a reverse image search on the photo. Via this website you can upload a photo and get an overview of, among others, stock photo sites that offer the relevant photo. With this, I could find out who according to the stock photo websites offered the photo.

A completely different name came out of that. A photographer from Romania. Very strange! What's the connection between the claimer from France and this Romanian? After having contacted the Romanian photographer (via his website and contact form), it turned out: He is the owner of the photo, has not transferred the photo to another rights holder and doesn't know the French claimer "What's going on here?"

In short, there's a Frenchman who claims to be the rights holder of a photo owned by a Romanian photographer. Of course, this photographer can claim that, but the fact that his name is mentioned on every stock photo website with this photo says enough. It is very likely he is the owner of the copyrighted material.

On Trustpilot the name CONCEPT PRODUCTION appears to be mentioned more often in connection with Copytrack. Could it be a mistake by Copytrack or is something else going on here? The trustpilot score and comments say a lot.

May 20, 2024 18:22 - Response from Copytrack

They indicate that the information they provided earlier is sufficient to support the claim. They indicate that they will pursue the claim and that I must pay the claim amount.

May 21, 2024 09:00 - Response to Copytrack

None. I no longer respond to Copytrack's email. I have my proof, they have no proof. I'm not going to pay.

December 1, 2025 10:00

It has remained dead silent. Earlier in the year, I had contact with the owner of CONCEPT PRODUCTION. He was too busy to respond then and promised to get back to this later...

Is Copytrack legitimate?

Any person can register on Copytrack's platform. After that, it's possible to upload visual material and request Copytrack to enforce licenses. Copytrack collects 45% of the claim amount during the claim. As they say themselves, to cover legal costs. The uploader of the visual material collects 55 percent.

It seems that Copytrack does minimal or no control over whether the rights holder is actually the owner of the visual material they upload.

In this case, I took the proof myself and started an account with Copytrack. It's surprisingly easy to start claiming visual material. I didn't encounter verification that I'm the owner of the material I want to claim for.

Many website owners will immediately pay the amount out of shock to get rid of it. As soon as you show that you can't provide your license, they bite down and will keep pushing you to pay with the threat of a lawsuit. This is of course a fantastic business model. Upload some photos, doesn't matter from where. Copytrack claims and the money flows in. The real owner of the visual material knows nothing about it.

Additionally, CopyTrack employs a supplementary strategy: even after payment and removal of the image, they continue searching for any remaining photos, thumbnails for example. If a version of the image is still found somewhere, a new claim is started that is usually much higher than the original claim – a tactic where the original (often legitimate) claimer in many cases receives no additional compensation.

In summary, CopyTrack seems to have developed a system that, while functional for legitimate photographers, mainly revolves around collecting fees with minimal legal consequences. This raises serious ethical and legal questions about the company's practices.

How to handle

What to do with a claim from Copytrack. You have these options in my opinion:

Do you discover, just like me, that the rightful owner of the visual material is not the claimer at Copytrack? Then you can just stop the Copytrack email conversation. They can never take you to court for this.

If you can't figure it out? Insist that CopyTrack proves that the rights holder they represent can undisputedly demonstrate that they are the owner of the visual material. They want to see your license? Then you want to know who the actual rights holder is. If they can't prove that, then they have no leg to stand on.

They also help legitimate owners of visual material, of course. If that's the case in your situation, then at least try to retrieve your license. If that doesn't work, keep the discussion going and take time. As long as you're in consultation, it costs them time and the chance is greater that the claim amount goes down. Negotiate, if for example €350 is claimed, while you can buy the photo for ten euros, offer that or double.

For more information read also the posts of Ben Tasker about the legal threats and his experience with Copytrack.

Disclaimer

This article is written based on my own experiences and is not legal advice. I am not a lawyer and this article is not a replacement for legal advice. Always consult a lawyer if you find yourself in a similar situation.