Geriatric Interior Design Blogger Gets Sued for $175,000!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well this weekend, the last weekend of the year 2024.

Most years I do a “best of Laurel Home” post.

However, this was an unusual year because my posts were almost entirely about my renovation.

Here’s what’s on my mind. Yes, the headline about a geriatric interior design blogger (That’s me!) getting sued for $175,000.

Oh, Laurel, you are not geriatric.

 

Thank you for thinking that, but I was born on February 7, 1956. Anyone born in the 1950s and earlier is now a geriatric. How I look is irrelevant. That’s formaldehyde I’m drinking. ;]

The part about being sued is not true. However, copyright trolls have threatened to sue me dozens of times.
Really, Laurel?

Yes, really. Although 99% of these threats are completely bogus.

And let me make it clear. I always give credit where it is due, but I have also found dozens of my blog posts in their entirety on other websites. Of course, if someone wants to use some of my images or take a brief quote and THEN link back to where they found them, that is not only 100% okay it is also greatly appreciated! It helps me in the eyes of the almighty Google. Other websites linking to mine are Internet gold.

However, exactly two years ago, I received a long letter from a Boston Attorney threatening to sue me for $150,000 plus an additional $25,000 in “statutory damages.”

 

Why?

It was because I used an aerial shot of the Back Bay in a post written 23 months earlier and discovered by the photographer one week after posting. This post, published on January 26th, 2021, discussed the fact that most of Boston is built on landfills.

 

I Googled the photographer, whose name I am not saying, and found out that he had sued dozens of people over the last several years.

 

In fact, one defense lawyer confirmed that in one year, this photographer earned some $400,000 from settlements and litigation and only $5,000 from sales of his photography. hmmmm. I do not know why he’s not sitting in prison. In fact, I contacted a lawyer who had helped me a few times. She knew of this notorious dude and stated emphatically that I was going to be sued, and good luck.

It was a tough way to end the year.

 

Laurel, why didn’t you tell us?

 

I nearly did, but instead, I spent dozens of hours on research and fashioned and intentionally sent a ridiculously long letter to the lawyer. I had to do this twice, but eventually, he backed off, and I’ll get to how I did that in a sec.

 

Laurel, what photo on that post are you talking about?

 

Oh, sorry. The image was down about 20 seconds after I read the hideous letter. The image was also removed from my entire database. Then, I told Google to recrawl the web page to help expunge any vestige of that image formerly on my website from the Internet.

 

So, how did I get a highly experienced Boston lawyer off my back?

 

Included in the packet sent to me in late December 2022 was the image’s “registration” from the US Copyright Office.

This was a crucial piece of evidence. An image must be registered in order to commence a lawsuit, and that needs to happen within the first three months of the image appearing on the Internet. Or, at least, that was the law a few years ago.

 

A copy of the certificate of registration should look like the official (redacted) document below.

 

However, the “certificate” I received looked nothing like this. The information was typed onto a plain piece of white paper, and there was no official stamp or signature, either.

This would be like presenting your driver’s license information typed out on a piece of paper.
In other words, this image was not registered. Therefore, no judge would even have looked at this case if they dared expose themselves which I realized fairly quickly that they would not.

It was clearly a sham.

 

I could go on and on and on and on… with the idiocy of this entire situation. However, the most detrimental to their case piece of information (aside from the fake government registration) was that the screenshot they took of the image on my web page was taken one week after the January 2021 post came out. I know this because the date appeared at the top of the page.

Holy Wow! They waited 22 months to contact me.

 

Wait, Laurel. Do you mean they waited 22 months to tell you that they would sue you for the so-called damage you caused the photographer by using one image that you credited to the photographer and linked back to his website?

 

Yes, that’s exactly what they did. It was so damaging to this photographer that they waited 22 months to let me know. I took great pleasure in informing this lawyer that they would be laughed out of court.

In other words, I called his bluff. It took a couple of letters, but I haven’t heard from him since April 2023. The statute of limitations ran out in January 2024.

To be clear, their objective isn’t a costly court case. They want their victims to contact their insurance company for a cash settlement or to pay it outright after a negotiation.

Ick is right!

 

However, this dude is exceedingly aggressive and does take people to court.

 

Make no mistake. I was totally kicking myself because I could’ve easily found a suitable free-to-use shot on Unsplash and avoided this unpleasantness. I do know better, and have no explanation for what happened this time. Maybe it was late, and I did a quick search and found the perfect image to show y’all my neighborhood.

In further lunacy, that image on the page I found it on had links to SHARE on social media AND A CODE to EMBED the image on ANY web page.

 

Come again? He’s asking people to share his image, and then he’s siccing his lawyer on folks for doing so?

 

Yes, you’ve got it exactly right. I also linked back to that page with the photographer’s name in my link back, and I also put his name on the ALT tag of the image. Apologies about the tech-speak. Please know that everything I did was done to help him, not hurt him! Thousands of people read that post and if only one of you went over and purchased one of his prints, that was a sale he made only because his image appeared on my blog post.

Guys, this is the kind of shite I’ve been dealing with since 2015.

Since then, I have removed hundreds if not thousands of images from photographers represented by known copyright trolls. However, I know I haven’t gotten all of them down.

When I began this blog in 2012, I learned that using a few images for demonstration purposes was fine as long as you credit your sources. Sometimes, that research took me hours, but I did it because it was the right thing to do.

 

As well-meaning as we all are, attribution is not enough.

 

It’s only okay to share images if one has explicit written permission. However, it’s truly a shitshow out there because what about social media? Is sharing on social media okay?

Nope, not unless you have written permission. Yet billions of images have been shared without permission on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and Pinterest! Then there’s TikTok and YouTube!

That’s okay, but when a little old lady interior design blogger posts images on her blog, it’s not okay.

 

My point in telling y’all about this is that I must be super careful going forward.

 

I still get letters from trolls. Most of them these days are by email. Those I send away to spam and tell G-Mail that it’s a “phishing attack.” Actually, it’s extortion. Still, one from last summer followed up earlier this month with snail mail. By the way, there was the same date issue on their postage stamp-sized screenshot.

However, it was big enough for me to see that their screenshot had my old logo (below), which I stopped using in August 2022. There was also a menu heading that said Outdoor Shop 2022. Yet, I only received the first notification two summers after their discovery. They have three years to take action after their discovery.

 

Years ago, I wrote a post detailing more about this copyright issue.

The laws have been archaic for the last 20 years. There were no blogs then. They were written so that large corporations wouldn’t rip each other off. It wasn’t written for geriatric interior design bloggers attempting to enrich their followers’ lives.

 

Don’t you make money from your website?

 

Hell yeah, I do.

Schools and Churches also make money. However, the images are used as examples, not to earn money unless they are from affiliate vendors.

The upshot is that the blog has centered around my home for the last 18 months. While this will not be 100% of the posts, it will be at least half.

 

Please know that this interior design blogger has no plans to retire. I enjoy writing the blog and plan to do so until I’m:

1. In a coma

2. Attempting to type a blog post with my TV remote.

 

Okay, so as not to end on such a down note, I want to show you what I’ve been working on.

 

I recently realized I need to have the entry wallpaper here before I book the paper hanger. Yes, I know I was supposed to have done that weeks ago. But, in the name of self-preservation, I am taking delight in what I have accomplished and forgiving myself when things take longer than anticipated. I’m sure the Gracie panels and the entry panels are only a one-day job, so it would cost me a lot more to break up the job.

I have settled on the Papiers de Paris paper because I love the old-world feel of it, and also that it’s not making a huge statement. I only want to create a lovely mood in that area.

 

So, I figured out the dimensions I needed, which worked out to a 33% reduction of their standard size. The only other alternative is to trim the image from top to bottom, and I’d rather not do that. However, I need an extra repeat of one of the sections because I’m reducing the image. It’s not a problem because they are on opposite walls.

Speaking of making money, lol!

***A Gentle Reminder…

 

Time is running out before the prices go up on my helpful interior design guides on January 1st.

 

Until the end of the year, anyone purchasing Laurel’s Rolodex, The Paint and Palette Collection, or The Six Figure Income Blogger will receive the new Etsy Guide and the 333 Rules & Tips You Need to Know for FREE!

Below my signature is a brief synopsis of each guide with links to more information and buttons to purchase if you’re ready.

xo,

 

***The (11th) edition of Laurel’s Rolodex for 2025 was released on December 1, 2024. Below is more information about my Rockin interior design guides. Please know that these are digital PDF guides. You will receive them in your email. You can print one copy for personal use if you prefer to have it in that format.***

 

If ready to order, click this link or the button below to go to the purchase products page.

 

 

(Clicking on the links below will send you to the pages to learn more about each guide.)

 

 

Laurel’s Rolodex is a unique shopping guide that shares hundreds of my favorite sources and, especially for decorators and designers, tells you the best sources that sell directly to the design trade, especially for decorators and designers.

 

The Essential Paint Color and Palette Collection (two volumes)

This is a must-have guide for anyone struggling with paint colors. If you don’t believe me, there are dozens of testimonials on the Palette Collection page.

 

Six-Figure Income Blogger. (Newly Updated for 2023!) (This should be required reading for every website owner who wishes to get more business.) You do not need to be a heavy-duty blogger. But, consistently, once or twice a month will do wonders for your business. But, it would be best if you also learned some other things. Believe me when I say in the early years, I made every mistake and then some.

 

333 Decorating Rules & Tips You Need to Know – There is so much information,

and much I’ve never seen anywhere else. The window treatment glossary alone is several pages long.

 

 

The Etsy guide on its own. It’s 200+ seriously cool vendors.

Etsy is known for exceedingly helpful, personable vendors and great pricing. I always shop on Etsy and have numerous items for my renovation—everything from hardware to lighting and my cool Chinoiserie cabinet. We did remove a few shops that are gone or have virtually nil product lines. There are one or two shops that we left in, hoping that they’ll return.

 

Gifting is available for my guides. When you go to order,

just click on the gift icon on the first screen after

you click the buy now button.

 

If you are ready to order, you may click this link or the button below to go to the purchase products page.

 

 

***Please check out the recently updated HOT SALES!

There is now an Amazon link on my home page and below.

 

Please note that I have decided not to create a membership site. However, this website is very expensive to run. To provide this content, I rely on you, the kind readers of my blog, to use my affiliate links whenever possible for items you need and want. There is no extra charge to you. The vendor you’re purchasing from pays me a small commission.

 

Please click the link before items go into your shopping cart. Some people save their purchases in their “save for later folder.” Then, if you remember, please come back and click my Amazon link, and then you’re free to place your orders. While most vendor links have a cookie that lasts a while, Amazon’s cookies only last up to 24 hours.

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I very much appreciate your help and support!