Me Vs. Artbeats Software, Inc.

A little history. I'm the owner of a small production company. A number of years ago Phil Bates from Artbeats Software, Inc., approached me about buying stock footage in my collection. Terms were agreed and put in writing. The sale was completed.

Those terms included a written limitation on how the footage could be sold by Artbeats. The language limited them, and they agreed to, CD-ROM ONLY. I'll reproduce the document in a future post.

Early in 2009 I discovered that limitation while reviewing the document for other reasons. I brought this to the attention of Artbeats as they had been distributing the footage for years via any and every method available, including online sales and downloads, clearly way beyond CD-ROM only, a restriction similar to a single seat license in their very own terms and conditions. If they wanted more means to distribute, they could negotiate and pay for them, just like an end user can add "seats" to their license.

Though they claim they were entitled to do what they did and that no payment is due me, oddly enough they took the footage down from online sales. If they believed they were in the right all along, there would be no reason to do that in my opinion.

I've tried to get them to engage in good faith negotiations but I've simply been stonewalled.

The thought then occurred to me: If they have done this to me, perhaps they have done this to others. Maybe there are merits to a class action lawsuit against Artbeats?

So I decided to use the internet to reach out to other producers that may have had similar experiences, if there are any. If you are a cinematographer, video camera person, producer or other vendor who has been short payed, mistreated or had the terms of their sales agreement to Artbeats violated, please contact me via comment left on this blog. Make sure you leave some way to contact you.

If you wish your identity and comment to be unpublished say so in the comment as well.

This whole experience has been disappointing, frustrating, wasteful of time, and rich with hypocrisy. Artbeats holds itself up as a highly ethical business and it is a firm with executives that told me they spend a great deal of time chasing down torrent pirate copies of their products. Caught red handed by me distributing clearly beyond their rights, instead of making an offer to settle, they force me to engage in adversarial legal proceedings to recoup my damages.

Stay tuned, more to come, including relevant documents, e-mails, etc.

For the record, no litigation has commenced as of the date of this post but counsel is being sought at this time.