I'm kinda looking for a Nigerian prince to dump his millions on me, but you can help me too! (｡◕‿◕｡)
This week I got fined 450 EUR. Let me tell you the story...
I run this blog and the multi-platform Play to Earn brand completely ad-free. I'm a Brave publisher, which makes me approximately 10 dollars per month. In addition I have referral campaigns on my blog, but these don't even double that amount.
My costs for running the website are minimal at around 100 EUR per year. It requires lots of time to write, so I mainly invest time. Occasionally I do a small investment and I have costs for hosting.
However, this week lightning struck...
The Dutch news agency Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP) sent me a 450 EUR fine for using a photo to which they have the rights. It was a photo of the Chinese president Jinping Xi. (see at the bottom of this post)
450 euro!
Ouch...
ಥ_ಥ
Most of the time I use graphics, artwork and screenshots for my headers. However, in the Fall of last year there was lots of talk by politicians about stable coins, central bank digital currencies, Libra and crypto. During that time I have used some photos of politicians, not thinking about the possible implications of my actions.
Will I pay the fine?
Yes, I will pay the fine.
I've read about court cases between bloggers and ANP. In the end they've the copyrights to the photo, and bloggers don't.
Nederob.nl was registered to Game Fanatic, a small company I used to own when I was still living in The Netherlands. I emigrated five years ago, and stopped working on Game Fanatic in 2010. Therefore I told ANP that I'm no longer a business. As a result the fine was halved, but I still need to pay 225 EUR. Basically tripling my normal annual costs...
If you, by any chance, read my blog regularly, and you like what I am doing. Please consider donating to help me out paying this fine. BTC, ETH, NFTs, anything can help me and your support is very much appreciated.
Bitcoin: 34CpoxRwJzEzBg7D6DtXTbkUVvzPXyTbKQ
Ethereum: 0x98EE235244a99FDE7AaDaFB0C0fC77845D9e055A
Tron: TKKZvEr8VvrX27jQa52635Xq7SafJAdRCu
Other options: Paypal.me/nederob, or you can tip me with BAT using the Brave browser.
Screenshots of the letter I received
Lesson learned
This has been an expensive lesson in copyright. One of which I knew about, but I never expected to have to deal with. I don't think I will make this mistake ever again!
Thank you for reading all this,
Your support is greatly appreciated,
Robert "Nederob" Hoogendoorn
Posted from my blog: https://www.nederob.nl/2020/02/06/help-i-got-fined-450-eur/