1. Home
  2. LEGAL NOTICE TO IMAGE & DATA-MINING BUSINESSES
LEGAL NOTICE TO GETTY IMAGES, STOCK FOOD, GARDEN WORLD IMAGES, GALLERY STOCK, FLORAMEDIA, PICSCOUT, CYVEILLANCE, ANY AND ALL OF THEIR CLIENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AGENTS OR ASSIGNEES, AS WELL AS ANY SIMILAR INDIVIDUAL, BUSINESS, OR ORGANIZATION

 You are prohibited from using data-mining software, ignoring our robots.txt files, and from accessing our websites.

Legal Notice addressed to Getty Images, Stock Food, Garden World Images, Gallery Stock, Floramedia, PicScout, Cyveillance Intelligence Center, any and all of their clients, subsidiaries, agents, or assignees, as well as any similar individual, business, or organization (hereafter referred to collectively as “entities”) who practice the data-mining behaviors outlined in this policy, are prohibited from accessing this website, GoodNotions.com, as well as any and all web properties owned or managed by the Victory Horticultural Group, LLC.

  1. Permission for any and all unauthorized scanning robot programs to access this site is explicitly denied. Robots.txt files must be observed. Additionally, all other robots which scan content for the reason of any criminal or civil law enforcement purposes are also denied permission to access this site at any time without legal authority and a duly served warrant in accordance with the Fourth (4th) Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and duly codified laws of the State of Oregon.

  2. You are specifically prohibited from downloading, copying, or re-transmitting any or all of the site or content without, or in violation of, a written license or agreement from the Victory Seed Company by using any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods. Such unauthorized use also violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (Title 18 U.S.C. § 1030). The CFAA states (a) Whoever (2) intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains — (C) information from a protected computer is in violation. So by this definition, these entities routinely violate the CFAA and can be held legally accountable.

  3. The images and content on this site were either created by our own staff, are open source, or in rare instances, were submitted by the copyright owners of said content. This includes all content that appear on our websites, Facebook pages, Google+ profile, YouTube channel, or any other social media service where we have posted our intellectual properties. All of our copyrighted property is for the sole use of Victory Horticultural Group, LLC or our assignees. Use of any of our content, for any purpose, by any entity, without our prior written consent, is hereby prohibited.

Notice concerning demands for damages originating from any entities utilizing “scanning robots” (also known as data-miners, robots, webbots, spybots, bandwidth thieves, site trolls, etc.) sending “demand notices” prior to initiating a DMCA takedown process; All payment demands SHALL BE REFUSED if any threats of legal action are ever received demanding “damages” prior to sending the requisite DMCA takedown notification. Additionally, we will forward said demands to our legal counsel with the intent of seeking damages in the amount of NO LESS THAN $25,000 per violation of this Terms of Service concerning the use of image scanning robots, and/or $500 per hour for any time accrued responding to such violation.

----------

WHY? Why is this harsh sounding policy necessary?

Firstly, we do not advocate copyright violation. As a matter of fact, as you can surmise from our copyright policy, we are a firm defender in its protection. It really sucks that we have to even consider this issue. But a bit of background . . . We could probably be accused of having an overly developed sense of right and wrong. For this, we offer no apologies. We were just brought up to believe in living by “The Golden Rule.”

However, in this day and age, there are entities that seek financial gain without honoring right and wrong. They use their resources to increase their power by bending the intent of rules and laws, by ignoring said rules and laws, or by having them rewritten and executed for their benefit.

There are plenty of reasons for us, and everyone who maintains a website, to block these types of bottom-feeding entities who utilize “spybots” and scare tactics; Disregarding robots.txt and costly gross bandwidth utilization come to mind. These entities' only goal is to discover instances that even remotely resembles a copyright infringement in order to send extortion letters demanding ridiculous claims for settlement and threatening legal action. This even happens with materials that you may have created and somehow have found their way into the large image archives of entities, or in some cases, that you have legally licensed from copyright owners.

To learn more information about this blight on the internet, perform a search using “extortion letter info." Everyone who publishes content on the web needs to be aware of this practice of trolling.