[INFO] Rotherham Man Raking In £500 A Week After Copyrighting His Own Face

[rhqman]

Found this, made me smile, so sharing it here for the smiles.

Anyone know of any other 'enterprising' ideas?




2017-01-02

A Bramley man has copyrighted his face and now makes almost £500 a week by issuing invoices to people who unwittingly publish his photograph.

Ian Smith, 45 from Howard Road, now spends his spare time photo-bombing pictures in pubs, restaurants, clubs, cafes and even in the street, before scouring Facebook and other social media for the resulting photos and threatening to sue the poster for copyright infringement. Most pay up straight away – £50 is the usual fee – and those that don’t receive a solicitors letter with additional legal costs attached. “I’ve not had to go to court yet,” he told us “but if I did I’d win. I’ve got it all stitched up.”

Under normal circumstances, it isn’t possible to copyright your own face because it’s a naturally occurring phenomenon with no design or creative input, but Ian is taking advantage of a sneaky loophole in the law. A couple of years ago, he underwent cosmetic surgery on his crooked nose and eye bags, and his face now displays a creative element which can be registered under copyright legislation.

“I’ve got the paperwork and everything” he told us, ” Some people think what I’m doing is underhand, but I don’t care. It certainly beats working for a living. I’m raking it in.”

This legal loophole opens up the way for anyone who’s had cosmetic surgery to copyright their face, and there may even be a way for people who have had no surgery to cash in according to Ian’s lawyers, Pratt Shyster and Butt. “We’re looking at whether simply wearing make up, bespoke glasses or sculpted facial hair is sufficient to legally register copyright of a face,” solicitor Benjamin Butt said “And if it is that could open the legal floodgates for everyone. We’re also looking at whether we can sue companies like Facebook who are profiting commercially from copyrighted faces appearing on their websites. It’s a potential goldmine.”

Ian demanded £50 for us to include a photograph in this article, which is why the picture above shows only the back of his head, which isn’t copyrighted.

[Animal88]

"Pratt Shyster and Butt" should be a clue that this is BS...

Quote:We decided to launch The Rotherham Bugle after identifying a fundamental problem with other news based media covering the South Yorkshire area – they are restricted by a requirement that they stick to reporting on things that actually happened. And here’s the problem with that – what actually happened tends to be boring.

And so from the very start, we made an editorial decision to give facts a back seat. Yes, you may find a grain of truth hidden away somewhere, but it’s more by accident than design. If you do find something that’s true, don’t judge us too harshly. Anyone can make mistakes.

Our primary focus is on stuff that we’d have liked to happen, had a story taken a more interesting turn. They’re the sort of things that might occur to you in the bath, on the bog or while sitting in your car waiting for the sodding lights to change at Whiston Crossroads. Any similarity between the style and content of our stories and those featured in mainstream media, is purely intentional.

We hope you enjoy our alternative take on the news affecting people in Rotherham, and if there are any stories you feel we should be covering, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

[plokij3]

Hahahaha!

You gotta admire his creative thinking.

:D

[SoloPreneur]

Surprised John Harrison at "Streetwise publications" in Rotherham ...hasn't put out a biz-op on this...HA-ha!

BUT Wait...Harrison's seen this... so its NOW in the pipeline!

AND...it's ONLY £497.00!

[solar33]

(08-31-2018 10:01 PM)SoloPreneur Wrote:  Surprised John Harrison at "Streetwise publications" in Rotherham ...hasn't put out a biz-op on this...HA-ha!

BUT Wait...Harrison's seen this... so its NOW in the pipeline!

AND...it's ONLY £497.00!

Haha! That was exactly my thought when I saw the heading of this thread.
It could happen. I await the mailshot.

[midastouch]

Speaking of John Harrison. Has anyone got the very first Streetwise Manual? It was about a small business directory that sat by the telephone. It was I think their best idea and I used it in the mid 90's to make some money. Would like to refresh my memory and get hold of a copy.

*EDIT

Just found a copy on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Streetwise-Pu...SwWqNa6hQS

MT