Dear Table Pouncer,
It has come to my attention that you are using copyrighted photographs from Bristol Culture of the interior and exterior of The Dining Rooms on your website, in promotional materials and online advertising.
I hope that you don’t think you can get away with such skulduggery, but in future if you want to use photos that are not yours, it’s probably best not to use ones where my reflection can clearly be seen.
From these photography freelance rates, I have calculated that I am owed £300 for the use of two small photographs on your website (if they spend three months online). Let’s generously call it £100 for the use of one photograph in your current promotional leaflet and another £100 for your pop-up advert.
In lieu of payment to myself, please donate the money owed to Bristol Children’s Hospital charity, The Grand Appeal.
Best wishes,
Martin Booth
UPDATE
An email arrives from the chief executive of Table Pouncer:
patrick@………………… 12/03/2013 15:28
Subject: Instruction to remove false accusation from website
Hi Martin,
Thank you for your ‘open letter’.
Unfortunately you need to take this up directly with The Dining Rooms restaurant, not with us.
They provided us with these photos in order to promote their restaurant on TablePouncer. If you don’t want them using their own photos in order to help them attract more customers, I suggest you let them know this.
As for your comments about unlawful use, I hereby request that you retract your comments immediately and remove them from your website. They are both untrue and slanderous and imply we have stolen your photos.
If this is not done within 7 days from receipt of this email, I will have no choice but to take legal action against you through our in-house general council (sic). We take slanderous comments about our brand very seriously.
I look forward ti (sic) your confirmation that these false accusations have been removed.
Best regards,
Patrick Knight
CEO – Pouncer Media Ltd
Add: Venator House, Unit 9 St Stephens Court, 15-17 St Stephens Road, Bournemouth BH2 6LA
Tel: ………………………
Web: www.PouncerMedia.com
I am impressed Martin, excellent choice of charity.
What a complete jobsworth twat
What a fantastic idea this TablePouncer website is! Top restaurants don’t want empty tables, so they advertise them on TablePouncer with discounts of up to 50% off the total bill. And you simply book the tables easily and securely on the TablePouncer website! Brilliant idea!
Dear Hugo, What a great supportive comment for Table Pouncer. And what a happy coincidence that its chief exec Patrick Knight also founded InSkin Media where your name links to.
Superlative-filled comment with unbridled admiration for a company? Couldn’t *possibly* be a corporate shill, could it?
I think “in-house general council” deserves a (sic) too.
Could someone help me out with a couple of details regarding Table Pouncer’s letter?
Firstly, I am assuming that the ‘ti (sic)’ is a reference to an error in Martin’s letter. I cannot find this error anywhere and it’s driving me crazy, where is it?!
Secondly, I was under the impression that use of copyrighted material without the owner’s permission is illegal whether you ‘stole’ the material yourself or whether someone else gave it to you. If someone gave you a pirated DVD that doesn’t give you the right to watch it legally, just because you did’t pirate it yourself.
Surely Table Pouncer has the same responsibility as everyone else to make sure that they are not using prohibited materials on their website? The Dining Rooms may have told you that they took the photos themselves, but clearly that is not the case.
Finally I cannot find any part of Martin’s letter which accuses anyone of stealing anything. He is asserting that Table Pouncer is using his photos without permission which is a demonstrable fact. I am no legal expert but I am fairly confident in my understanding of the word ‘slanderous’ and Martin’s letter does not seem to fit the bill.
It’s strange how many companies don’t seem to realise that a massive over-reaction creates much more negative publicity than whatever it is that got them worked up in the first place ever did.
Go Martin!
Strange response by Chief (EO Media) Pouncer, not only fundamentally flawed but also misses a great opportunity for cheap advertising. I’d never heard of TablePouncer, looks like a decent idea but staying well away now!
Why because some unsuccessful small time blogger claims some mediocre images are his!? Hardly a reason not to use them! They have been removed they are that insignificant. Now this blog will plunge back down the depths of the google search engine
Why on Earth does this wind you up?
Which Google search engine are you using Millie? Bristol Culture is normally very near the top when I search for Bristol related things!
And if you are that disdainful of this blog why are you reading it?!
You seem to have misunderstood my point, let me elaborate;
Accidentally using a photo to which you don’t have permission of the copy-write holder isn’t something which I would view particularly negatively. CEO reacting to someone pointing this out with false threats of slander to a “small time blogger” is enough for me to avoid them.
Storm in a tea-cup really, not quite sure why everyone is getting so worked up about it!
This thread is hilarious! Seems some people really do have too much time on their hands. Not exactly crime of the century and people are talking about this company like they’re responsible for the BP oil slick. Jeez, get a life! When all is said and done it actually does seem to be quite a good idea. Makes a change to all the terrible deals on Groupon!
Failing to ask whether it could be used is silly but normally a short email will get it removed. But oh no…
The CEO writing an aggressive email to a blogger, passing blame to The Dining Rooms etc…is such a terrible idea, it’s hilarious. He could have emailed saying sorry, called him a **** in the office and ended it there but no, he couldn’t help biting.
The best thing about all this is that the second result on google for ‘table pouncer’ is this!
So this is clearly a blatant attempt at antagonising a company in order to try and generate web traffic to this blog. Seen it before. Very underhanded and narcisistic by Mr Booth the blogger. I actually do hope you get sued for defamation Martin. Your comments have certainly been linked to defamatory comments by your intellectual (sic) followers.
Sanj
Any solicitor would laugh before saying “well you can hardly bring a clean case can you?”.
Why are you putting this up on your blog? Is it not personal correspondence? An underhand move on your part.
What an embarrassing response from the CEO of a company. Just give some money to charity and be done with it. Don’t blame u Martin stick to your guns.
Dear Martin (if that is your ‘real’ name).
I am oftentimes remarked upon by strangers for my exorbitant choice of telemarketing garb. And this has stood me in wondrous stead for the oft’times remarked as aforementioned.
What that I would have given to be of the inflection that slander is written libel! Oh, how the joyous will contemporaneously sing the praises of the damnation.
As you may now have forsaken, my mother tongue is not in that of libel or slander, but that of the laws of the maritime. And wondering if this is indeed the case.
Would that it were not so, but alas and alack! For therein lies the rub when all is said and negated to a level such as this that we are contemporaneously seeing. Inconceivable!
I do not mean these words what you think they are to meaninglessness.
In forgoance of a traffic-related-reply – oh post haste, would that though comest faster! – I shall simply say ‘adieu’.
I hope this clarity of the system of analysis will provide more of a conclusion naturally.
Will
(P.S. Please do not write back to me again, as I require no uncertain explanation)
How much had you drunk before writing that?
This all leaves me a bit, well……….(sic)
No matter what has happened, Table Pouncer is a dreadful idea for a website. Why pay £5 booking fee?! Pay for a discount?!
Thought it was a good idea till I realised there was fee attached to the bookings which disproportionately high in comparison too the savings in many of the bookings.
Especially as quite a few if the listed restaurants (in London at least) have the same or a better deal bookable though Top-table who don’t charge and let you book further in advance.
Also the calculated savings are often based on if you order the most expensive item on the menu as opposed to the adverage cost of say a starter or main, making the saving often far less then expected.
Why would anyone pay someone for a service someone else has been offering at a better standard for free for years?
I have to say, with respect, that unless the total bill is £10.00 or below, the £5.00 fee is incredible value for money. I have used TP for about 35 meals and to date saved approximately £1,000 yet only paid £120 in fees, they send discount codes!!! I do not see this as disproportionate in the least
TP encourages me and my partner to try costly restaurants, we have made discoveries and return regularly, a 50% saving is huge. (IMHO)
I used the TablePouncer website after seeing it advertised in the free London newspaper. I booked a table and it cost ME £5 for the privilege. I tend to use Bookatable.com which has more restaurants near me – more offers and it doesnt cost me a penny. Silly business idea – booking fees are a thing of the past.
This is so funny.
As someone who has accidentally fallen foul of using other websites materials and receiving a ‘cease and desist’ letter, I found a simple apology and removal of the offending material suffices.
Why not get ‘positive’ publicity by sending £100 to a very deserving local charity, rather than “knocking together” a poorly worded response that adds fuel to the fire?