Blogger Beware

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• July 14, 2025

A few months ago, I got a threatening email about my use of a licensed image. The internet is really the wild west of copyright to some extent. I had once before accidentally used a copyrighted image. The owner messaged me, I took it down, and that was that. This here personal blog I’ve been doing weekly for over a decade and it is (unfortunately) not monetized. I’ve never made any money from my blog.

Said image was from I blog I wrote in 2016, called “Kill! Fuck! Marry! Game of Thrones Edition” where I play a game of killing, fucking, and marrying GOT characters. It was a professional picture of Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lanister. So, I apologize as I used it unknowing it was licensed and take the photo down. It is never my intent to use copyrighted images, and I’m happy to remove anything that someone has ownership of. But then… this company, which is not a law firm, was trying to extort me for $2500 for use and damages of the image. They sent weekly emails demanding I pay these “damages” and that what I did was a federal crime and we’d go to federal court over it.

Look, I’m a starving artist who lives paycheck to paycheck and also doesn’t know when or how much the next paycheck is. It’s a crazy lifestyle that I honestly would not recommend to most. Did me, a small time writer/blogger really cause “damage” by accidently using a licensed photo in a blog written almost a decade ago, that probably less than forty people saw? I think not. I think the judicial system has bigger problems. Am I, a clever but faulty writer a danger to society and artistic rights? Um… no. No, I am not. And quite honestly, I think if I had talked to photographer directly, they would have easily forgiven me for my error and we’d all move on with our lives like normal people, instead of this sleeze ball company trying to make a quick buck off of bloggers (which are mostly women, not making money).

The threatening emails continued for weeks into months… pay $2500 or ELSE! After I took down the image from my site, I stopped communicating with them. In a world full of a lot of bad people and constant crime, this really seems like proper response is just an apology and removing the image. Literally no one was hurt or lost or made money because of my doing. I’m pretty sure the court system has real issues to deal with. Why are we living in a world where no man is convicted from having sex with minors on Epstein Island and people are coming after me for using a stupid picture on a blog ten years ago.

Anyway. Despite their many threats that we were going to court, I have not been served papers. The scandal of the century! Do you believe what Lori Palminteri did? I think the reality here is this bullying company that’s trying to make quick money off of struggling writers. Truthfully, I don’t know how they sleep at night. I am not saying the company’s name to stay out of further legal trouble (is this blog incriminating?). They are not on the side of justice. They are on the side of exploitation, using the justice system as a tool to be… well, a fucking asshole.