With a strong sense of duty to empower other small businesses to stand up for their work and not allow themselves to be bullied, underpaid, exploited, abused, paid late or not paid at all, Middle 8 Media is publicising the pursuit of unpaid fees and stolen content.
This is not personal in any way and we welcome comments from and discussions with the other party and guarantee them a platform for doing just that.
The crux of this case is that an East Midlands business, Piped Up Limited, engaged Middle 8 Media to produce the copywriting for their website. The copy was provided, signed off and even commended, as per the email under hearing 2…
1: Following a referral through BNI, I was engaged by Piped Up Ltd on 15th September 2020
2: I Worked Hard on the Content and Submitted it to Piped Up Ltd
As per my initial proposal (available on request), I spent a large amount of time researching keywords and producing optimised content for Piped Up. Piped Up loved the work, commended it and thanked me, as per the email below:
3: Piped Up Used My Work From April 2021 through to the Current Day (07.07.24)
- Here is the work I submitted to Piped Up Ltd which was published and remains published on https://pipedupltd.co.uk
– Midlands
– Electrical
– Piped Up is a Midlands
– Plumbing and Heating
– Solar - Here is the current live version of Piped Up – https://pipedupltd.co.uk still using almost all of my content.
- Way Back Machine demonstrates that my work has been on the Piped Up site for all of this time: https://web.archive.org/web/20230320234309/https://pipedupltd.co.uk/
4: Piped Up Ltd Have Avoided Payment and Paid Nothing For my Work
Piped Up Ltd then offered to pay only half of the money owed, which was baffling as to why they would ask this and they then broke contact.
Piped Up Ltd has stolen the content I produced. I own the copyright to this content. It has been used outside of an agreement, as no money has been exchanged for it. It is theft of my copyrighted content.
Piped Up Ltd, please either:
1: Pay the money owed. This was provided at a discount as we were both BNI members.
2: Remove all of my content from your website and I will be content to walk away from this.
Getting in touch with me is welcomed and will not be treated as a personal matter. From a brand perspective, I firmly advise that your brand is not associated with mistreating suppliers and ultimately, theft.
Please feel free to comment on this page and related social media posts. I guarantee to not delete your posts and will answer any questions you have.
Top Tips To Avoid Content Theft and Abuse of Services
As a small business, it is an ongoing challenge to protect the work you undertake. Here are Middle 8 Media’s top tips to safeguard your work, and copyrighted material and to enable easier remediation of any abuse of terms etcetera.
1: Ensure all agreements are in writing. Email is sufficient. Make sure that you receive engagement and signing-off notifications at least in email, like Middle 8 Media did.
2: Introduce a policy of advanced or staggered patent. Many creative companies ask for 50% of their fees upfront. Sadly, in our case, because Piped Up were members of the same BNI group, we wrongly assumed heir would be an element of trust there.
3: For unpaid fees, you can always make a legal claim against an individual or a company using this form.
