- Okay. Something really huge
happened A few days ago, a small print on demand seller. Nicole Harness was sued for $250,000. She was selling Print on Demand. Tumblrs featuring Luke Combs,
who, if you don't know, is one of the biggest country
stars singers in the world. While his legal team
sued Nicole for $250,000 for selling Tumblrs featuring
his photos and they won. It's a crazy story, and it's a cautionary tale that I believe that every single person
selling print on demand products needs to watch because there
are lots of people out there that are breaking the exact
same laws that she did. But before we watch it, I
just wanna apologize quickly for my voice and my face,
because I currently have Covid. So yes, apparently this is what I sound like when I have Covid, but I wanted to make
this video regardless, because this is honestly
such a crazy story that everybody needs to know about it. So let's watch the video now. This - Is Ghostface
- Nicole. Harness's only job is
selling homemade tumblers and T-shirts through Amazon. She's a big Luke Combs fan and says, after she went to his
concert in Tampa this summer, she decided to offer a
Luke Combs themed Tumblr after selling just 18 of them. She learned Combs sued her
along with various others for selling counterfeit merchandise. The worst part, the
case is already closed, and the judge ordered her
to pay $250,000 to combs. - Yeah, so first off, let's
just say something nice here. She actually made a pretty nice Tumblr. It's such a shame that she
put her good talent to use by creating something that was illegal, because yes, her Luke Combs
Tumblr was absolutely illegal. There is a law personality
rights in most places around the world, including
the United States. You cannot sell someone's
image and make money from it. Plus the photos she stole and used for her design are
also copyrighted as well. So this TLA breaks the law and infringes on Luke Combs
rights in two different ways. So yes, honestly, this
was pretty risky of her and frankly, quite foolish of her to do. I really wish she had instead
put her talent into creating something legal, like
mental health affirmation, print on demand, Tumblrs, which
are really popular in Etsy. But I find that people often resort to copyright infringement of
popular intellectual property because they just can't come
up with any good legal niches to create products in. So if you would like some
tips on how you can do that, then I'll have a link to my
free print on demand ebook, the six steps that six
figure online stores follow to make over $10,000 a month. You can find a link to download this ebook and the video description below. But yes, what she said
next in this interview really got to me. So let's keep watching. I don't - Have money to pay my bills. I just want this resolved. I'm not, I didn't mean
any harm to Luke Combs. I quit selling the
Tumblr. I pulled it down. I, I just, I don't understand. - So look, here is the thing, right? Yes, it was risky and foolish of her to sell this illegal Tumblr design. However, I am pretty sympathetic
with her when she says that she's confused because no joke, if you go into
places like Etsy right now, people are illegally selling Luke Combs print on demand products. Intellectual property thief is rampant. There are even more illegal. Luke Comb Tumblrs out
there just like hers. And so I absolutely sympathize with her. It is confusing because when
you see stores like this, many of them bigger than hers, you think, oh, surely it must be okay for me to do this if they're doing it too, right? But the thing about
intellectual property laws is that they are only enforced
when the intellectual property holder chooses to enforce them. And so what happens is that big celebrities
like Luke will often have so much infringing merchandise
like this made to them that their lawyers can't send down, take down notices fast
enough to keep up with it. All these could get taken
down at any time too. And as we keep watching, you're
gonna see that if you try to do this like she did, that you put your entire business at risk, including the money that
you legitimately made by selling legal products,
not just the money that you made from selling
the illegal products. - So how much money did you make on the Tumblr? That's in question - $380. - So $380, correct. And you're willing to give
'em that money. Exactly. But 250 grand, I don't have,
Nicole tells me the notice went to her junk email. This judgment essentially shuts down her livelihood as part of the lawsuit. Amazon has frozen all of
her proceeds about $5,500. She's free to keep selling merchandise, but all of the profit will
go toward this judgment until the $250,000 is paid off. - So here is the important
lesson to learn, right? Because she took the lazy way out and used a celebrity's
likeness to make $380, she has now lost $5,000 of money that she legitimately
made, which to me is crazy and super shortsighted. But in saying that, I
also think that it's crazy that you can be sued for $250,000 for selling $380 of Tumblrs. Yes, what she did was wrong, and you might disagree
with me in the comments, and I appreciate your opinion down below, but I don't think in this case here that the punishment fits the crime. Luckily though, that usually isn't what happens in cases like these. Instead, celebrities, law firms will instead usually
just send take down notices and get the infringing items removed. Like this video here
that recently went viral of a woman whose Etsy store got banned, she kept selling copywriter
shirts, like these shirts that featured Taylor Swift lyrics. And after several copyright
infringement notices, her store got banned. Now, obviously this is still not great because you don't want
to lose your business, but let's be honest, that's
definitely better than having to face a $250,000 lawsuit. The story though, doesn't end here because this news story
was then posted to TikTok. It went absolutely viral, and the comments, people
started calling out to Luke Combs asking him
to please respond to it and to drop the lawsuit. And in less than a day, he
actually responded on TikTok. So let's check it out. - What's up guys? Luke here.
It's 7:27 AM here in Tennessee. I woke up at 5:00 AM to use the restroom, and first thing I saw was this. And so we do have a company that goes after folks only supposedly
large corporations operating internationally
that make millions and millions of dollars making
counterfeit T-shirts, things of that nature, running
illegal businesses. And apparently this woman, Nicole, has somehow gotten wrapped into that. - So what he says here is kind
of true, kind of not true. It's true that they usually
wouldn't sue someone like Nicole for $250,000, even if
they can since, well, she can't exactly pay it, can she? So why bother in a situation like that where she's clearly broke? They would usually lose more money and legal fees than what
they would actually be able to get back from here. So in this situation, that
was definitely unusual. Although it's also not quite
true that they don't go after small stores. They do. It's just that
instead, usually instead of lawsuits, they'll
send take down notices. And this is still bad
since like what happened to this seller here, it can
get your business shut down. But yes, it's still better than a lawsuit. What he did next though was
actually quite remarkable. So let's keep watching and check it out. - So I was able to get
Nicole's phone number. I spoke to her this morning. She told me there's $5,500
locked up in her Amazon account. I'm gonna double that, send
her $11,000 today, just so she doesn't have
anything to worry about. And she got in trouble
apparently for Mick and Tumblers. So I'm gonna make my own Tumblr today. That's gonna go up today.
I'll keep you posted on that. But all that money is gonna
go to Nicole and her family. Hopefully that can help her out. And again, this is unbelievable. I was completely shocked when I saw this this morning. It makes me sick. - So honestly, when I saw his
response, I was like, wow, you are super nice. And he did actually follow
through with his promise. The Tumblr is now up for
pre-order in his store, and I think that Nicole here
got really, really lucky. This could have gone
very differently for her, but I also think that if
other people tried this, they might not get so
lucky, which is why I wanted to share the story as
a precautionary tale. So do you think that she should
have been sued for $250,000? Let me know in the comments below. I'll see you in the next video.
