Future Getty Tactic?

[parkerbenson]

OpenMind Solutions, Inc., is trying to file a class action lawsuit against 2,925 supposed copyright  infringers who downloaded copyrighted adult content off the internet.  Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting it.

I wonder if Getty is planning something like this, which is why they haven't filed many lawsuits yet, maybe they are planning on filing ONE...

[JPicker]

Who's to say that Getty (or similar) didn't "photo-shop" and make it appear that they've captured images from a given web site for possible infringement litigation - if one has long since removed the photos in question? Normally one assumes good faith, but I think they blow that with their initial demand letters. This is something I've actually wondered about. In this day and age practically anyone can make any page appear any way that they want, print it out as a screen capture, and then claim you infringed upon them.

[parkerbenson]

I agree.  When my friend first received his letter, he thought it was a scam.  There are so many scams that are very clever, emails from paypal, ebay, banks, letters in the mail saying you have to renew your domain name, renew your auto warranty... there are those sweepstakes letters that prey on the elderly...  i think consumer protection activists and mail fraud issues may be at play here... maybe Getty isn't doing anything illegal, but what they are doing so looks like a scam, and as we have been told by our government and the media so many times to ignore scam emails and letters and demands or requests for money and report them to authorities, I think our responsibility is now to ignore such scams and report them to authorities.  I've even seen news media programs discussing fake cops pulling people over, and the news/police warn people not to pull over if you suspect it's not a real cop... drive to a police station i presume.  I think we have a duty to ask our government to check out these letters and their copyright claims and make sure they are real and not scams.  How do we know a tony stone image was actually copyrighted properly, and that Getty still has exclusive license with that artist.  Maybe the artist severed the relationship when Getty dropped their commission from 30 to 15% or withheld royalties.  Maybe the artist ought to be suing Getty??

[Oscar Michelen]

There are so many problems with the "reverse" class action approach that I doubt Getty will contemplate this strategy - the defenses of the defendants are different, they may not have jurisdiction to sue in one court, there is no procedural basis for this type of lawsuit, etc etc. Like most trolls, the Open Mind folks are hoping for quick settlements and Ia m delighted that EFF stepped up to fight for the defendants

[warsaw]

That is what I initially thought when I received my letter.  They have a captured screenshot which they claim was on the internet 3 months ago.  When they provided the link, the photos were gone.  And it wasn't even our website.  It was someone elses, but our domain name was in the address bar.

[Oscar Michelen]

Well then it doesn't seem to be your problem if its not your site.  are you the host? Did you develop the site?

[maccaz]

Hi I'm new to all this. I have been reading a lot about it though. I realised 1 day ago about the problems with using images
from google images. So I quickly took them down from a website I had designed. I searched through 'tineye' and found that
3 images were definitley from Getty. They were all down by last night!

The site is only up 2 1/2 months. I bought the 3 images that were from Getty and downloaded them. I have decided not to reuse
them and am buying new images from a different site. Is it possible that I could still receive a letter from Getty in the future. Do they need
to find the image being used live on the internet or can they go through archives and see it was used in the past?

Bit worried my mistake will come back to haunt me!
Thanks

[Matthew Chan]

Yes, it is possible that it can come back to haunt you. But I would not worry about it until if something happens. For now, it sounds like you are fine.

Matthew