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Author Topic: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators  (Read 25987 times)

Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #30 on: January 12, 2012, 08:00:23 PM »
@Lucia

Being that you run your blog as a hobby, have you considered registering a DCMA agent?? It may be worth it to avoid any of these issues going forward.
Iv'e considered doing it for my clients but it would be cost prohibitive for me, and I highly doubt my clients would want to pay for this, although it could potentially same them aggravation as well. I've already had 4 client get letters from Getty Images ( and no I was not responsible for any of them )  :)
Most questions have already been addressed in the forums, get yourself educated before making decisions.

Any advice is strictly that, and anything I may state is based on my opinions, and observations.
Robert Krausankas

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lucia

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #31 on: January 12, 2012, 11:11:55 PM »
buddhapi--
How much does it cost? 

My blog rarely displays images that are remotely likely to catch Getty's attention.  This was a fluke-- and even so, the image was hotlinked not hosted at my blog!   Images actually hosted on my server are ... graphs of global surface temperature generated by me, graphs of temperature generated by my co-bloggers, photos I took myself etc. Typical posts are like this one http://rankexploits.com/musings/2012/december-uah-anomaly-up-a-whisker/. Does that look like something Getty might even remotely consider making a stock image? I think not. If I thought they'd use it, maybe I'd sign up as one of their artists and make money on it! :)

Jerry Witt (mcfilms)

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #32 on: January 13, 2012, 01:31:45 AM »
Lucia, FYI I am blocked from seeing that page. (This is why I am not crazy about having to block your site from certain IPs and user agents. Suddenly people that want to visit your site cannot get there.)
Although I may be a super-genius, I am not a lawyer. So take my scribblings for what they are worth and get a real lawyer for real legal advice. But if you want media and design advice, please visit Motion City at http://motioncity.com.

Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #33 on: January 13, 2012, 08:38:45 AM »
@Lucia I think it's like 135.00, but I will look into and confirm for you, I know in my case doing this for well over 200 domains, would be way to expensive...

FYI - i'm blocked as well, and I did see my ISP in a list you posted a while back
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/picscout-dmca-question/msg4159/#msg4159

in your htaccess
deny from c-76-101-177-151.hsd1.fl.comcast.net

This was when I was visiting your site and following the thread you created for the legal eagles..
Most questions have already been addressed in the forums, get yourself educated before making decisions.

Any advice is strictly that, and anything I may state is based on my opinions, and observations.
Robert Krausankas

I have a few friends around here..

Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)

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Most questions have already been addressed in the forums, get yourself educated before making decisions.

Any advice is strictly that, and anything I may state is based on my opinions, and observations.
Robert Krausankas

I have a few friends around here..

lucia

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #35 on: January 13, 2012, 04:18:53 PM »
Budhappi--
I guess I don't understand exactly how filing an DMAC agent would protect me from copyright trolls. It protects me if my commenters blog post, but it doesn't seem to protect me if I post something copyrighted. Am I missing something here?

Also, it only protects if I do take stuff down after a takedown notice.  What if I disagree with the person requesting the take down so I refuse? Then I'm not protected, correct? 

I think it might be cheap if it works-- but if it has huge holes, I'm  not sure it's worth it. Am I misinterpreting something about how it protects? 

lucia

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #36 on: January 13, 2012, 04:33:20 PM »
Sorry about the block.  You were blocked by referrer. I was blocking everything with "getty" in the referrer.  Normally that's ok, but clearly, it's likely to be a problem for anything coming from ELI since "getty-images-...." contains getty.  I've made the string longer to block "gettyimages" and "gettywan".

I know I'll still block somethings I don't want to block. Right now I'm monitoring 403's daily to tweak what I block. 

Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #37 on: January 13, 2012, 05:47:01 PM »
you are correct, if YOU post something that infringes, you would not be covered, however if you had been a registered agent, and that poster came along and posted the cardinal picture, you would be covered, and you would have never gotten a letter as Getty would have had to issue a takedown notice. It would then be up to the poster to send a counter-notification, you would just be the "middle-woman". If you refused to takedown the image/content you could also be held liable..

It has been noted in the Righthaven fiasco that they intentionally steered clear of blogs with registered agents, because they just couldn't file suit, I'd be willing to bet that Getty does the same thing, as they have shoddy registrations and generally weak cases from the get go.
Most questions have already been addressed in the forums, get yourself educated before making decisions.

Any advice is strictly that, and anything I may state is based on my opinions, and observations.
Robert Krausankas

I have a few friends around here..

Matthew Chan

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #38 on: January 13, 2012, 05:58:36 PM »
There is no bullet-proof way to protect yourself short of staying off-line and not participating.

The protection comes in when other people post things that you don't feel responsible for.  Here on ELI, people can post what they want but if I feel it is a violation for forum policy or simply inappropriate, I will delete it altogether.

It also forces them to properly notify you even if YOU post something questionable vs. what happened here to me where Canada Julie went straight to my hosting provider.

When you become a DMCA Agent, you agree to following a proper procedure such as DMCA complaints and counter-notifications.

I guess I don't understand exactly how filing an DMAC agent would protect me from copyright trolls. It protects me if my commenters blog post, but it doesn't seem to protect me if I post something copyrighted. Am I missing something here?

Also, it only protects if I do take stuff down after a takedown notice.  What if I disagree with the person requesting the take down so I refuse? Then I'm not protected, correct? 

I think it might be cheap if it works-- but if it has huge holes, I'm  not sure it's worth it. Am I misinterpreting something about how it protects?
I'm a non-lawyer but not legally ignorant either. Under the 1st Amendment, I have the right to post facts & opinions using rhetorical hyperbole, colloquialisms, metaphors, parody, snark, or epithets. Under Section 230 of CDA, I'm only responsible for posts I write, not what others write.

Matthew Chan

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #39 on: January 13, 2012, 06:00:03 PM »
FYI, I was initially blocked myself and did not see the photo of a cat when I was in Columbus, GA. Right now, I am in Atlanta.

Sorry about the block.  You were blocked by referrer. I was blocking everything with "getty" in the referrer.  Normally that's ok, but clearly, it's likely to be a problem for anything coming from ELI since "getty-images-...." contains getty.  I've made the string longer to block "gettyimages" and "gettywan".

I know I'll still block somethings I don't want to block. Right now I'm monitoring 403's daily to tweak what I block.
I'm a non-lawyer but not legally ignorant either. Under the 1st Amendment, I have the right to post facts & opinions using rhetorical hyperbole, colloquialisms, metaphors, parody, snark, or epithets. Under Section 230 of CDA, I'm only responsible for posts I write, not what others write.

lucia

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #40 on: January 13, 2012, 06:15:07 PM »
if you had been a registered agent, and that poster came along and posted the cardinal picture, you would be covered, and you would have never gotten a letter as Getty would have had to issue a takedown notice.
My posters can't upload.  They can only hotlink.  While getting the letter made me anxious, the fact is that hotlinking doesn't violate copyright. So at least with respect to the images issue, I don't think I'd be getting much protection from DMAC.  After all-- yes they can write me scary letters. And then I can write back and discuss the issue here.

I think the bigger concern would be quoting text. But at my blog, most people post links to newspaper articles. Iquote and DMAC won't protect me there.  I guess I understand the notion that merely seeing I have a DMAC in place might make Getty or Righthaven-returned-from-the-dead stay away. But  I think I'm willing to risk given that I believe my quoting method falls under fair use and I would be willing to go to court on that.  My understanding is Righthaven lost. Big time. Right?

Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)

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Re: A letter to my Congressman and my two Senators
« Reply #41 on: January 13, 2012, 06:25:39 PM »
Big Time is an understatement in regards to Righthaven, they got their collective asses handed to them! and I think the worst is yet to come.
Most questions have already been addressed in the forums, get yourself educated before making decisions.

Any advice is strictly that, and anything I may state is based on my opinions, and observations.
Robert Krausankas

I have a few friends around here..

 

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