Effective immediately, Oscar Michelen's Defense Letter Program for Getty Images Settlement Demand Letters have been increased to $195 from the long-standing $150.
This increase was supposed to take place in January 2011 but was delayed due to administrative oversight. The increase is to cover the increasing costs and overall demand to support the Defense Letter Program and this website. When this program was first launched, there were much less traffic/calls/emails coming into Oscar's office and my office. Also, the issue was more simpler at the time.
However, in over 2.5 years that passed since launching the Defense Letter Program, the administration level and expense to track the 500+ letter recipients and maintain our entire web presence on this issue (which goes beyond this website) have increased. The complexity level of this program (every client is different x 500 of them) and the arguments with Getty Images have advanced much further than before. And although this is not a direct factor for the price increase, people are hiring a more experienced and knowledgeable version of Oscar today than over 2.5 years ago.
In our last video update (posted in our Subscribers-Only area), we discussed that I nearly shut down this website in January 2011. I felt I was putting in too much of my valuable time and energy into this issue with very little reward (Although I do get a lot of thank you's and some donations along the way, they are not nearly sufficient to offset the work I put into this project) but it was Oscar's direct intervention that kept me as his partner in this project alive. (I told Oscar he could soldier on without me since his name was well-known in this controversy but he felt we made a great team and wanted my continued involvement.)
Bottom line, this website and the Defense Letter Program has always been a "loss leader" in terms of our time and energy vs. what we directly get monetarily. But the losses have become greater over time and there is a limit to what we can withstand. Hence, this small price increase in the Defense Letter Program is being used to offset and minimize the continued losses we incur for our time and resources. Without offsetting some of these real losses of time, energy, and administration, Oscar and I would simply have to shut this operation down altogether. (I can promise you that Getty Images and all the other stock photo companies would celebrate if that day came about!)
Having said all that, I can honestly say that you will be hard-pressed to hire an intellectual property attorney of any meaningful quality to take on Getty Images for $195. And they certainly will not have the experience and research backing Oscar Michelen. You would also be hard-pressed to find another safe, magical, and orderly community that has been created here. (Go check out other places on the Internet and you will know what I mean!)
We hope you understand that this decision was not an easy one for either Oscar and me. However, we felt that the greater good would be served with the price increase. The majority of people still get FREE information and education from our website. And the people who want to pay for additional service and support still get a great value for high-quality legal representation.
Thanks for your understanding.
Matthew Chan
Topic: Defense Letter Program is now $195 from $150 (Read 4311 times)