Getty Images Letter over photo of a bush

[Herb Man]

Hello, I received a letter over an image on my blog from a post about a medicinal herb.  Getty wants $700+ for the image.  My attorney said he thinks we should contact a copyright atty., his fees will be more than the $700.  Or, he said that I should make a counter offer, but not to pay anyone $700 just because someone sent a letter.

I did get an e-mail once over a cartoon that I posted stating that I hold either pay a licensing fee of $24 per month or take the cartoon off of the blog.  I replied to the atty. of the cartoonist that I would take it down.  This satisfied all parties concerned.  This seems to be an ethical way of handling these disputes as I wasn't aware of copyright law.  Getty Images (tm) doesn't play ball that way.

I am at home so I don't have access to the extortion letter right now.  I will posts it when I get to the office.

Thanks for the forum and all the free advice.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Greetings Herbman and welcome to the forums,

I would continue reading the forms and educating yourself as they contain all the information you need if you wish to handle this yourself. Also if you prefer to have a lawyer handle it I would recommend using Oscar's defense letter program. For about $200 you will never hear from Getty again and they will have to deal with Oscar who has handled over 850 of these type of cases.

I can tell you that Getty has never sued anyone over the use of a single image on a website to date in the states.

[Herb Man]

Thanks for the advice Mr. Troy.  I had considered charging them $1000 for my time spent reading the letters and contacting my attorney, since my fee for a deposition is $500 per hour and any part of an hour counts as an hour.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Call me Greg,  a good thread to read as it has all the letters between Getty and me so you can get an idea of the process and how I fought back can be found here.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/an-experiment-against-getty/

Thanks for the advice Mr. Troy.  I had considered charging them $1000 for my time spent reading the letters and contacting my attorney, since my fee for a deposition is $500 per hour and any part of an hour counts as an hour.

[Herb Man]

Thanks for the reply, Greg.  I did find the letter and it seems to be the possession of a fairly well known photography company.  (You can PM me if you'd like to get the name.) 

I'm not sure how much to reveal here as I've read that Getty Images (tm) stalks this site for information.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

You have basically three choices.  First, you can ignore it.  Some here prefer that choice however I do not.  Second, you can fight it yourself which is the route I picked for myself.  My fight is well documented in the thread posted in my last message. Lastly, if you do not want to deal with the fight you can use Oscar's letter program and Getty may no longer contact you. 

If you would like to send me your letter I would be happy to look at it and it may be sent to gregtroy@yeahwedothat.biz

[Herb Man]

Thanks, Greg, I will send it to you when I get to my laptop.

[Oscar Michelen]

Good luck and keep us posted on your decision