Got the Getty extortion letter grrrrrrrrrrrr

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

This may answer your question.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/jonathan-klein-and-getty-images-a-history-of-questionable-business-practices/

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/jonathan-klein-and-getty-images-know-how-to-treat-their-contributors-not/

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/johnathan-klien-and-getty-images-do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do/

As far as what you can do, read this.

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

What kind of profiteering criminals are running their company? Is Getty where all the Enron thugs transferred to?  This is an outrage.

What can I do?

Thank you

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

I'll sum up the Oscars letter program easily for you...

he writes a letter on your behalf to getty, getty can no longer contact you directly, nor can any of their cohorts. IF a second letter is needed Oscar will take care of it. You WON"T get "progrees reports" or anything else, IF Getty offers a lower settlement, Oscar will notify you, and you have the opportunity to accept or not..you let the SOL run, and if i read correctly in a year or so the whole thing will be history..If the letter program doesn't sound appealing to you, by all means go hire an attorney , and be prepared to pay much much more for the same results, or an attorney that will charge you and suggest you pay them..

[perplexed]

Everyone, thanks for the addtl insights.

Lucia, I have no idea. I was only stating possibilities because I'm clueless about the alleged infraction and can't find any trace of an image hosted on the server. Again, the layout they show in their screenshot is one that hasn't been on the site in ages. Don't recognize the image and don't have any knowledge of it ever having been hosted on the server.

[stinger]

Take the time to read Greg's links.  I am particularly fond of the last one - although it is a long read.  It will give you a good feel for who is messing with you. 

[perplexed]

Their Nov 15 deadline to respond has come and gone. I suppose they will now send me a new letter demanding 2x the amount. I'm trying not to stress about it, but it grates on my nerves . Even though the &%#^#@$% don't sue for a single image, there is always the possibility they will start. I do not need this crap in my life.  I didn't try to profit off someone else's work. This is insane

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Continue to read and learn so you know what each step in the three year process will be.  Develop a plan on how to handle each step and contingencies.  I did this and it took all the worry out of it.

When they sent their next letter I looked at it to see which one it was and I already had my response ready to go and sent it off.  I had/have plans for all situations I can think of them doing including trying to take my to court.  The harassment seems to have stopped when they reached the stage that triggered a complaint letter campaign for continuing to send demand letters and threaten escalation when I let them know I was willing to negotiate with them as long as they provided proof of their claim.

This plan took all the stress out of it, at least for me.  I even had a local copyright attorney who I kept up to speed on my situation ready to go if they tried to sue me. 

This may be a solution for you or if you do not want to deal with it, use Oscar and they can not contact you again.

[perplexed]

As always, thanks. Is there a list somewhere showing the order of the steps they take, what we can expect, and how to respond? is that info consolidated somewhere in an easy-to-digest format?

Thanks again for always responding. Just having someone to talk about this makes it easier to deal with. it's a very upsetting thing.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

You can look at the letters between Getty and me as a guide on the way it may go.  Mine was pretty typical until I stopped them and made them go away. 

After their last letter escalating it up past the copyright compliance team I would have expected a letter(s) from NCS Solutions (collection agency) followed by a letter(s) from their outside council Mr. McCormack.

Here are the Letters between Myself and Getty Images:

http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/3777294

Here are copies of the complaint and follow up letters that I sent out along with any replies and follow-up responses. To date complaint letters have been sent to the Washington State Attorney General's Office, the Washington State Better Business Bureau, the Ohio State Attorney General’s Office, Congressman Michael Turner, Senator Rob Portman and the Federal Trade Commission.

http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/3777301

Hope this helps.

[Oscar Michelen]

Just an FYI as Robert said, once they get a letter from my firm neither Getty nor any of their cohorts can contact you any further about this.