Got My Getty Letter - Thank You For This Site

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Unfortunately until yesterday I had never heard of the Getty Extortion Letters.  I can only say that this site and forum are a blessing to all of us who have received these letters, likewise with the wealth of information I am finding here in the forums says that far too many of us have been targeted. 

I have spent the last day and a half reading, researching and documenting.  I wanted to briefly share my story and what I have done to see if anyone sees anything I may have missed or knows of another forum topic I should read that has more information I need.

I am a sole proprietor business offering remodeling and handyman services, I have a website which I run and maintain.  All images on my site are mine and of work I have done with the exception of a few photos in a “How-To” blog I have on the site offering free tips to homeowners to maintain their homes.  I would try to find a public domain image to place in the blog.  At this point I want to say that I am a firm believer in copyright law and make a genuine effort to ensure any image used that is not mine is free or public domain.  Whenever I used an image that was not mine I did make a note as to where I got it, not thinking to protect myself but in case something happened to my website and I had to rebuild a page.  I found this image though a Google search which I follow back to the site to look for any copyright notices.  By all appearances it looked as if this image belonged to the person running this site as it had the site owners name a hyphen and the tile they had given the picture.  The site had many image galleries and the picture in question was found was in a gallery called “Public Gallery” I also gave credit to this person for the picture if you rolled over it on my site.    Since it is in a blog it is dated so there is no question as to how long the image has been up which is just less than 11 months, Getty is asking for 875.00 for this.  The image in question is from Getty Images infamous Stone collection with 96,448 images at the time of this posting. 

What I have done:
1 I immediately removed the image from my website, computer and backup drives
2 Started my research, documentation and response plan.
3 Donate to this site for all the information I have found….. Thank you very much Mr. Chan, Mr. Michelen and all those who have contributed.
What I plan to do:
1 Call Getty tomorrow and talk to them explaining my situation, that the image was used unintentionally and that it has been removed (which I expect will go nowhere)
2 Send a certified letter to Getty with all of my information about the image in question
3 If they respond saying I still owe the money and wish to pursue the claim I will request information of how they arrive at the figure for the image, proof of damages incurred, sales history of the image and at what price sales were made at, ask for proof of the images registration to them exclusively as well as if the image is registered individually or in bulk.
4 if I receive a third response, depending on the tone and what is says consider using the defense letter program.

[Matthew Chan]

You are welcome.

Don't bother calling. It is a waste of time. Keep it in writing, no emails. Otherwise, your general approach is about right.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Thank you, I will do that, and I just sent you a donation for the site, the information here is just what I needed.  If I did not find this site I probably would have just ended up paying even though I feel I am right that there was no intent and it was corrected as soon as it was brought to my attention.

[lucia]

I concur with Matt-- don't call.  If nothing else, the people who answer calls have a lot of practice dealing with letter recipients, and you will be much less in control of the conversation. 

Also, I would suggest volunteering as little as possible. 

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

>> 2 Send a certified letter to Getty with all of my information about the image in question

Why?

Why do you feel compelled to send any additional information? They have made a claim, you have removed the image (as a courtesy). Now your move is to demand proof that the image is theirs. They will tell you it is for sale on their site. Okay... are they the exclusive representatives of this image? Is this image REGISTERED with the copyright office. Although it is not required, not having it registered limits what they can collect. What is the sales history of this image? Can you find it elsewhere?

I'm with Lucia. Less volunteering and more demanding is in order here.

[SoylentGreen]

Something important to note is that being super-cooperative and apologetic won't help.
They just want the money.

S.G.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Thanks for all of your tips and advice. I have been working on my reply letter and after reading everyone's posts I will remove the parts explaining where the image came from and incorporate the other suggestions as well.  Thanks again!

[Oscar Michelen]

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I got my reply back from Getty and they are “Generously” offering to reduce their settlement amount from 875 to 625 and of course I must keep all this confidential.  What a load of BS.  I find similar images on the Getty site and that go for 20.00 bucks a piece for the same size.  Again, please correct me if I am wrong but I do not feel I owe Getty one penny since this image was found in an image gallery folder marked as public saying the gallery was owned by this person and this image had their name on under the image along with a title they had given the picture.  Everything about the image looked like it belonged to this person and they placed it in the public folder for people to use as there were other gallery folders not marked public. 

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Pretty typical scenario, welcome the the Getty Images Merry Go Round! Naturally they want to keep this "confidential" as they don't want the public to know that they just pull amount numbers from a hat.
While the image in question may have been residing in a "public" folder, doesn't mean much, and I can see how folks could get tripped up with this. The site you got the image from may very well have purchased a license to use this image, but perhaps, they got it from google or maybe even another site or blog that has it. It's a vicious cycle. I can only guess they did not offer to answer any of your questions, regarding pricing, artist info, copyright registration info??

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

No they did not offer any proof as of yet.  After reading through the forums I see where it can go better for me if this should escalate if I have at least made an offer to try to settle the claim. In my latest response I told them that I have found about 300 images on their site similar to this one that are listed for  10-25 dollars for the same size that was on my site (granted these were all the royalty free images).  Not admitting any guilt but as a good faith gesture I offered them 75.00 dollars 3 times the amount of one of these images with the condition that no money of any amount will ever be paid until they send me copies of the information I had requested proving they owned the image and had rights to it.  What I have asked for was:

1)   Verification the image is filed at the US copyright office
2)   How it is registered – single image or group
3)   Copy of signed contract, assignment or documentation transferring the copyright to Getty for exclusive rights to the image
4)   Sales history of the image including pricing.

I also told them I would not guarantee respond in 14 days to their letters as I would reply in a reasonable time frame after I have had time to research, consult and reach a decision. 

Question for the group: To date has Getty still not actually filed suit against anyone over one image?

My plan is to keep fighting and educating myself about this, these forums are great and if I had not found them and the ELI site I probably would have knuckled under and paid out of fear and ignorance.  So thank you again ELI Team Members and all the other contributors you are making a difference.  I hope to educate myself enough to one day be able to offer helpful suggestions as well.

Pretty typical scenario, welcome the the Getty Images Merry Go Round! Naturally they want to keep this "confidential" as they don't want the public to know that they just pull amount numbers from a hat.
While the image in question may have been residing in a "public" folder, doesn't mean much, and I can see how folks could get tripped up with this. The site you got the image from may very well have purchased a license to use this image, but perhaps, they got it from google or maybe even another site or blog that has it. It's a vicious cycle. I can only guess they did not offer to answer any of your questions, regarding pricing, artist info, copyright registration info??

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Getty to this date have not filed over 1 image...Looks like round 2 is about to start.. I'll jump the gun and give you the outcome.

1.they will reject this offer
2. they will claim this is a rights managed images, thus it is "worth" more.
3. they will not supply you the info requested. They will only show you this in court.
4. will probably throw out another dead line and will threaten to escalate it to their legal dept.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

From everything I have read here I’m kind of expecting it.  I will keep everyone posted, looks like it’s going to be a long 3 years  .

Getty to this date have not filed over 1 image...Looks like round 2 is about to start.. I'll jump the gun and give you the outcome.

1.they will reject this offer
2. they will claim this is a rights managed images, thus it is "worth" more.
3. they will not supply you the info requested. They will only show you this in court.
4. will probably throw out another dead line and will threaten to escalate it to their legal dept.

[stayathomemom]

So, those of us that have done our reading on here know this...
- it escalates to NCS
- it escalates to Tim McCormack
- it doesn't ever go to court

I know Getty hasn't ever gone to court over one image but my question is this...I think I saw somewhere deep in a post about this technically not being a bad debt but a claim so NCS can't collect once you point that out to them when it gets to that point.  Has anyone ever had their credit negatively affected because of not paying this??

[stayathomemom]

Also, has anyone ever heard of this happening....someone pays and then gets another letter about MORE pictures?  Does Getty hit ya for all they can all at once in that first letter or do they come after you again so they can cash in on the 'suckers' that pay??