ExtortionLetterInfo Forums
ELI Forums => Getty Images Letter Forum => Topic started by: Rick on May 16, 2011, 03:17:04 PM
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I received the same Getty extortion letter as the rest of you so I guess I get to join the club....lol
They are asking for $600.00 for a picture they say is there’s (a picture of a little drink glass on a beach towel), and like many of you my site was developed by another person for me.
I’ve been dwelling on this for a few days and reading what I can about this issue on the net and ran across this site (very informative and well put together thank you guy’s) Due to a bad internet plan I’ll have to wait until next weekend to review the video’s .
I’ve been wondering and had a thought, I’m not sure if this has been asked before or not so if it has just direct me to the thread please, has anyone tried to bring this scam to the attention of the media? Like Date Line, 20/20 ect. Or the major networks NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX or also any of the Major radio talk shows. I’m sure if the posters here got together and started a letter writing campaign to these News sources bringing it to their attention maybe we could put a little shame in their game.
Also from reading on this site I realize that this is more of an ethical and moral issue on the part of Getty let’s face it the only reason they are doing this is because they think it is a easy source of income. This law that they are using was a law passed way before the internet was developed so the law makers would not have considered this happening. Is there any way that this can be brought to the attention of government officials to bring into the consideration of amending this law to make it fair for those that have done nothing but hire an outside company to do what we couldn’t?
As I said before I haven’t had the time to go through the whole forum, so if these questions have already been asked just point me to the thread.
Thanks
Rick
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There is a larger issue at play here which is now being called "copyright trolling". That is getting much more press especially on the Righthaven Lawsuits controversy.
The stock photo extortion letters are milder by comparison and generally preys upon people's legal ignorance. They are "threatening" but largely have not pulled the trigger.
Our website and cause have made inroads in the last 2.5 years because we are getting quoted by more bloggers and smaller online publications. I suspect Getty will one day target the "wrong" person and all hell will break loose. I believe it is simply a matter of time at the rate Getty and others are pumping out the letters. We suspect that there are collectively hundreds of extortion letters going out a month with more people getting into the game.
More and more obscure names are coming out as people are reporting into our forum. The nice thing about our forum is that even the obscure letter extortionist will gain Google prominence by having their names posted here for discussion.
Believe me when I tell you there are more things going on behind the scenes than people see.
Matthew
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Thanks for the info Matthew, I've been in contact with the person who designed my web page for the last few days dicussing this at length.
He has found all the information for the templet he used and is confident the picture in question was ok to use. He has been designing web pages for years and was also the owner of several servers. One possibility he has brought to my attention is that Getty simply copied the photo from my web site added it there collection claiming it as there own.
As for doing this to the wrong person, your correct, I'm just a very small bussiness person who thought a website would help me drum up some bussines, believe me I'm not a very happy camper about this and i'm going to make sure I bring this to as many peoples attention that I can.