Masterfile Letter

[fighting_masterfile]

As far as the Credit Collection - NO they can not place it against your credit report as it is ONLY a CLAIM.  I wrote them back and told them it is a claim and to stop contact with me.  They need to send it back to Masterfile. 

[Bekka]

Masterfile is like a wasp that can sting you, whereas Getty is like one of those harmless flies that looks like a wasp from a distance.

Wonderful analogy!

[SoylentGreen]

Thanks Bekka!!  Nice to see you on here!!  Here's a field guide:

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4238/waspfly.jpg

S.G.

[myspashop]

Michael Hilsheimer is the latest extortionist from Masterfile as Copyright Compliance Letter. I received my notice for one image that I have no knowledge of it's origin, their fee is $6,800! Let me know if any updates on dealing with these issues.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

you might want to read over the chaga international case, it was a HUGE loss for Masterfile..

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/masterfile's-copyright-registration-method-held-invalid-by-california-court/

Michael Hilsheimer is the latest extortionist from Masterfile as Copyright Compliance Letter. I received my notice for one image that I have no knowledge of it's origin, their fee is $6,800! Let me know if any updates on dealing with these issues.

[artalacarte]

I received a letter from MF a few days ago telling me that I have been using one of their copyrighted photos on my website. They included their own picture and mine. Sure it was! I have a small pet business, whineranddiner.com and I needed a picture of a cat lying down to incorporate into my own picture. So I Googled "cat lying down" and found a picture with no copyright information or watermark and saved it to my photo librairy to use it and I did (I still have the picture in question).
So I immediately took the picture in question down and called MF (Michael Hilsheimer). From the $1940.00 asked in the letter he went down to $900.00 after a 10 minute conversation. I told him that I have not had this picture up on my website for a year (which they claim). I had gone back to Google, Bing and Chrome to find the picture without their watermark I have downloaded and by some weird coincidence it's nowhere to be found again. When I mentionned this to Mr. Hilsheimer he just changed the subject and offered to put me on a payment plan...I told him I did not have $900.00 right and I will get back to him.
What should I do at this point just wait it out? I do not want to pay them because I strongly believe that they seed their pictures to be downloaded, wait a few months so they are removed from image searches and go after small businesses picture - users and contact them about infringement.
Why can I not find that picture with no watermark again anywhere online and why did he drop the fee by half so easily and so fast???
Since this, I spent hours removing and replacing pictures from my website (I have over 100 pages) that could have been questionnable as I "found" them the same way as I found that cat...And I don't even like cats...
Thank you in advance for any advice.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I answered this in your other thread. Please do us a favor and do not cross post as we will see it no matter where it is. Thanks!

[Oscar Michelen]

Also, take the time to read all the vast info on the site