Lisa Willmer of Getty Images in 2009 Los Angeles Times Article

[Matthew Chan]

I am not sure why I never caught some of the goodies in this news article over two years ago. But in looking up Lisa Willmer, Senior Director of Corporate Counsel at Getty Images (who also oversees and hires hourly interns and collection clerks), I found this 2009 Los Angeles Times Article.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/13/business/fi-lazarus13

Lisa Willmer also happens to be the person Oscar Michelen has interacted and communicated with at Getty Images.

Check this out:

Getty says it finds about 42,000 examples of copyright infringement a year. For its part, Corbis says it uncovers about 70,000 violations annually.

Those are some huge numbers! That Picscout scoutbot really works hard to find these alleged infringements.

I have always said that there were "thousands of letters" going out each year but never quite certain where the actual numbers might be. Oscar once speculated a while back that there could be 100,000 letters issued over the years. It turns out Oscar's rough estimate was right.

Assuming Getty Images issues extortion letters to "only" 25% those alleged infringements, that is an easy 10,000 extortion letters per year (or 800 extortion letters/month)! If they issue extortion letters to 50% of those alleged infringements, that is 20,000 extortion letters per year (or 1,600 extortion letters/month)!

Remember, those were 2009 numbers.  Those numbers might have increased in the last 3 years since that story was published. No wonder Getty Images salivates over the extortion letter program and invests so much resources into the program.

[Mulligan]

Take 20,000 extortion letters per year and say 50% cave and pay the initial demand of $780.

That's a cool $7,800,000 in Getty's pockets.

Say another 10% cave in and pay a typically reduced $630 demand sent if a person replies to the first letter. That's a cool $1,300,000.

Given how easily frightened most people are and given Getty's sophisticated manipulation of the human fight or flight instinct, I'd say 50% paying immediately may actually be close to the mark.

I can see a greedy CEO getting a memo on figures like this from their extrajudicial business model... eyes light up like the tip of a hot soldering iron, drool forms at the corner of the mouth, deep chuckle starts to rumble up from the evil chest, and words come out...

"Hire another ten interns right now and ramp this baby up!"

[Matthew Chan]

At the late hour I posted that statistic, my mind was playing with all the possible calculation variables.  It is very hard to say if 50% pays up. I would say that it could be a bit lower if what ELI is doing makes an impact in the awareness department.

No matter how you cut it, it is a multi-million dollar revenue operation.

Think of the salaries you have to pay these staff lawyers:

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/getty-images-corporate-counsel-staff-found-on-linkedin/

I am guessing the 5 staff lawyers I found average $95K/year including benefits. That is about half-million per year NOT including their paralegals and their collection clerks.

It is interesting to play with the numbers.