One more letter from Getty, and I'll use the media!

[oz457]

I have received 2 letters so far. All in English, so I did not answer. I expect a third letter soon, but as long it is not sent registered mail, I won't reply. I am not supposed to understand English as we live in Belgium.
Once the third letter arrives, and if they send it registered, I will require a normal settlement for one picture, € 100, not a dime more. Besides, I have picked up the picture on a Romanian public FTP server, and it was impossible to know, that the picture was copyright protected.
I'm sure, GI will not let me go and won't be happy with the € 100. But I am planning to write them that if they don't agree, I will go to the national media. We have a television program called 'opgelicht' "= scammed", where the television program makers will visit GI and ask more information. The whole case will be published on TV and their name will be known to the public here.

In my case, I have made a computer screen video where you can see how I browsed to the public FTP server in Romania, where you can see the timestamp of the picture is older than the timestamp of the letter of GI. In the same video, I opened a DOS box with a DNS lookup for the romanian website and the traceroute from here to the server.
So how can someone know if the picture was copyright protected if you pick it from another server than the one of GI?

It is time that extortion and scams at this levels should be halted.

[Oscar Michelen]

Oz I dont know Belgian Copyright Law but here in the US innocence is not a full defense, it just helps lower your damages. So that they did not attach Copyright Notice or that you did not know they were copyrighted would not get the case dismissed here.  I agree with you that this whole thing is outrageous and I think trying to get some publicity on it can only help. Good luck and keep us posted