Oscar, thank you for being a Champion in this cause!

[tonyritter]

Oscar,

As another victim of the GettyImages extortion scam, I want to thank you very much for representing the little guy.  I would very much like to see a class action suit againt this company for such strong arm and devious tactics.  I have found comfort in all the reading this forum and website has provided.

As a web designer, I too thought I had executed due dilligence by using images with no identified copyright notices.  I checked for overt notices and lables, both on the sites offering the images and on the images themselves.  I never found a visual notice of copyright, watermark of ownership or any other indicators on any images I used.  I even went so far as to open the files in various photo ehancement and forensic programs to search inside the digital file's meta-data for stored information on copyright and image ownership - I found nothing.

You can't tell me that a company that has the resources to scour 600 million computers on the Internet and billions of web pages across the globe in search of copyright infringements, can't watermark or imprint a file's meta-data with a copyright notification.  And they knowingly register these images on common search engines, so that they appear easily and may be acquired by consumers on the Internet with a simple right mouse click.   Once consumers get and use it, they then pounce, threaten and intimidate.  They are simply predators in wait.  

My understanding (and it is vague) is that anything published after 1989 is automatically covered by copyright law in the US.  Ok, fair enough.  Some of us did not read the copyright law and although I have now read it, I still don't understand all the application of the language.  However, extorting $1000 for an image buried deep in second or third level webpage on a mom and pop website, whose page hits number only in the hundreds per month, has to be a blatant violation of consumer law in most if not all 50 states.

I checked with the national BBB site and there have only been about 14 or so complaints filed.  I find this incredibly hard to believe.  I was about to file one myself when I found your site.  I was also going to contact the Washington State Attorney General's Office regarding this very deceptive business practice.  I am sure they must have a Division of Consumer Affairs that would be interested in this.

I look forward to joining this initiative to stop this abusive behavior.  Thank you again.

Tony Ritter
New Jersey

[Oscar Michelen]

Dear Tony:


Thank you so much for your support and your kind words. I think there are so few complaints because Getty's letters are done very professionally and appear to make it an "open & shut" case. People just try to work at reducing the settlement amount and sending Getty a check.  I don't want to discuss the potential class action on this site for a number of reasons. Having now sent letters to Getty or NCS  Recovery on over 30 clients, I expect we may see a different response from Getty. As you can see from some of my other posts on this site, Getty and NCS have been modifying their position lately and I have to believe its in response to what we're doing on these pages. In the meantime, I would encourage anyone who has recently received a demand letter to read through this site, listen to the taped interviews and get informed of your and Getty's legal rights. Its an old saying but its true - Knowledge is power.

[braingrow]

Oscar, I too am very thankful for your website and what you are doing. I am a one man shop that had my website outsourced and had no idea at all that an image on my website may have been unauthorized. Luckly I have only had one image in question. A $1,000 fee would literally be taking food out of my kids mouths, because I run a small business with very little cash flow. It is just one way I try to bring money in for my family. Thank you for what you are doing and giving me courage in this case. The letters have made me sick and sleepless. Your website and forum have given me direction. I am happy to support this forum and any action against Getty any way that I can. By the way, Getty means Diarrhea in Japanese- how appropriate. I lived in Japan for a couple of years and now laugh every time I read their name.

Thank you,

Blaine Washburn
BrainGrow

[Oscar Michelen]

Thanks for the kind words and support. It really is appreciated