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
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