Raising funds for an organization that support cancer patients, a letter from GI was received (td)

[va]

Dear all,

Last Friday, a client of mine received one of their "love letters" due to the usage of an image in the body of an article that was posted with the sole purpose of raising funds for an organization that supports people with cancer.

My client is part of their board of directors and a respected business woman who's intention was only to give to those in that mis-unfortunate circumstances. As her Virtual Assistant, I was in charge of posting the article and I thought that because of the high reach of my client's online presence, it would be helpful to give more detail info about the organization's support groups, so I brought the content of that page to the body of the article.

Thanks to getty, now I know that one of the images at that page is theirs. Their asked $600.00 first but reduced it to $500.00 to be paid by 5/9/2011 after talking with D. Bieker over the phone.

They said that even if the organization bought the image, it had to be licensed for my client's specific website's URL. The fact that she is in the organization's board of directors din't matter at all to them.

The image was taken down immediately and I have assured my client that I will pay the amount since she had nothing to do with posting the article. I am taking this as a learning experience and I won't be that innocent in the future when posting anything online. However, as anyone else, it is very difficult for me to give away that amount. Moreover, in the short amount of time they gave us. I would like to know if there is any option for me to pay a lower amount or else, please.

Best regards,
~VA

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

contact Oscar, don't pay them, ignore the deadline as it were..they like to try to scare us into paying them, for less that what they are demanding Oscar will handle it, and you can rest at night...

[va]

buddhapi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> contact Oscar, don't pay them, ignore the deadline
> as it were..they like to try to scare us into
> paying them, for less that what they are demanding
> Oscar will handle it, and you can rest at night...

buddhapi,

Thank you for commenting on this post, I feel better now that I've found this community and I am grateful for the service that Matthew and Oscar are providing. I trust that after hearing from Oscar I can indeed "rest at night"

Cheers,
~ VA

[Matthew Chan]

VA,

Be aware that you need your client's cooperation in this as they received the letter and the ones Getty Images will pursue regardless of your intent. And so you can pay Oscar's fee for you clients but he would technically be representing them. Oscar shouldn't have a problem dealing with you but you can't force Oscar's services onto your client even if you are willing to pay for it.

Just something to consider...

Matthew

[va]

Matthew,

Thank you for your advice. I talked to my client yesterday and I am just waiting to hear from Oscar to connect them directly. In the meantime, my client's assistant received a call yesterday from GI to inform us that the non profit organization did not buy the license to use the image either. I asked my client and her assistant to tell them whenever they call again that we are seeking the representation of Oscar Michelen and that anything regarding this situation will have to be handled directly with him...once he takes the case of course.

We are looking forward to hear from Oscar so that this situation gets resolved.

Warmly,
~VA

[va]

Matthew,

My client sent a personal message to Oscar, at xxx, on May 11th and we haven't get any reply yet. According to GI, she should've paid the $500.00 by May 9th and she would like to know if he's going to be available to represent her. Do you have any suggestions on how to hear from him?

For obvious reasons, I won't post her email here but I'd happily provide it on a private message...maybe the message ended up at the junk folder? =/

Thanks a lot for ANY help with this,
~VA