I too am a victim of Getty Images

[skolish]

Hi there,

 My name is Steve and I live in Regina, Saskatchewan Canada. I too received one of these very threatening letters from Getty the other day. I purchased a graphics package off of Ebay last month from a Power Seller that claimed to have full license to use all the clip art, photos, and PSD templates for multiple websites. I thought this would be a great tool! I emailed the seller before and after the sale to confirm I had valid license to use any or all of the images being sold and he replied with yes both times telling me that they were completely legal to use. Of course the first image I decided to use on my own website was one that Getty claims to own. I immediately took it down when I became aware it "may be" copyright protected. My extortion letter was for $1130 for the use of their image.

I tried contacting them of course and they were not very sympathetic to my situation. I would like to know if your ELI Defense Letter Program would work for me too? or is it just limited to US?

Thanks in advance
Steve

 

[Lettered]

would you mind posting a link to the ebay product you purchased?  Maybe the creator of the content is trying to license it through Getty AND the supplier you bought it from. Also did the product you bought off of ebay come with a license agreement?  Would love to see that as well if you don't mind sharing.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

interesting, I'm surprised ebay lets things like this be sold... I just found this in like 5 seconds, and it is jam packed with "stock" images, and i'd be willing to bet the seller does not have the the rights to "resell" the images contained in these templates. This is very similar to the templates I purchased almost 15 years ago, and the license i have reads almost exactly the same as this guy has on ebay..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WEBSITE-Design-WEB-Page-TEMPLATES-Photoshop-Flash-HTML-source-files-incl-/281107109772?pt=US_Image_Video_Audio_Software&hash=item41734a178c

I would be tempted to contact ebay, and explain your situation, if nothing else they may remove the seller from doing future business.

[skolish]

This is the link to the listing
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Over-1600-Website-Graphics-PSD-and-Blank-Web-Headers-Create-Your-Own-Websites/230980547839?ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1&ih=013&category=47103&cmd=ViewItem

He is still selling this. I have been in contact with him of course and he is trying to find the official resellers license for me. Either way I think I did about as much as reasonably expected to ensure my safety. Obviously I will ask for a more official license before I dare in the future.

[Lettered]

wow.  I hadn't even heard of this before now.  check out this link:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Make-Money-on-Ebay-Resell-Scams-Fraud-And-The-Beatles/10000000002138294/g.html

The guy that sold you this may not even believe he is doing anything wrong (and I'm not accusing).

Seems like it works like this:

The first person makes a compilation of stuff he doesn't own and sells it on ebay along with "resell rights".  You can imagine how it proliferates from there.

I would think this is going to be (or has been) a boon for the infringement income for the real copyrights holders.

skolish, get some real legal advice pertinent to Canada for sure (im no lawyer), but I would be shocked if you ended up in court over this single image.

[scraggy]

Now could this be a nice scam?

Ebay has the following as the seller's address
Business seller information
Bringing Books 2 U
K.B. Wells
1 St Marks Road
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HP21 8RH
United Kingdom

But on Google maps, look what I found at the exact same address and postal code

Aylesbury Vale Pregnancy Crisis Centre

Address: 1 St Mark's Rd, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP21 8RH, United Kingdom

https://maps.google.co.il/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs&ie=UTF-8&q=Aylesbury+Vale+Pregnancy+Crisis+Centre&fb=1&gl=il&hq=Vale+Pregnancy+Crisis+Centre&hnear=0x487657882dadcdbd:0xd81b10fa587ffbb3,Aylesbury,+Buckinghamshire,+UK&cid=0,0,18134823656500025659&ei=4kecUbfMIYaftAbtn4HYBA&ved=0CJMBEPwSMAA

Funny! In the Google street view, there's a FEDEX van waiting outside, just waiting to deliver all those CD's!!

Ian

[DavidVGoliath]

Okay, I have counsel in Canada whom litigates copyright infringement matters for me, so here's how you might be affected.

If your website was non-commercial, your legal liability (if it were to go to court) would be between $100 - $5,000 per infringement.

If your site promoted your business, displayed adverts or solicited advertising income, or offered products or services for sale - whether directly on the site or via a third party - then the use of the image(s) could reasonably argued to be commercial in nature.

For commercial uses, the range of liability starts at $500 and goes up to $20,000 per infringement.

Crucially, there is no requirement under law to register images in Canada to enjoy copyright protections; although a registry exists, it is purely voluntary and no registration is needed to file suit.

Canadian law does have an innocent infringement defence but, in all honesty, I don't know what standard of proof is required to establish this. If you have retained all the emails from the eBay fraudster, along with details of the transactions and how the files were provided to you, then this would be a good starting point in establishing your case.

I do have a measure of sympathy for your position as it appears you were taken in by a fraudster who, in my opinion, is quite a blatant infringer. I'd be interested in seeing a copy of the letter you received from Getty to ascertain their claims in relation to Canadian law vis a vis comparing them to the letters my own Canadian counsel have issued on my behalf.

[Lettered]

Everything below is just my opinion.  Again, Im not a lawyer and not trying to give you legal advice:

I don't think "innocent infringer" applies in your case.  You knew copyright existed, you were just wrong about who had the copyright. See http://www.robic.ca/admin/pdf/325/142.024.pdf  That's the bad news.

Good news is that, although DavidVSGoliath may right about the damages amounts, and whether or not your use would be considered commercial, there is also the following clause that applies to damages in commercial use cases:

(2) If a copyright owner has made an election under subsection (1) and the defendant satisfies the court that the defendant was not aware and had no reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant had infringed copyright, the court may reduce the amount of the award under paragraph (1)(a) to less than $500, but not less than $200.

(5) In exercising its discretion under subsections (1) to (4), the court shall consider all relevant factors, including

(a) the good faith or bad faith of the defendant;


(b) the conduct of the parties before and during the proceedings;


(c) the need to deter other infringements of the copyright in question; and


(d) in the case of infringements for non-commercial purposes, the need for an award to be proportionate to the infringements, in consideration of the hardship the award may cause to the defendant, whether the infringement was for private purposes or not, and the impact of the infringements on the plaintiff.

I would think a reasonable offer to settle your case would be in the $200 range.  I also don't think they would accept it, and would continue to send demands at least until any statute of limitation expires.

I would really be shocked to see them take a case like yours to court.

I could be wrong, but that's my take on it.

[skolish]

Thank you all for your advice and opinions. I will keep you updated to the results of my case. I will think more on what I would like to do and how I am going to carry forward with this.