Here I am... 2nd GettyImages letter

[silvias]

Hello! I have published my very first website 3 months ago.. I am still a student and at the moment my website only offers services for free (I am a "in training" maternity & child sleep consultant). Well, I received a first extortion letter from Getty one month ago. I removed the one pic immediately. Yesterday I received a second letter. Of course they come after me... I am a small (not even operating) at home family service business..and they want me to pay $480. I am preparing an email specifying that I have no intention of pay that ridiculous amount of money for an image i found via Google.com. I want to write I am ready to take it to court also... any suggestion would be greatly appreciate it.. My husband thinks we should just ignore all the letters... I am unsure.. Thank you! Silvia

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

first off why would you write to them and admit guilt?? it's on them to prove their case...secondly why would you invite a lawsuit?? do you really want to spend the time, effort and money involved should they choose to file? I would strongly suggest you do some research before jumping the gun..

[silvias]

well, we did a lot of research on the net, and the majority of people/articles about GettyImages are talking about a "legal scam" so they advise to write a  letter that say something like this: "I assure you that if the alleged copyright infringement did take place, that it was entirely innocent and unwilling. As a good-faith gesture, and until this matter is definitively resolved, I have removed The Image entirely from website";  We also found this, pertaining to the amount of $ they demanded: "Please show in an itemized and auditable manner, how the amount requested for the image in question was calculated. To put it differently, please show that you are asking for a reasonable compensation for the specific  image, within the time frame that  this  image have been used, and are not asking for exorbitant, unreasonable amounts of money under the circumstances."
We are just considering other options..

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

If you do decide to engage them ( which will likely not get you anywhere) just be sure to phrase your letter properly to not admit anything or give them anything that could strenghten their case. There are plenty of pages citing it as a "scam" but keep in mind what they are doing is for the most part within the law, they just like to work on the very fringes , by twisting the law to their own advantage.

[silvias]

Thank you so much!

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I couldn't agree with Robert more, if you choose to engage them please do some research and educate yourself first. If you go with your initial statement it would be the same as telling a police officer yes I was speeding I'll see you in court.

As far as finding an image through a Google search please be aware that copyright exists from the moment a photograph is taken and in less the photo in question has fallen into public domain it belongs to somebody. You do not need to state anywhere that the images copyrighted or add a watermark to the image for the copyright to be in effect.

A good video you should watch is a tech crunch interview with Jonathan Klein where he discusses intellectual property. Jonathan Klein is the CEO and one of the founders of Getty images and he states that he is fine with people using his images up and to the point it becomes commercial and they start making money. Since you said your business is not charging anything yet you may wish to include this in any correspondence you have with Getty.


Also I would recommend doing all correspondence via written letter so you have a hard copy on their letterhead of everything that is said.

Please keep us posted.

[silvias]

Thank you all for your responses. We have decided we are just going to ignore the letters for now. As previously stated, the one Image in question was promptly removed from my website, so we shall see.

[lucia]

well, we did a lot of research on the net, and the majority of people/articles about GettyImages are talking about a "legal scam" so they advise to write a  letter that say something like this: "I assure you that if the alleged copyright infringement did take place, that it was entirely innocent and unwilling. As a good-faith gesture, and until this matter is definitively resolved, I have removed The Image entirely from website";  We also found this, pertaining to the amount of $ they demanded: "Please show in an itemized and auditable manner, how the amount requested for the image in question was calculated. To put it differently, please show that you are asking for a reasonable compensation for the specific  image, within the time frame that  this  image have been used, and are not asking for exorbitant, unreasonable amounts of money under the circumstances."
We are just considering other options..

Change "As a good-faith gesture, and until this matter is definitively resolved, I have removed The Image entirely from website"" to " As a good-faith gesture,  I have modified the website to ensure  The Image does not display and verified that no copies of the image are hosted on servers under my control."

This language leaves open the possibility that the image was never hosted on your website and that it only displayed.  This is important because hotlinking has been deemed "not copying" under at least 2 district courts. (One dealt with images-- that's Amazon v. Perfect 10. The other dealt with.. something else. I need to look that up. These cases did not get to the US Supreme court because the loser did not appeal/)

BTW: Make you you know whether the images was hosted on your server. If it was never hosted on your server, then even if Getty sues, they cannot win. If it was hosted, don't volunteer that information. Let them do the work to discover that. (If they've modified the procedures Picscout uses, they will know.  But you don't need to volunteer that.)

With respect to your "until this is resolved", I would write:  "I consider this matter resolved."

They won't consider it resolved and will likely send you a response. But you can still express your opinion.

If you wish after telling them you consider it resolved you could add something like:

"If you do not consider this resolved, please provide me all the following information which I require to negotiate a resolution that satisfies both parties:

The US copyright office registration number for this image.
The license agreement between the copyright owner and getty images.
The history of licensing fees paid by customers who used this image.
If the images contains a person, request a form indicating their is a model release.

"

Getty will refuse to give these things and say that they would supply them during discovery. But "discovery" goes both ways. If they sue you, you would have a period during which you can request this from them and they are required to give it to you. Likewise, they can ask things of you and you would need to give it to them.  But saying material will only be provided during discovery goes both ways: you don't have to tell them stuff if they don't tell you stuff.

Lucia

[stinger]

Good points Lucia!

[silvias]

Thank you Lucia!
I am still debating if I should write to them, or just ignore the letters completely and don't engage them..

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

You have to look at your options and your situation and decide what's best for you.  Unless you can make them go away be prepared for three years of letters and threats.