Thank you ELI for the resources re: Getty Images Demand Letters

[hipnhealth]

Thank you Matthew Chan, Oscar Michelin and the ELI team for this forum, the resources, and the ELI website. I wish I discovered ELI sooner!  I received the Getty Images demand letter in Fall 2012 and the McCormack Legal letter this month, February 2013.  They never sent a warning letter or a cease-and-desist letter, just an "invoice" demanding payment.  After reading your site and the forums, now I know this is their norm.

This forum and ELI website has been a great resource!  I just found your site this morning, registered on this forum, and started educating myself by reading posts and watching the videos. I feel better knowing that I'm not alone. In addition, I now understand what can be done, and the options available to me so that I can take action to resolve my situation.

The fear tactics that Getty Images and McCormack Legal uses to prey on individuals and small businesses is outrageous!  It's evident that Getty Images and McCormack Legal continue trying to threaten and "extort" money from people even though there are multitude of formal complaints filed against them and McCormack Legal in Washington State.  Apparently, neither of them care about their reputation, credibility and all the negative press they're receiving.

[Oscar Michelen]

Glad it helped and was informative! That's why its here! 

[Matthew Chan]

Welcome to "the club" where membership is climbing into the tens of thousands who have been served by ELI.

[RosebudTiger]

Rather than start a new post, I'll add my appreciation here.  A huge thank you to Oscar, Matthew, Robert, Greg, and the rest of the ELI community for all of your time and effort.  I've been visiting this site regularly since I received a demand letter from Masterfile a few months ago.  This is an incredibly valuable resource for those choosing to gain the knowledge and courage needed to protect themselves from the extortion campaigns.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Welcome RosebudTiger!  I hope you will continue to stick around, share your story and participate in the forums.

Rather than start a new post, I'll add my appreciation here.  A huge thank you to Oscar, Matthew, Robert, Greg, and the rest of the ELI community for all of your time and effort.  I've been visiting this site regularly since I received a demand letter from Masterfile a few months ago.  This is an incredibly valuable resource for those choosing to gain the knowledge and courage needed to protect themselves from the extortion campaigns.

[RosebudTiger]

Thanks Greg!  I will definitely stick around, I usually drop in a couple times a week and will try to contribute where I can.

I had been hesitant to share any info regarding MFs claim against me, in fear that it could damage my ability to resolve this matter and move on with my life (MF clearly monitors this forum).  My initial approach was to try to settle with them and be done with it, as this is a big distraction from my business.  I made a very generous settlement offer, far more than I thought was fair or reasonable given the circumstances, but they refused it and continued with their tactics of threats and intimidation.

The more I eductated myself and learned about their unethical business practices (and what I feel clearly fits the definition of attempted extortion), the more upset I have become.  I have learned that my initial reaction of fear and willingness to try to settle is exactly what they want.  If we all sit quietly and play by their rules, there is very little chance that their unethical practices will end.  So instead, I have decided to stand up and fight. 

The more people that stand up, fight, and bring the attention of regulators and lawmakers to the practices of these trolls, the more likely it is that something will be done to stop them.  This forum has enabled me to do so in an intelligent, educated manner because others have been willing to share their stories.  So in turn, I will share mine in hopes it will enable someone else to stand up, fight, and then share their story.

I will start a new thread discussing my tale of attempted extortion at the hands of MF.

Welcome RosebudTiger!  I hope you will continue to stick around, share your story and participate in the forums.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I look forward to seeing the thread and reading about your progress!

Thanks Greg!  I will definitely stick around, I usually drop in a couple times a week and will try to contribute where I can.

I had been hesitant to share any info regarding MFs claim against me, in fear that it could damage my ability to resolve this matter and move on with my life (MF clearly monitors this forum).  My initial approach was to try to settle with them and be done with it, as this is a big distraction from my business.  I made a very generous settlement offer, far more than I thought was fair or reasonable given the circumstances, but they refused it and continued with their tactics of threats and intimidation.

The more I eductated myself and learned about their unethical business practices (and what I feel clearly fits the definition of attempted extortion), the more upset I have become.  I have learned that my initial reaction of fear and willingness to try to settle is exactly what they want.  If we all sit quietly and play by their rules, there is very little chance that their unethical practices will end.  So instead, I have decided to stand up and fight. 

The more people that stand up, fight, and bring the attention of regulators and lawmakers to the practices of these trolls, the more likely it is that something will be done to stop them.  This forum has enabled me to do so in an intelligent, educated manner because others have been willing to share their stories.  So in turn, I will share mine in hopes it will enable someone else to stand up, fight, and then share their story.

I will start a new thread discussing my tale of attempted extortion at the hands of MF.

Welcome RosebudTiger!  I hope you will continue to stick around, share your story and participate in the forums.

[hunterba]

I'm new to this forum and website so I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. Since getting my letter from GI late last month I've been reading every forum, blog, website, etc., trying to find the information I need to have in order to make an informed decision on whether to ignore them, reply to them with a compromise offer, tell them to take a flying leap, etc. I've read tons of commentary and lots of opinions but very little in factual information. For instance:
.how many people have GI taken to court (I can only find information on one instance)
.how many cases have GI won/lost
.how successful is Oscar's letter at calling off their hounds (I'm not looking for the content of Oscar's letter - just how successful it's been)
.is their web-crawling software legal, especially with respect to invading my ISP's server
All/most of this information should be available and it should just be a matter of just initiating a search and compile exercise. If this hasn't been done because of lack of resources and/or funding I'd be prepared to step up to the plate - anything to stop these people. Rgds

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

I'm new to this forum and website so I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place. Since getting my letter from GI late last month I've been reading every forum, blog, website, etc., trying to find the information I need to have in order to make an informed decision on whether to ignore them, reply to them with a compromise offer, tell them to take a flying leap, etc. I've read tons of commentary and lots of opinions but very little in factual information. For instance:
.how many people have GI taken to court (I can only find information on one instance)

A casual search for Getty Images via Pacer.gov yields these results:

From 2000-2012 a total of 71 cases

12 of these cases Getty was the plaintiff, yes I said 12
51 of these cases they were the defendant!
of the 8 remaining Getty was involved as a third party

I'm no math major, but it appears to me that is an average of 1 suit filed per year.

NONE of these 12 cases involved one or 2 images

.how many cases have GI won/lost

Now I know I don't have to mention the Advernet case, where Getty technically "won" by default, but in actuality they lost in a big way...

the above info can be found in this thread: http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/some-info-on-timothy-b-mccormack

.how successful is Oscar's letter at calling off their hounds (I'm not looking for the content of Oscar's letter - just how successful it's been)

Oscar has handled over 850 letters to date..ZERO have seen a judge.

.is their web-crawling software legal, especially with respect to invading my ISP's server

Picscouts operates out of Israel, so for the most part US law does not apply. Unless the images reside in a password protected directory, or you have other security measures in place, they would be considered "public" robots.txt is not considered a security measure..

All/most of this information should be available and it should just be a matter of just initiating a search and compile exercise. If this hasn't been done because of lack of resources and/or funding I'd be prepared to step up to the plate - anything to stop these people. Rgds

all the info you need or want, can be found in the forums, keep reading and searching..

[myckelh]

Obviously I'm currently in the same situation and luckily found my way here.  I did a website for a friend and I used 3 images that apparently images Getty are claiming as theirs… now they are trying to extort $2830 from my friend for 3 images that I could get something very similar from pond5.com for only 3 Dollars.
My question is, given that I now know (thanks to Greg Troy’s docs online) all the back and forth letters that will go between Getty and us, should I start with just a letter stating we took off the images etc… or do we go on full attack mode, meaning … asking them for all the legal document. Stating that we’ll send letters to the Attorney general… and that I’m now part of this site and I’m informed?
here.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Obviously I'm currently in the same situation and luckily found my way here.  I did a website for a friend and I used 3 images that apparently images Getty are claiming as theirs… now they are trying to extort $2830 from my friend for 3 images that I could get something very similar from pond5.com for only 3 Dollars.
My question is, given that I now know (thanks to Greg Troy’s docs online) all the back and forth letters that will go between Getty and us, should I start with just a letter stating we took off the images etc… or do we go on full attack mode, meaning … asking them for all the legal document. Stating that we’ll send letters to the Attorney general… and that I’m now part of this site and I’m informed?
here.

first and foremost Getty will not deal with you, they will continue to hound your friend. YOU writing letters will go nowhere, they will simply take you out of the equation.. so your options are these.

1. draft the letters, but have your friend send them.
2. hire Oscar for the letter program on behalf of your friend/client
3. have your friend adress the issue themselves.
4. advise your friend to hire Oscar, and you foot the bill

Getty could care less where or who put the images up, they want to be paid by the domain owner...taking them down is an obvious good first step..

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Just for me personally, I realized how this correspondence would go for the most part, I also know there was pretty much 0 chance of them taking me to court but I decided that I would start off my letters friendly and let Getty be the ones to not cooperate so in the extremely unlikely event I did end up in court I can show that I tried to work with them. 

If you read my letters you will notice that with each reply and refusal from Getty to cooperate with my reasonable requests I became more forceful until my final letter when I told them drop the claim or I will launch a complaint letter campaign.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

I will launch a complaint letter campaign.

Which Getty conveniently refers to a "misguided letter campaign"

[Oscar Michelen]

There's lots of information about the letter defense program all over the site for those who are interested. The letter defense program is meant to help businesses respond to these demand letters through a lawyer therefore requiring the sender to deal with the lawyer and not the letter recipient. That shifts the argument to one of legal analysis instead of just fear of being sued and losing your business. Our letter responds with our legal position on the claim and generally asks for proof of their claim and why they feel the image(s) is worth what they are demanding. We rarely contest liability (except in cases where the proof is clear that no infringement occurred) and always focus on the amount of money being claimed.