Messages

1

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Johnathan Klien and Getty Images - Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

« on: October 21, 2012, 10:08:53 PM »

I haven't heard a thing, so I'm calling that a good thing.   

Thanks puzzle guy, BTW how is your case going?  I know you retained Oscar but was wondering if you had any updates for us?

2

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Johnathan Klien and Getty Images - Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

« on: October 21, 2012, 05:58:50 PM »

Outstanding!  This should be required reading for anyone who ever even thinks about doing business with Getty Images.

3

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: How does Getty Images calculate the settlement demand amount?

« on: October 13, 2012, 09:28:45 PM »

 Greg, your post was clear. Mine, however, was a poorly worded attempt at humor. 
Sorry for the confusion.

4

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: How does Getty Images calculate the settlement demand amount?

« on: October 13, 2012, 07:25:34 PM »

I've never been a big fan of Mr. Rogers, but it seems rude to insult the guy when he's no longer around to defend himself!

5

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Seattle Times full page statement

« on: July 20, 2012, 04:59:48 PM »

How about a URL in the sky above Getty...

http://www.skytypers.com/competitive.html

6

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ELI Parody of the Dallas TV Intro

« on: July 18, 2012, 06:05:21 PM »

Gotta love it! Now we need "The Getty Show" with the theme from Jaws.

7

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Review of StopGettyImages.com

« on: July 17, 2012, 11:54:18 PM »

"A Pubic Information Site Where You Can Take Action To Stop"

I suppose they meant "Public"...

8

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Recieved a demand letter today.. What do you think of my response?

« on: June 30, 2012, 02:35:43 PM »

Interesting. I also caught Picscout in the act and disconnected them before they could finish. I didn't know about Picscout at the time, but the connection was from Israel and slowed my website to a crawl. I still don't think my case was infringement. I have to wonder if disconnecting their spybot raises a flag that makes it more likely you'll get their letter.

9

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Big ELI Video Update (June 23, 2012): Matthew Chan & Robert Krausankas

« on: June 24, 2012, 06:16:39 PM »

It's probably not important enough to worry about right away. I just thought maybe they were already available somewhere. An audio version would be great for me but I'm not sure how many others would make use of it.

10

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Big ELI Video Update (June 23, 2012): Matthew Chan & Robert Krausankas

« on: June 24, 2012, 04:38:59 PM »

Yes, the provider limits (greatly) our bandwidth. In the middle of the night we get some free bandwidth, so I can schedule unattended downloads. Watching during that time is difficult because my old body thinks it needs some sleep!

11

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Big ELI Video Update (June 23, 2012): Matthew Chan & Robert Krausankas

« on: June 24, 2012, 04:21:48 PM »

Is there any chance that this and other ELI videos might live somewhere accessible to the bandwidth challenged - like an FTP site?

I watched almost half of one of the videos about a week ago and found that I'd used more than half of my daily download allowance. Our Satellite internet provider does allow unlimited downloads for a few hours when I really need to sleep, so it's possible to grab large files but I would need a way to schedule it.

12

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A puzzling situation

« on: June 21, 2012, 12:23:17 PM »

Thanks, that would actually make a really nice puzzle. But in fact, I'm not making puzzles. I'm just retailing puzzles I buy from those who make (and license) them.

13

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A puzzling situation

« on: June 21, 2012, 12:01:51 PM »

In my initial panic I signed up for Oscar's defense letter program, so I don't think I should be contacting Getty. I'm ok letting that play out in whatever way Oscar thinks is appropriate. I started this discussion only to help me decide if I had actually done anything wrong so I could determine if I should continue operating the website. If I have to license all the puzzle images or fight trolls very often I could never sell enough to make it profitable.

14

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A puzzling situation

« on: June 21, 2012, 12:16:25 AM »

I think my explanation confused the issue, so let me try again.

I'm not creating jigsaw puzzles, I'm just a retailer. I buy puzzles from the manufacturers and sell them on my website. The products are already licensed with Getty (or whoever). The manufacturers include the licensed image on the front of the box as a guide to assemble the puzzle. I show an image of that box so customers can see what they're buying. The fact that I received Getty's extortion letter suggests that I need to license the images for an already licensed product.  Can that possibly be true?

15

Getty Images Letter Forum / A puzzling situation

« on: June 19, 2012, 06:50:17 PM »

I received my Getty letter last month demanding over $10,000. A quick search on "Getty extortion" led me to ELI where a couple days of reading convinced me that I don't have the personality or patience to effectively deal with these people. So it was an easy decision to pay for the ELI Defense Letter Program. No regrets.

But now, after lots of reading here and elsewhere, I find that I'm still not convinced there was any copyright infringement in my case. I'm hoping some discussion here will help me decide whether I can continue to run the website or shut it down.


Here's the situation. My website sells jigsaw puzzles. The manufacturers license the images for use on their puzzles and I receive the images from them or scan the puzzle boxes and display those images so potential customers can see what the puzzles look like when assembled.

The manufacturers I've talked with tell me I'm doing nothing wrong. In fact, the manufacturer of the puzzles with images referenced in my extortion letter says he talked to Getty and was told there was not a problem as long as I show the entire box - which I did in most of the images that they complained about.

I keep reading about the first sale doctrine which convinces me that I have a legal right to sell these puzzles, but then I have to ask if that also gives me the right to display the images on my website.

I have no problem letting the Defense Letter Program take care of the current issue, but I need to understand how to go forward. If Getty is right then most every puzzle would be an infringement. If they're wrong then I need to start working on a response to future extortion letters.

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.