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Getty Images Letter Forum / Asking Getty to change future communication to me - am I asking for trouble?
« on: April 18, 2012, 05:34:22 PM »
Hello all, first post here as another victim of the Getty extortion letter.
I have a similar background as most of these go, however, it’s my mom who is getting contacted for a few images found on her salon’s website. I built her a simple 7-page static website for my her beauty salon in 2004, just to give her a “presence” on the web listing her services, pricing, and contact info. She’s a one-woman small-business who owns the salon and performs all services herself – mainly skin and nail care. I’m by no means a web-designer, I’m just savvy enough to build basic pages in Dreamweaver, and found some images on the web that were good fillers for her page. “Woman on phone” and “manicure” were some of the simple images that I found, that Getty is now claiming are theirs, 8 years later. (By the way, I’ve documented other sites that these images are currently available on as well).
She got her first letter in September, and didn’t know what it was so she threw it out. Her second letter arrived in November, to which she brought to my attention. Like everyone here, I found a lot of resources online about this whole ordeal and decided that it was best to just remove the site altogether – which I did in December of 2011. I would be amazed if she gained even 5 clients from the site in the 8 years it was up, but it made my mom feel like she had “made it”, so it’s really too bad that a nice gesture on my end has to be spoiled by such a nasty, and relentless action.
That said, my question revolves around the mental agony my mom is currently going through, thinking she’s “breaking the law” and will be sued for everything she owns if she continues to ignore these letters. She just got her third letter with the “legal” document from Timothy B. McCormack, and I know the next steps will be phone calls. She is scared out of her wits, and no matter what I say to her she does not have the strength to stand up to these people and wants to investigate hiring lawyers to handle this for her.
We have not called or written Getty to date, however, now that I’m somewhat educated on the subject, I wish they were contacting ME instead of my mom. So, that’s my question. Has anyone been successful in contacting Getty on behalf of another party receiving their first communications, with the only goal being to change the focus contact point to someone else? Is this basically what Oscar’s letter does? Like all, I have no intention of paying what they are asking for and would actually welcome the chance to state my case in court.
Part of me wants to write them a scenario of the situation, ask for the licenses of the said images, and request that all future communication be sent to me. Would this work, or am I asking for trouble? Look forward to all feedback!
I have a similar background as most of these go, however, it’s my mom who is getting contacted for a few images found on her salon’s website. I built her a simple 7-page static website for my her beauty salon in 2004, just to give her a “presence” on the web listing her services, pricing, and contact info. She’s a one-woman small-business who owns the salon and performs all services herself – mainly skin and nail care. I’m by no means a web-designer, I’m just savvy enough to build basic pages in Dreamweaver, and found some images on the web that were good fillers for her page. “Woman on phone” and “manicure” were some of the simple images that I found, that Getty is now claiming are theirs, 8 years later. (By the way, I’ve documented other sites that these images are currently available on as well).
She got her first letter in September, and didn’t know what it was so she threw it out. Her second letter arrived in November, to which she brought to my attention. Like everyone here, I found a lot of resources online about this whole ordeal and decided that it was best to just remove the site altogether – which I did in December of 2011. I would be amazed if she gained even 5 clients from the site in the 8 years it was up, but it made my mom feel like she had “made it”, so it’s really too bad that a nice gesture on my end has to be spoiled by such a nasty, and relentless action.
That said, my question revolves around the mental agony my mom is currently going through, thinking she’s “breaking the law” and will be sued for everything she owns if she continues to ignore these letters. She just got her third letter with the “legal” document from Timothy B. McCormack, and I know the next steps will be phone calls. She is scared out of her wits, and no matter what I say to her she does not have the strength to stand up to these people and wants to investigate hiring lawyers to handle this for her.
We have not called or written Getty to date, however, now that I’m somewhat educated on the subject, I wish they were contacting ME instead of my mom. So, that’s my question. Has anyone been successful in contacting Getty on behalf of another party receiving their first communications, with the only goal being to change the focus contact point to someone else? Is this basically what Oscar’s letter does? Like all, I have no intention of paying what they are asking for and would actually welcome the chance to state my case in court.
Part of me wants to write them a scenario of the situation, ask for the licenses of the said images, and request that all future communication be sent to me. Would this work, or am I asking for trouble? Look forward to all feedback!