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Getty Images Letter Forum / One more letter from Getty, and I'll use the media!

« on: April 26, 2011, 05:27:25 AM »

I have received 2 letters so far. All in English, so I did not answer. I expect a third letter soon, but as long it is not sent registered mail, I won't reply. I am not supposed to understand English as we live in Belgium.
Once the third letter arrives, and if they send it registered, I will require a normal settlement for one picture, € 100, not a dime more. Besides, I have picked up the picture on a Romanian public FTP server, and it was impossible to know, that the picture was copyright protected.
I'm sure, GI will not let me go and won't be happy with the € 100. But I am planning to write them that if they don't agree, I will go to the national media. We have a television program called 'opgelicht' "= scammed", where the television program makers will visit GI and ask more information. The whole case will be published on TV and their name will be known to the public here.

In my case, I have made a computer screen video where you can see how I browsed to the public FTP server in Romania, where you can see the timestamp of the picture is older than the timestamp of the letter of GI. In the same video, I opened a DOS box with a DNS lookup for the romanian website and the traceroute from here to the server.
So how can someone know if the picture was copyright protected if you pick it from another server than the one of GI?

It is time that extortion and scams at this levels should be halted.

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Getty Images Letter Forum / Ignoring GI

« on: April 18, 2011, 05:11:00 PM »

Ignoring their letters is one of the available options.
I think of their scam as follows. In worst case scenario (it get's into court), just tell the judge their proof is faked.
If the picture(s) have been removed, why bother.
If 100 or 1000 people group together and we all claim the same, their proof stands nowhere.

What's your reason for ignoring them?

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Getty Images Letter Forum / Got 2 letters (Belgium) - picture originates from romanian FTP server

« on: April 12, 2011, 09:23:47 AM »

Got a letter about 3 months ago in English. Used the letters as toilet paper, but it felt a little hard

Never replied and got a second nice letter claiming their € 1000 over. I have no intention to reply. Even when they send letters with lawyers or whatever.
The targeted picture is freely available (still today) on a Romanian FTP server. And that's where I got the picture from... So why would I bother.
Besides, their letters are in English and in my area, we are only supposed to understand either Dutch or French. English is not my mother tongue, so I even don't bother.
The targeted website is not even built by myself and in the reliability and privacy policy, you can clearly read that all reliability regarding the building and copyright lies within the company who made the website. I just hire the website from them. If they have a problem, they can go to Thailand, where the company is located. I think the Thai's will make a laugh with the matter.
Another thing, I have made exactly the same picture with my own camera and replaced after the first letter the picture they claim. You need to be an expert to be able to see the difference.
As the guy in the picture (the mouth and neck) and my neck and mouth is identical, maybe I should claim them 10.000 euro to use my picture. If they scam me, I can scam them back if it goes into court.

Anyway. Good luck to all. If I have more news on the case, I'll let you know.

If they would be reasonable, I would say yes, but who are they... G I to claim the price they claim. Did they sell this image. If yes, then they will have to proof it. If not, they have no foot to stand on.
I'll be happy to see them in court for this minor amount. I'll just come with my 10.000 euro claim or maybe I should make it 25.000 when we see each other in court. That's the price of using my image and making it for sale....