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Getty Images Letter Forum / Is this sound legal advice?
« on: July 29, 2008, 03:31:10 PM »
Well, like the hundreds and thousands of the other unfortunate ones - my business also received "the letter."
I'm a sole proprietor of a small web design/development business. When I originally created our website about 3 or 4 years ago, I used a photo that I found on a free stock site. Like most folks in this situation, I can't remember for the life of me where exactly I got the photo at - but I KNOW it wasn't from Getty since I've never even heard of these guys until I received their letter yesterday and I would never, ever, ever knowingly steal anything. The photo was used on a page that's pretty well hidden within the site - like 3 or 4 page tiers in.
So, here we are, 3 or 4 years later, and I get the letter from Getty. I immediately remove the image from the site to avoid any further hassle or issues while I have time to research the situation to see what may be going on. Upon removing the photo, I notice that the version of the photo on the Getty site is a bit different than the photo we had on our site. Just thought it was interesting. Did a quick search in Google and found that quite a few other sites are also using the same version of the photo as we were using - not the version on Getty's site. I'm aware this probably doesn't mean much, just found it interesting.
After finding this site and a handful of other sites about this situation, I decided there's no way on God's green earth that I'm paying Getty a single penny. I was even going to contact Getty to offer to pay for their stock photo in good faith just to avoid hassle - but now I see how many hundreds of people have attempted that, amongst many other things, and Getty just doesn't care. This is completely ridiculous.
As far as I'm concerned - if Getty can't prove to me that they legally and rightfully own that photo (either outright or by rights transfer/permission from the original photographer), and that the photo has NEVER been available for sale or for free on any other website since the photo was created - I have no reason to take them seriously and believe that what they're telling me is true.
Our lawyers advised me to: 1) not pay them a cent, 2) ignore their communication and don't participate in it whatsoever, and 3) to file a complaint with the attorney general.
My question to Oscar (HUGE thanks to you, sir, for helping all of us out through this situation) is if it would be a smart move to contact the attorney general? If so, would I contact my state's AG or Washington's AG where Getty is located?
What do you recommend for the folks who Getty turned over to debt collection agencies? I know that I for one have worked SO incredibly hard at building and maintaining excellent credit - just the thought of something so ridiculous tainting it is sickening.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts. Best of luck to us all!
I'm a sole proprietor of a small web design/development business. When I originally created our website about 3 or 4 years ago, I used a photo that I found on a free stock site. Like most folks in this situation, I can't remember for the life of me where exactly I got the photo at - but I KNOW it wasn't from Getty since I've never even heard of these guys until I received their letter yesterday and I would never, ever, ever knowingly steal anything. The photo was used on a page that's pretty well hidden within the site - like 3 or 4 page tiers in.
So, here we are, 3 or 4 years later, and I get the letter from Getty. I immediately remove the image from the site to avoid any further hassle or issues while I have time to research the situation to see what may be going on. Upon removing the photo, I notice that the version of the photo on the Getty site is a bit different than the photo we had on our site. Just thought it was interesting. Did a quick search in Google and found that quite a few other sites are also using the same version of the photo as we were using - not the version on Getty's site. I'm aware this probably doesn't mean much, just found it interesting.
After finding this site and a handful of other sites about this situation, I decided there's no way on God's green earth that I'm paying Getty a single penny. I was even going to contact Getty to offer to pay for their stock photo in good faith just to avoid hassle - but now I see how many hundreds of people have attempted that, amongst many other things, and Getty just doesn't care. This is completely ridiculous.
As far as I'm concerned - if Getty can't prove to me that they legally and rightfully own that photo (either outright or by rights transfer/permission from the original photographer), and that the photo has NEVER been available for sale or for free on any other website since the photo was created - I have no reason to take them seriously and believe that what they're telling me is true.
Our lawyers advised me to: 1) not pay them a cent, 2) ignore their communication and don't participate in it whatsoever, and 3) to file a complaint with the attorney general.
My question to Oscar (HUGE thanks to you, sir, for helping all of us out through this situation) is if it would be a smart move to contact the attorney general? If so, would I contact my state's AG or Washington's AG where Getty is located?
What do you recommend for the folks who Getty turned over to debt collection agencies? I know that I for one have worked SO incredibly hard at building and maintaining excellent credit - just the thought of something so ridiculous tainting it is sickening.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts. Best of luck to us all!