Messages

1231

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Do I have to prove innocence? Interesting spot with Getty.

« on: July 30, 2012, 08:13:24 AM »

I concur with Robert and SG that if no proof is provided then I would not pay them. I think we would all like to see this correspondence, if you can email it to Robert or Matthew they will redact all personal information from the letter.

1232

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: July 30, 2012, 08:03:57 AM »

Now that you mention it I think you are right about the 3 months to register your works which meant from the date of that letter they had 12 business days to get it done before their 3 months expired and my demand letter outlining my campaign against Mr. Bieker and Getty was sent after the deadline had just passed.

1233

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: July 29, 2012, 11:02:01 PM »

@lucia,

They did not and this is my fault. I recently purchased DragonDictate and am in the process of training it and it confused the our with are and I just did not notice it before I posted the message. Thanks for catching that and letting me know, I will correct it in the original message.

1234

P2P/BitTorrent Lawsuits Forum / Re: Another Small Victory in the Malibu Media Lawsuits

« on: July 29, 2012, 10:29:19 PM »

I agree and it certainly makes me happy to see more and more of this type of thing happening. I hope that the judges make it so hard for the trolls that they won't try this crap anymore and let the courts deal with legitimate cases of willful copyright infringement as it should be.

we've been seeing more of this as of late, I agree with Matthew that it is not the intent of the trolls to follow thru on these suits, but to use them as leverage to obtain names and then settle quickly. Most certainly a huge blow to their scheme. It really boils down abuse of the system.

1235

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: July 29, 2012, 10:20:39 PM »

While talking on the phone tonight with Robert discussing the Atty. Gen. complaints one of the things I mentioned was Getty's response always seem to be just a modified form letter. When the complainant mention that Getty had never provided proof the stock answer was always that there was a confidentiality agreement between Getty and the artist so they would not provide the requested proof, however they would provide an affidavit as to the contract. I had noticed this while reviewing the complaints and told Robert it would be very interesting to see how Getty replied to my complaint as I have a local attorney working with me who knows he is mainly here for backup in case Getty is foolish enough to attempt a lawsuit and I wanted to handle the main part myself. My lawyer did send Getty a letter letting them know I had contacted him and he was monitoring my case, he also let them know that they needed to provide proof of their claim before there could be any more negotiation towards a settlement. Where this becomes interesting is he told Getty that if there is any confidential information within the proof requested we would both be willing to sign confidentiality agreements promising not to discuss any part of the agreement other than with Getty in resolving the claim. Getty's response to this for the most part was their same old song and dance stating that they would not provide the requested articles in less it was through discovery but where it differs from the norm and Robert said he had not heard this in a Getty letter before was and I quote:

"To provide this information before hand would take additional time as well as additional costs. Our settlements are set up to quickly close unauthorized use cases. If cases were to go to legal proceedings, our represented photographer would have a registration prior to filing."

This letter was also from my good Getty penpal Douglas Bieker who is basically saying that it just takes too much time and expense to point and click print to include the requested documentation. Also I'm not sure what to make of the part where it says "if cases were to go to legal proceedings, are represented photographer would have a registration prior to filing" which to me sounds like they are saying that either the photographer doesn't currently have one or may not have one but would file one prior to a lawsuit.

I am not sure as I am certainly not a legal expert by any means but I am curious if this was a slip on Mr. Bieker's part basically admitting that they are pursuing exorbitant damages on works they know are not even registered. This may be similar to the statement copyright compliance specialist Nancy Monson made when she stated that Getty does not even require their artists to register their works with the copyright office.

I would appreciate any thoughts and comments you may have on this and I will post this response on Scribd for you to view if you wish at the link below.

https://www.scribd.com/collections/3777294/Correspondence-with-Getty

Thanks!

1236

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ELI Factor: Episode 1 Premieres!

« on: July 29, 2012, 09:13:03 PM »

That would be another great one to have an he might actually do it since he was willing to come and somewhat answer questions on the forum. You are right there is definitely a lot of good possibilities out there and it will certainly be interesting to see how many of them will actually be willing to sit down and talk.

I think I'd need a warm-up interview first...maybe Glen Carner would do one with me..we do have this long lost connection.

1237

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ELI Factor: Episode 1 Premieres!

« on: July 29, 2012, 09:06:12 PM »

Robert, since you are now are official ELI reporter and can use the ELI name I think you should call up Getty images and see if you can do an interview with Jonathan Klein. Even better it should be a video interview over Skype or oovoo as it would be priceless to see the look on his face before he breaks connection when you say this is Robert Krausankas from ELI

1238

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: July 29, 2012, 08:59:43 PM »

I got this e-mail from the Washington State Atty. Gen.'s office and it is basically an acknowledgment they have received my complaint but one of the things I noticed it says that they are experiencing increased volume of complaints which will result in a longer processing time. Hopefully some of this increase is all pointing towards Getty images in my Getty pen pal Douglas Bieker. Below is the e-mail I received.

Gregory,

Thank you for submitting a complaint to the Office of the Attorney General. Your complaint is very important to us and we have assigned it to a consumer resource center specialist.  Due to the volume and complexity of complaints made to our office, normal complaint processing time is approximately 4 weeks.  We are currently experiencing an increase of incoming complaints which may result in a longer processing time.  We apologize for the delay and thank you very much for your patience.

Please do not respond to this email address.  The mailbox is not monitored.  If you have questions, please contact our Consumer Resource Center at 1-800-551-4636.

1239

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images and Complaints filed with the Washington State Attorney General

« on: July 28, 2012, 06:12:20 PM »

Sir, I shall provide you with a screenshot of a keyboard and if you require further proof a link to a website that contains a picture of the keyboard will be provided as proof. As you know the seller/purchaser confidentiality agreement forbids me from providing a receipt at this time, a receipt would only be provided through the process of discovery.

You were previously notified of your causing of the unauthorized wasting of diet ginger ale causing the said keyboard to become sticky. If full payment is not received within 14 days this case may be escalated to Canada Dry.

If after settlement you would like to use the sticky keyboard, our Keyboard Compliance Team would be happy to mail it to you for a slight additional charge.

You own me a keyboard from the diet gingerale I spit all over it laughing

Please supply a receipt for said keyboard, credit card statement showing the charge, and proof that this keyboard is indeed being used by you exclusively on this particular machine....or you can pound sand!

1240

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images and Complaints filed with the Washington State Attorney General

« on: July 28, 2012, 05:49:46 PM »

You own me a keyboard from the diet gingerale I spit all over it laughing

Greg Troy:
"Still, I'd like to try, with your permission. I'll send a letter a week. They can't ignore me forever."

Matt Chan:
They sure can, but you write your    letters if it makes you happy. I'll even mail 'em for you, how's that?

1241

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ELI Factor: Episode 1 Premieres!

« on: July 28, 2012, 02:07:59 PM »

Not going to happen Ms. Peeved.

So when do we get to see Greg in his costume singing the DMCA song?

 

1242

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images and Complaints filed with the Washington State Attorney General

« on: July 28, 2012, 02:06:39 PM »

The secondary and tertiary benefits is that there is a governmental agency that makes it their business to preserve and report any and all complaints to anyone that asks however minute.  They don't make judgment on the complaints.  That means the complainer has to get smart.  For me, I should probably modify the advice given to make a complaint to list INDIVIDUALS involved.

I agree with this 100% and have seen your letters on Scribd and that is why in all my complaint letters I am complaining against Getty Compliance Specialist Douglas Bieker as well as Getty Images for harassment, extortion and unethical business practices.  Phase two of my campaign will also work on increasing Mr. Bieker’s Google presence and when done will ask Robert to do a Google search video of him.  I have been able to collect a little background on our Mr. Bieker.

One thing I like about Greg Troy's recent effort to fight Getty is that he appears to get the commitment to the goal. Personally, I think it is a bit overkill given what we know of how Getty operates but no one can say he isn't hitting back hard.


Thank you Matthew, I am defiantly committed, but I would disagree about the overkill part and here is my thought process, feel free to add additional comments or disagree.  If I handle responding to complaints at Getty and I see a BBB complaint come in I think no big deal we see them all the time, I see an AG complaint from the same person followed by an FTC complaint followed by letters from a congressman and senator I might think this case is just not worth the time-suck and trouble this guy is putting me, our compliance specialist and company, especially since they know I have screenshots of where the image came from and it clearly appears to belong to someone else offered up in a public directory which makes it a de minimis case at best.

Actually phase two of my campaign in addition to follow up letters will involve making a call to someone I have done work for and become friends with who is the head of a major federal government agency.  I am going to ask this person since they deal with congressman, senators and the executive office every week if they know of or can find me the right person or committee that would handle/investigate my complaint, along with all the others so thoughtfully provided by Robert and get me a number or way of getting it to them without having to fight through the 7 levels of buffer secretaries and staff that protect them.


For many people, it isn't the instrument.  It is what you are willing to do with that instrument and how hard and blunt you will use it to create maximum damage.  Please don't take this out of context. I don't subscribe to violence and I don't subscribe to making up fiction. Don't make threats/bluffs you can't keep. But do be committed to doing what it takes in making a powerful written complaint.

Agreed if you tell Getty or anyone you are going to do something you better follow through with it or you lose all credibility and just become a blowhard.  Getty is now realizing I meant everything I said and hopefully Mr. Bieker is getting a bit of the cringe factor. 

Regarding State Bar complaints, I told everyone that the chances of an attorney being disbarred over extortion letters is very slim.  However, state bar complaints are rare because most people don't even know there is such a thing.  State bar complaints hurt the pride and embarrass the attorney more than anything else.  Any attorney that has any pride or care about their reputation will absolutely pay attention to state bar complaints no matter how trivial it might be.

As far as I can tell, it becomes a part of their permanent record and is an ongoing reminder to watch how attorneys conduct themselves. I guarantee you Timmy McCormack is much more aware and has a tighter leash on his paralegals than before.

Got these letters ready to print and I am waiting for Timmy or one of his paralegals to send me a letter and these will go out to everyone I have already sent letters to plus the bar associations of Washington State, Oregon and Idaho.  They go out even if it comes from a paralegal as it is from his office and should not have gone out without Timmy’s knowledge or approval so as far as I am concerned a letter from his paralegals is a letter from him.

1243

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images and Complaints filed with the Washington State Attorney General

« on: July 28, 2012, 10:58:01 AM »

The AG’s office states on their website that they cannot act as your personal attorney or make Getty do anything for you as an individual but if a pattern emerges they may take action and investigate.  I think we have a pattern here and they may have just never put it all together before until Robert asked for the entire complaint file, I was talking to Robert last night and he was thinking the same thing and hope maybe the girl that compiled the report saw it and forwarded it upstairs.  It sounds like it might not have all been in one place as it took a couple of months. 

I will be contacted soon by the AG’s office and assigned a person to work with me on my complaint, once that is done I will present them with the “Pattern” as I see it in these complaints and request that an investigation be launched not for me but for the pattern shown in these 1200+ pages.

I will be happy to do this and was planning on it anyway when contacted.  I will let everyone know how it goes and what they say.  It may end up being a case where we need an ELI letter campaign asking for an investigation too.

1244

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images and Complaints filed with the Washington State Attorney General

« on: July 27, 2012, 10:00:35 PM »

Agreed, there are a lot of enlightening complaints I also find it interesting the number of them I have seen that reference back to ELI. I really should be working on estimates right now but I just find this so darn interesting I can't seem to get away from it

There are certainly some enlightening and entertaining complaints here. I suspect there will be enough fodder to comment on for weeks if not months... Just so happens I have some spare to dedicate to this.

1245

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images and Complaints filed with the Washington State Attorney General

« on: July 27, 2012, 09:26:13 PM »

I think you're right Robert that it would end up being a he said she said, this also might be why Timmy got his panties in such a wad back over that whole recording a phone call thread. I can certainly see why Timmy would not want the phone calls coming out of his office recorded besides the well-known fact of how nasty his paralegals can be but he certainly would not want a recording of his paralegals practicing law without a license.

I think the main issue with this, is the fact that it is a telephone call, and would end up being a he said / she said thing...now if we were to get a letter where a paralegal does this, or better yet states somthing that translates into practicing law...that would a different story entirely....

Lots to go thru to say the least!

Hey guys I just found something very interesting in the first file that Robert has so graciously made available to us. When opened it is on page 114 of 233 and halfway down the letter in the paragraph starting on March 22, 2012 it states that the complainant Ms. Donna Misra after receiving a letter from Timothy McCormack she called his office to speak with him and ended up speaking with paralegal Susan Klatt. She states that Ms. Klatt demanded payment and also states and I quote "she threatened to file a lawsuit". Please correct me if I am wrong but that is a major no-no as a paralegal cannot threaten to sue on behalf of of the law offices they work for.

Perhaps Ms. Misra should be added to our possible contact list as to me this looks like one that should go to the Wyoming, Oregon and Idaho State Bar associations against Timmy.

I will continue to post things of interest as I find them especially for possible follow-up contact with the complainant.