Messages

1246

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Ongoing List of Copyright Trolling Firms and those associated with them

« on: December 05, 2012, 03:01:39 PM »

Somehow I've missed adding Heather Park to my little list, she's a paralegal that works for Timothy The Copyright Cow McCormack...something tells me we'll be hearing more about Heather in the very near future...

1247

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Client received letter; Join Defense Letter Program on their behalf?

« on: December 04, 2012, 05:25:31 PM »

Hey Frustrated!

Chance are very good that they will NEVER file suit over 1 image..so the "settlement" amount is a moot point..chances are you will pay oscar and that is all..Getty gets nada and they can't harass you.. In my case I hired Oscar and getty did come back with a "reduced" amount to settle, which i promptly turned down..never heard from them again....you're in good hands with Oscar

1248

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Do the photographers know this is happening?

« on: December 04, 2012, 02:14:01 PM »

Truth of the matter is most "seasoned professional" photographers are fully aware and have no problem with what Getty Images does.. Photographers that work in "stock photo" circles aren't making any money, because of micro-stock and the simple fact that everybody and their grandmother has a digital camera. It's my belief ( being a photographer myself) that a good majority of getty "contributors" are pro photographers anyway, most of them left the likes of Getty, because Getty likes to change the rules on a whim and pretty much shaft them.. At one time stock photography was a lucrative business, now not so much...hence we trolls.

1249

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Client received letter; Join Defense Letter Program on their behalf?

« on: December 04, 2012, 02:08:39 PM »

Kudo's to FD for doing he right thing and standing up for his/her client..

1250

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Another Newby Masterfile

« on: December 04, 2012, 02:06:13 PM »

So the update is that I received a phone message out of the blue from Geoffrey Beal yesterday, stating that they have reduced my fee to $500.  Not good enough.  Unless it is reduced to $0, I will be contacting Oscar and he can add this to the list of lost cases to go along with the $6 million dollar case.

Further proof that even Masterfile themselves know full well the image is worth next to nothing..stand your ground..and i wouldn't take any calls from them, but do indeed keep the messages, just in case it gets out of hand..

1251

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Another case of a fearful Getty Victim

« on: December 02, 2012, 05:11:26 PM »

Sure thing Greg, it's a group thatI somehow adopted as my own, feel free to join the festivities!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/39084563537/

1252

Getty Images Letter Forum / Another case of a fearful Getty Victim

« on: December 02, 2012, 12:00:50 PM »

It amazes me how many people are paralyzed by fear and try to hide or ignore the threats getty Images and Timothy B. McCormack make.. below is a portion of an  exchange I had with a couple of people on the Facebook Getty Group page (not the ELI page)..

Julia Carpenter: I talked to an attorney and was advised if you "did not" use the photo they claim, you have a case for a harassment suit. Small business can't afford lawyers and lawsuits, so his advise was to simply write McKormack and inform them that they are in the wrong, and guilty of harassment, or just ignore them and see what happens. If they take you to court and you did not use their photo they will owe you instead plus all your court costs.

Robert Sloopy Krausankas: Just because you MAY have an harassment case, doesn't mean you WILL WIN , question is are you willing to shell out the money to find out, there are no absolutes and your attorney should have advised this as well. 1 or 2 letters from McCormack would hardly be harassment.

Julia Carpenter: Personally, I would not waste my money on a lawsuit. (Maybe I should have explained it better). But, in the event they ever get brazen enough to take someone to court, you can use this (wrongful harassment) as a counter-suit. Has anyone ever contacted ABC news to investigate Getty
Images and their attorneys???

Robert Sloopy Krausankas: ABC news and all the other large media companies are in bed with Getty images, unfortunately . I personally love counter suits, but Getty won't file for 1 or 2 images

Julia Carpenter: Well, guess what. A couple of hours ago I received a second letter from McCormack demanding $12,974.00. What ever happened to the original $2000.00 settlement they Getty offered??? I offered a $500.00 settlement to leave me alone as I only made $118.00 profit on my product. Getty would never answer back. Should I just keep ignoring them. They would have to travel more than 300 miles to file in my county.

Robert Sloopy Krausankas I not going to suggest ignoring them or not, but I do want to invite you to share this letter with us at extortionletterinfo.com, as we would love to add this to our library and report on it publicly. We would redact all of your info, website etc..13k is an outrageous amount for a single image, we would tear McCoramck art at ELI over this.

This was back on Nov. 16, she gets a letter from Seattle Attorney Timothy B. McCormack "The Honest" attorney demanding  $12,974.00 and she does nothing about it, she ought to be screaming from the roof tops for gods sake...but nope she just lets it continue to wreak havoc on her nerves..

1253

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: I don't think the Getty case stands up technically

« on: December 02, 2012, 11:40:18 AM »

Agreed a screen shot or printed page from the actual site with the image on it does not prove infringement.

a. it could be fabricated.
b. just beacuae an image "appears" on a page means nothing.. in other words you will see many , many, images here on the forum, not one of them is actually hosted here..The only way to determine that is via the source code.

Also agreed you energies would be better used, making Getty Images know you're not going to roll over and having them leave you alone..

1254

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Client received letter demanding $15,000 for single image usage. How to respond?

« on: December 02, 2012, 07:13:06 AM »

Ed Greenberg of New York is looking for more attention? As if he didn't get enough the first time around.

Depending on the image used,this could be another easily won battle, i'm sure some of the news outlets that covered the last fiasco would entertain reporting on the fact that sleezebag attorney Ed Greenberg is still at it.

1255

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Client received letter demanding $15,000 for single image usage. How to respond?

« on: December 01, 2012, 06:28:47 AM »

Sounds like a Carolyn Wright (photoattorney.com) letter..please do share the lawyers name and firm name, you are not required or obligated to protect them in any way shape or form..expose them for the trolls that they are!

They would never get 15k in a court of law unless it's an image of Jimi Hendrix looking up Marilyn Monroes skirt or something, which I doubt.

1256

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: We are the latest victim of the Getty Image extortion scam

« on: November 29, 2012, 08:36:23 PM »

I did not realize having a website on the Internet would require me to get a law degree…LOL 

Again welcome to our world!

1257

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Another Newby Masterfile

« on: November 29, 2012, 07:18:04 PM »

and if they do supply registration, keep in mind they just lost a big case where the registration was thrown out as useless...

1258

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: We are the latest victim of the Getty Image extortion scam

« on: November 29, 2012, 06:23:52 PM »

JOT!!! now you've got me thinking!! and I'm starting to think you may well be onto something...2 things catch my eye...the fact you were able to track down a US based IP from picscout, could have some serious effects on the whole operation.. And the fact you mention the counter suit, we've seen this before and it certainly a good option IF they file suit, which they probably won't.. I'm curious as to what your contacts may come up with here.. I confess I know very little about the patriot act, and I don' think it's been mentioned here in the forums before...

1259

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: We are the latest victim of the Getty Image extortion scam

« on: November 29, 2012, 06:17:42 PM »

"if you jump on your neighbors wireless internet access you can be prosecuted.  The wireless is wide open with no encryption but you are in violation of using their internet.  You may also see any files and folders on their computer because they have no passwords on shared folders."

This is exactly what the P2P trolls attempt to do on a daily basis...without much success. Lets say for example I jump on my neighbors open wifi connection ( shame on him for leaving it open) and Iproceed to download 1000 songs and 2 dozen movies...who is going to get nabbed me or my neighbor??
Not me, the neighbor will be holding the bag.

Maybe i'm looking at it this way....it's a "web" server, whether it's cloud or not is irrelevant.."web" server = web accessible unless password protected. these bots do not adhere to robots.txt nor are they required to by any laws as of now..

I do agree that just because you have files / images stored in a folder for "personal use" would not be an infringement, it would be on the troll to "prove" this, if the files are just there & "orphaned" without any way to get to them thru the normal use of a browser, the troll would be in a bad situation. I have yet to see a letter with an image that was not "on a page" and accessible thru normal channels..

I don't know where to draw the line, and I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, and maybe someday the laws will be changed to be accurate and fair..

1260

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Another Newby Masterfile

« on: November 29, 2012, 05:56:48 PM »

Don't sweat the "deadline" date, it's part of their fear tactics, Stinger give good advice and is spot on on all points.  Yes this is a time suck and there is plenty to learn, just keep in mind the positive side to all of this..you'll get an education, hang out with great people, and maybe even be able to help others going forward..not to mention the beating back of dirt bag copyright trolls..