Messages

1306

P2P/BitTorrent Lawsuits Forum / Re: Another reversal for the trolls -- and they head right back for more

« on: July 17, 2012, 12:54:21 PM »

That is a good article Moe, the fact that he is openly saying he's going to continue to do it kind of boggles the mind. It will be interesting to see what happens to him when and if he does it again. Thanks for sharing the article

1307

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Anybody can sue anybody for any reason...abuse of the law is still rampant!

« on: July 16, 2012, 09:33:37 PM »

THIS!!!  This is exactly what I am talking about. I agree with Oscar about a lawyer that would bring this to court should be shamed and I still stand by making the paintiff pay if it goes against him and ruled frivolous.

BTW, thank you for sharing the article Oscar.

Any lawyer who would take a case like this needs to be publicly shamed - it's ridiculous. Last week in Nassau County where I lived, a woman filed a suit against the County for $10M because she claims that they failed to properly supervise one of their police officers allowing HER to have an affair with him! That's right - he used to go to her house during his shift and they would get it on. It came out in the papers and now she says she is traumatized because of it and they should have supervised him better so that he would not be able to do that with her. Here's the link to the story:
 
http://www.lifamilies.com/chat/topic-woman-sues-nassau-over-affair-w-cop-747452-1.html?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

1308

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: anybody actually paying Getty or Masterfile now that they've failed in court?

« on: July 16, 2012, 04:51:13 PM »

It will be interesting to see once the word starts getting out if there is a drop in payments, however I don't think we know what percentage were paying before the ruling.  As far as it goes for me, I have always felt that this is wrong and unjust and never had any intentions of paying an over inflated bill from Getty especially without proof of claim. 

1309

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Anybody can sue anybody for any reason...abuse of the law is still rampant!

« on: July 16, 2012, 01:25:01 PM »

Things like this are completely asinine, this is where I am a firm supporter and believer in changing our laws so that if you bring a lawsuit like this and as it said in the video it took the jury 15 min. to rule in the defendant's favor, the judge should be able to use discretion and label it a frivolous lawsuit and make the plaintiff pay for the four years of legal bills and compensate them for the time and stress placed on the family.

1310

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: The EFF along with others fighting for First Sale Rights at Supreme Court.

« on: July 16, 2012, 01:18:18 PM »

Good point Stinger, I agree we need to find new ways and methods in dealing with all the copyright issues in the new digital age and the companies, authors and libraries will certainly have to adapt and change with the times and find ways to thrive or they may find themselves going extinct.

What I found particularly disturbing in concerning in the article was how companies were trying to deny right of first sale rights and apply nothing is owned only leased. Thank goodness we have organizations like the EFF out there fighting for our rights!

1311

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Public Records Requests for Getty Images Update

« on: July 16, 2012, 01:05:42 PM »

I think it would actually kind of make me sad if there were a huge number of complaints because that would mean that they should know there is a problem here but I have not heard of them investigating it. But it is certainly mind-boggling as to why a simple request like this should take that long. I'm very interested to see how many complaints there actually are.

Public employees paid hourly?
But, wouldn't it be funny if the number of complaints was HUGE?

S.G.

1312

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Public Records Requests for Getty Images Update

« on: July 15, 2012, 11:24:27 PM »

Don't you feel bad now, they will probably have to put a tax levy on the ballot just to cover the postage!

1313

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Public Records Requests for Getty Images Update

« on: July 15, 2012, 06:45:44 PM »

Thanks for the update, let us know when they arrive as I would be very interested in seeing them.  I appreciate all your hard work Robert!

1314

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Saturday Silly's...

« on: July 14, 2012, 11:45:45 AM »

It always amazes me when I see things like this at the ridiculousness of some of these lawsuits but this is nothing new and we have been sliding down the slope for a long long time. Kind of side branching the original subject I can actually remember when I realized that the world was sue happy and full of nuts out to take people's and businesses hard-earned money for frivolous things. Without trying to date myself too much it was 30 years ago and I was 16 years old working a summer job at a chain hardware store. While on break I was admiring a hydraulic log splitter and thinking how nice it would be to have one of those when I noticed a warning sticker on the side of it. I realize that the sticker must've been placed there by the manufacture because some idiot had done this and most likely sued the company for not warning them about it. It was a yellow caution sticker with the standard stick figure man and said "Warning do not place head between ram and wedge is serious injury or death may result" and the sticker showed the wedge crushing the head of the stick figure man.

It amazes me that with all these frivolous lawsuits that we have not changed our laws so that if you sue someone and lose and the suit is deemed frivolous that you have to pay for the other person's legal fees and time. I think this type of thing is like trolling in reverse where people sue companies for not placing warning labels on products etc. and a lot of times companies will just pay as the amounts are small enough that it's not worth litigating.

1315

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Photographer Threatened with Lawsuit After Protecting His Copyright

« on: July 14, 2012, 11:16:20 AM »

Thanks for posting that Robert, that is a very bizarre story. It almost sounds like they were both trying to emulate Linda Ellis

After discovering that multiple websites had used one of his photos without permission, photographer Jay Lee began sending out DMCA takedown notifications to web hosts in an attempt to protect his copyright. One of the websites was owned by a woman named Candice Schwager, who had 14 of her sites temporarily taken offline as a result of the takedown request. Turns out Schwager is involved in both helping represent special needs children and helping a man named Louis Guthrie get elected as County Sheriff. This is where the story gets weird.

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/05/25/photographer-threatened-with-lawsuit-after-protecting-his-copyright/


This is the bad thing with hosting with go-daddy, they make up their own rules in regards to DMCA...

1316

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: New Topic: ELI "AfterDark"

« on: July 13, 2012, 09:34:15 AM »

Soylent you are the best   You make my day with this stuff!  Thanks!

1317

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Masterfile's Copyright Registration Method Held Invalid by California Court

« on: July 12, 2012, 08:51:14 PM »

Congratulations Oscar! Thank you for all that you do and I am so glad that you are on our side!

1318

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty and Picscout

« on: July 12, 2012, 05:49:31 PM »

Agreed SG, this has me scratching my head too. It will be interesting to see as this develops how Getty acquired the screenshot.

I did see where OP had said that the image had never been on his site and then got a little confused as I thought he'd said he had purchased the image from  istock. Either way I still would not settle for an image that never appeared on my site or for one that I licensed from another company that Getty claims exclusivity to.

I think that OP is saying that they're after him about an image that he never put on his site, let alone licensed.
I'm not sure what to make of this one.

S.G.

1319

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Masterfile Drops Case Against Photographer/Graphic Artist

« on: July 12, 2012, 05:44:15 PM »

It's nice to see you back again Oscar! I'm looking forward to seeing your posting about MasterFile!

Thanks for all the kinds word.  I do regularly tell folks that if they have one or two images they are better off putting what they would pay me into a settlement offer and trying to make MF go away for a reasonable sum. 
BTW, wait till you see the news in my next forum topic, let's just say I am not likely to  receive a Christmas card from MF this year!   

1320

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty and Picscout

« on: July 12, 2012, 05:39:51 PM »

If you licensed these images from istock and have copies of your paperwork for the image in question I don't think you really have anything to worry about then.

The site was built in 2008...so no, there is no place holder here.  I am wondering, is picscout really reliable ?  Could they bring that up in court ?

Strange, moreover, we gave them (getty) proof of buying all the images from istock photo, we sent them the bill.  No answer, just 3 months after, the NCS IP solution letter !!!