Messages

166

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Lisa Willmer, Senior Director, Corporate Counsel at Getty Images

« on: October 08, 2012, 05:00:44 PM »

Peeved, having been happily married to one for close to 45 years now, I admit to my preference for a woman whose eyes can become squinted and a bit more than slightly crazed on those extremely rare occasions when she feels I'm right and she's wrong!

167

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Lisa Willmer, Senior Director, Corporate Counsel at Getty Images

« on: October 08, 2012, 02:54:38 PM »

Given the trolls' intelligent use of fear and how they use fear to manipulate humans into paying absurd amounts of money for alleged infringements of images that can be licensed all over the web for free or for less than the cost of a pair of cheap cotton shoe laces, I think it's entirely appropriate to categorize these reptile-brained creatures as "copyright terrorists."

168

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copyright Infringement Letter from a Getty contributor

« on: October 06, 2012, 10:57:53 AM »

And once Getty "escalates" to their legal department (ie, collection agent and copyright trolling lawyer Timothy B. McCormack and one of his paralegal trolls like Ashanti A. Taylor) that "legal department" will threaten a couple of times and then tell you that they're recommending "litigation" to Getty Images. So it's all a game that you don't even have to play, especially since you were contacted by email.

If legit, this looks to me like it's just a delusional photographer who wants to get into the trolling biz to make a few easy bucks. And he's too lazy to do it right by having a lawyer prepare a professional letter that provides his proof to ask for money. And the odds of him having any proof, like a legitimate copyright registration, are slim to none, IMO.

169

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Lisa Willmer, Senior Director, Corporate Counsel at Getty Images

« on: October 05, 2012, 08:50:54 AM »

I bet a dime to a doughnut that Peeved's lovely eyes would look a lot better in that burka than Ms. Willmer's, which, frankly, are downright spine tingling scary in this garment.

170

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Texas News Story On Copyright Trolls, Scott Noll / KHOU 11 News

« on: October 05, 2012, 08:46:56 AM »

I wonder why there are so many more stories about porn trolls than there are about image trolls? Actually, I guess I know the answer. Media companies use Getty Images and want to maintain good relations with the corporation; the opposite attitude beams from big media regarding those who create, distribute, and/or watch porn. Porn has such a bad name that most people would at least publicly say that anyone associating with pornography deserves fines and/or time in the slammer.

I'd love to see comparison figures on the kind of money porn (c) trolls and image (c) trolls are bringing in. I suspect the image trolls might be extracting more.

171

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Lisa Willmer, Senior Director, Corporate Counsel at Getty Images

« on: October 02, 2012, 11:12:57 AM »

It's weird but every photo I've seen of the copyright trolls reveals a man or woman with crazed looking eyes and the sort of anticipatory smiles found on barracudas or piranhas or other carnivorous fish with sharp teeth and ravenous appetites.

172

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Japan: Up to 10 years in prison for uploading; 2 years for just downloading

« on: October 01, 2012, 07:36:37 PM »

Too bad the Japanese government is legislating against kids downloading music while close to ignoring the tremendously dangerous Fukushima nuclear plant problems that literally threaten the entire globe.

Once again, as we see so often in the U.S., governments pass laws to take care of corporations instead of people.

173

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Received second notice last month and asking for input on my response.

« on: September 30, 2012, 04:49:31 PM »

They have a way of timing so just when you think they're done messing with you another letter shows up. I suspect this is due more to sending out zillions of letters than anything psychologically set up for optimal fear tactics. So, no, I don't think they've forgotten about you... at least not until you've had a couple rounds of letters demanding even more money from an outside counsel collection agent like copyright troll Timothy B. McCormack or his paralegal Ashanti A. Taylor.

If any of these trolls can't or won't provide proof of a right to demand money, then the whole deal is nothing but a payment extraction scheme, and you have no reason to fear them or respond to them.

174

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: New wording and interface on Getty's site

« on: September 29, 2012, 12:08:53 PM »

Ian, that post wasn't too long at all. It made for very good reading, as did SG's comments. Good stuff, both of you. Thanks.

For me, all of the hoops that Getty makes people jump through to license one of their images reveals the depths of their greed, as well as their lack of understanding of the Internet. They're going to complicate themselves right out of business one of these days with their various payment extraction models, and that will be a happy day for the world wide web.

175

Legal Controversies Forum / Fair Use?

« on: September 28, 2012, 11:44:34 AM »

Out of curiosity this morning I tracked down literally hundreds of uses of a single frame image lifted apparently from one of the Batman movies, and that tracking led me to this page...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bat-signal_1989_film.jpg

... where there's interesting reading material regarding fair use.

I may have been reading too quickly, but near as I can tell the above page gives no definitive answer as to whether an image taken from a single frame of a movie could be copyright troll material.

Thoughts on this?

176

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Is the domain owner liable or the company represented on the domain?

« on: September 23, 2012, 04:44:14 PM »

Greg, thanks for the link to that 2009 article, which made for good reading. I admit to gagging when I read the last few sentences:

Getty's [Corporate Counsel Lisa] Willmer said it's a full-time job keeping up with copyright infringement in the age of the Internet.

"I liken it to the game Whac-A-Mole," she said.

That sentence reveals a great deal about lawyers like Lisa Willmer who profit so mightily from sending out threatening letters citing copyright statutes that are no longer fair or relevant in a digital world with an internet that contained over 40 BILLION images way back in 2008.

177

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty images Demand Letter and ELI search story

« on: September 21, 2012, 06:21:17 PM »

Nice. I really like that music!

178

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copyright Defense League Recruiting Extortionist Lawyers

« on: September 20, 2012, 09:54:08 AM »

Man, the greedy bastards that buy up tax liens on homes "owned" by people who can't afford to pay the property taxes because they're out of work because other greedy bastards who extract most of the money in this country with everything from copyright trolling to outsourcing jobs to desperately poor Third World people who'll work for a dime an hour, these tax lien buying bastards who then pay 1-3% for an entire family's home (while putting that family out on the street) so they can "earn" 10% from the greedy bank bastards who are propped up by the greedy politician bastards in Washington in whose pockets they reside just plain make me crazier than a bat hanging upside down in a Tijuana outhouse.

I am so sick of all these freaking monsters for whom life is nothing but a constant quest to extract money without doing a flea's lick worth of honest or meaningful work...

End of rant. I need to puke.

179

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ELI Copyright Extortionists Chart

« on: September 18, 2012, 03:10:20 PM »

Peeved, a classic contribution. Thank you!

180

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ELI Factor - Oscar, Robert & Matthew Threesome!

« on: September 18, 2012, 09:50:12 AM »

Matt, you weren't off track at all with your informative and interesting post. Thanks for the good update and explanations.