Messages

256

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Collection phone calls from collection lawyers

« on: June 21, 2012, 06:49:56 AM »

My situation is with HAN. They sent me the copyright # and a signed copy from the artist giving them rights. But.. It seems like everyone on the forum has the same copyright reg # as the photo in question on my site. Is there a way to find out if the photo is actually included in the mass copyright? I suppose I should ask them to prove to me that the photo is indeed included?

Activated, it wouldn't hurt to ask, but they may take a page from Getty's book and respond that they will do so during discovery if they're "forced" to drag you into a court to extort money from you.

The only place I've seen a detailed description of the contents of one of VKT's collections is from an actual lawsuit filed in California. Matthew Chan placed it on Scribd some time ago. The list of the contents of the "Hawaii 2000" collection starts on page 10 of this document:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/92173102/Hawaiian-Art-Network-vs-The-Scott-Complaint

Oscar mentioned the questions that have been raised about the bulk registrations' validity or lack thereof. When the Ninth Circuit decides on the issue, and if they continue the present trend invalidating these ridiculous mass registrations, you will have been granted a legal pass on any claim for statutory damages.

Thousands of wallpaper sites seeding the images followed by hundreds of images registered under one number. Not only does VKT's trolling appear to be sloppy and lazy, it appears to be so in a grand scale.

257

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Copyright Services International / HAN Case

« on: June 21, 2012, 06:32:21 AM »

One things for sure, Moe, we know his name wasn't "Eli."

It sure wasn't "Moe"!

258

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A puzzling situation

« on: June 21, 2012, 05:49:57 AM »

I don't see how the liability could extend to you. Did the manufacturer get a cease-and-desist letter or an extortion letter? If they infringed on a Getty image and that got you in trouble because you published the image, you have the recourse of making a claim against the manufacturer.

This would be an ugly precedent. Is Amazon or any such outlet liable for a third party infringement? I found a HAN/VKT picture on a puzzle on the Italian version of eBay. The image is definitely one of the images they are attempting to extort people for. Maybe the difference is scale? So far they haven't shown the stones to go after a company like eBay, but they seem to love clubbing small businesses like baby seals.

This is the Italian eBay puzzle I'm referring to:

http://www.ebay.it/itm/PUZZLE-1500-PZ-CLEMENTONI-73193-31937-84X59-HAWAIAN-PARADISE-CASAFASHIONITALIA-/330726338079?pt=Giochi_da_Tavolo_e_Puzzle&hash=item4d00d36e1f

It's been up there for some time and they haven't sold even one. I guess VKT's cheesy Hawaii imagery isn't worth 13.50 Euros in the middle of a serious financial crisis. That much isn't puzzling at all.

259

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Copyright Services International / HAN Case

« on: June 20, 2012, 11:21:28 PM »

Aloha Moe... The screen saver of Hanauma Bay turned up on both computers after I had them worked on and windows 7 installed. They were put there by the guy I hired on Oahu to do the work. It was just a coincidence that it was the same photo as the one in question from my site!

Activated, I sent you a message with another question, please check it out by clicking the link for messages at the top right of this forum page, right under your name. I find this coincidence to be quite fascinating.

260

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Copyright Services International / HAN Case

« on: June 20, 2012, 08:20:17 PM »

Activated, was the tech guy's last name "Carner" or "Tylor"? 

261

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Collection phone calls from collection lawyers

« on: June 20, 2012, 08:15:38 PM »

Activated, that's a question I've been asking too. Your image is included in some kind of cheesy bulk registration under the title "Hawaii 2002" or something like that. How are we supposed to know a specific image is included in that registration? There are also questions about whether such a sloppy method entitles them to the full monty of copyright protection.

262

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty From Start To Finish

« on: June 19, 2012, 08:16:22 PM »

Moelle, without the information you requested from them, their letter amounts to phishing.

I would insist on the proof and ask if THEY would write a check in response to a perfectly unsubstantiated claim. You could do so in writing, in a professional tone, but be specific and firm when you make this point.

At the very least it will buy you time and make them realize you're no pushover and that you're aware of the rules of engagement.

So far this community is not aware of anyone being taken to court for an amount that small. They may try to play tough and bully you, but the reality is that it's not worth their time to go there for $950. Wouldn't that be a small claims court issue where you live?

Matthew Chan offers an orientation call for a very reasonable fee that can save you a lot of time if you're busy. I'm sure you'd rather spend time making your clients happy than dealing with posturing copyright trolls. You can read the details about that program on this page:

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/eli-phone-support-call-with-matthew-chan/

Or you could invest $195 for Oscar Michelen's defense letter program and get the trolls off your client's back. That's a lot better than $500 and has been working like a charm for many folks in this community:

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/oscar-michelens-getty-images-defense-letter-program/

Best of luck with your case and do let us know how that goes for you.

263

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images Extortion Letter with Sales Tax

« on: June 19, 2012, 07:52:00 PM »

California, wealthy? We're broke. We keep kicking the can down the road every year and producing budgets that are pure fiction. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/05/sp-issues-warning-on-california-finances.html

But we sure do get to pay a great sales tax rate: 8.25% statewide and 9.25% in Santa Monica.

OUCH. Almost double digits in Santa Monica, huh? I do realize California's pretty much broke, except "on paper".

San Diego has been nicknamed "Enron-by-the-Sea" for a decade now because our fine City Hall leadership pulled a total boner and put the city in the hole for more than two BILLION dollars by bilking the city employees' pension fund.

Kicking the can down the road is an art form perfected by San Diego since it became a City almost 100 years ago. The whole state is a total mess but of course the numbers are massaged to keep us sedated. According to KPBS, S&P is saying San Diego's happy times are here again:

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/apr/25/san-diegos-sp-credit-rating-improves/

Getting back to the original topic, I don't see how it's legal for anyone to charge sales tax for a settlement, as Oscar mentioned. It's not really a sale in the pure sense even though they require a "retroactive purchase" as part of the settlement.

Has anyone received an extortion letter in California with sales tax tacked on to the total amount? That would be worth a phone call to the State Board of Equalization's legal department to find out how legitimate such a practice would be.

264

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: UPDATED: Getty Images/Memorial Day Welcome Home surprise...

« on: June 19, 2012, 08:47:38 AM »

Soylent- I'm thinking that's the case here.  Not only did we remove the image, we completely password protected the site (since it was never a public site).  So not only can they no longer access the site, even the wayback machine internet archive can't pull up more than half of the images and pages that were on the site...that's how rarely the site was accessed by anyone.

Additionally the picture was a thumbnail, any attempt by them to provide evidence via a high res image they claim was copyrighted by them will fail.  The image on the site was no bigger than 1/2 " by 1/2 inch and was a screen cap...

I have a feeling they'll take their 100 bucks because they know it is the only offer they'll ever see from me.  But again, I'll keep everyone posted.

Loserboy, this is how you can wipe out the Wayback Machine's records of your website entirely:

http://archive.org/about/exclude.php

It may be archived elsewhere, but this is a start if you don't want any of it being recorded. Archive.org is a perfectly robots.txt-compliant crawler, unlike bandwidth-hogging server intruder PicScout.

265

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Copyright Services International / HAN Case

« on: June 19, 2012, 08:43:21 AM »

O-06 Hanauma Bay (VA0001696555) This is the copyright registration and title. You can find it quite easily by googling Hanauma Bay Oahu Free Wallpaper. Someone here found this link for me....

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbs=simg:CAQSWxpZCxCo1NgEGgQIAQgJDAsQsIynCBowCi4IARIIkASNBI8EExIaIOj-AydZo0mGxpTlpb-nd-jFXdxuCV12ZpjGhYeHv1KHDAsQjq7-CBoKCggIARIExIrV3ww&tbm=isch&q=hanauma+bay+oahu+hawaii&sa=X&ei=DDfET53BPImi8ASolvCvCw&ved=0CCcQpwUoAg&biw=1024&bih=690&sei=jB3FT9a-FKWBsgKixZDXCQ

The funny thing is that when I had my desktop computer upgraded with windows 7 it came back to me with the same photo as wallpaper and I didn't put it there! Also... same with my laptop! It was a strange coincidence. Of course they have long since been removed.

unrelated question... can someone please tell me how to take a screen shot?

31,100 results? That's all?

This happens to be one of VKT's older images. Now I'm curious about something else, Activated. Did you ever install the Webshots screensaver or any other 3rd party screensaver?

Also, do you remember where the image was stored in your computer when it mysteriously appeared as wallpaper on your desktop? Was it the Windows directory or a directory within that, or did you find it somewhere else in your hard drive?

Couch_potato, great tip for the modern PC user. A lot of people have forgotten what that key is for. I remember when "Prt Scr" would dump the 8-color screen capture on a dot-matrix printer that sounded like a gatling gun and had color ribbons like a typewriter.

266

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images Extortion Letter with Sales Tax

« on: June 19, 2012, 08:31:18 AM »

I just received another Getty extortion letter with a sales tax amount tacked on. This time it is from Colorado with a tax rate of 4% being added.

We now have a Texas letter with 8.25% sale tax and a Colorado letter with 4% sales tax.

I have a working theory of this new sales tax thing but I want to see if this is going out to most of the 50 states or not. I am not revealing my theory at this time until I have some confirmation.

There are five states that don't collect sales tax:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/states-with-no-sales-taxes-1.aspx

It must be noted that they find other, sneakier ways of collecting revenue. The other 45 are all over the place for the amount of tax imposed and the list of goods and services the tax would apply to. Colorado's rate of 4% seems pretty low compared to California and Texas, which are among the wealthiest states in the US.

267

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Ode to VKT & HAN... a poem

« on: June 19, 2012, 08:25:10 AM »

Brings a tear to one's eye. From laughter. Good one, Activated.

268

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tape Recording Conversations

« on: June 18, 2012, 10:16:44 PM »

MORE COWBELL!!

269

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Let's turn up the heat

« on: June 18, 2012, 06:50:26 PM »

You're on, Stinger! I'm taking the Copyright Troll Challenge and telling everyone who will listen about it. Thanks for the blog post, I'm doing like Buddhapi and spreading it like HAN/VKT wallpaper!

270

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A Message From KeepFighting

« on: June 18, 2012, 06:48:20 PM »

Right on, Greg and April. I'm with you. I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees.