Messages

2776

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A purely hypothetical question

« on: September 02, 2011, 06:06:59 PM »

the problem here is that piscout is masking the user-agent, it just come across looking like a browser, hence blacklisting the IP range..if you know the user-agent, please do share.. I'm fairly confident that piscout won't be getting very far on my servers, between the IP block and the bot trap I have set-up

2777

Getty Images Letter Forum / I guess I'm one of them now!

« on: September 02, 2011, 12:01:46 PM »

 

Sent out my first DCMA notice today and will follow-up with a cease and desist if need be. Someone downloaded and copied a site I developed, and have it being hosted under another domain. It clearly states in my contract the I retain the copyright unless it is in writing transferring the copyright to my code and my images....at least they were nice enough to leave my copyright notice on the bottom of the page, which is clearly visable in the screen capture...

The difference between me and them is I'm not looking for any money, just removal of my hijacked work, and I have solid evidence that it belongs to me in a signed contract..

2778

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty/Picscout: The WORST COPYRIGHT INFRINGERS EVER CREATED

« on: September 01, 2011, 03:29:46 PM »

dammit SG you're a smart cookie!, talk about thinking out of the box!

There could be more to this.. they don't just download the image files, they are also saving a copy of the page in question ( screenshot) well these pages have our content on them, which we have written, created, coded, scripted....all copyrighted at the moment of creation...OSCAR??? any thoughts?

2779

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Reply With A Twist

« on: September 01, 2011, 03:24:36 PM »

well if you try to negotiate with them it might be worth bringing up again, but negotiating usually doesn't lead anywhere, they always want way to much...then again 3 cents would be to much..

2780

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Reply With A Twist

« on: September 01, 2011, 02:03:47 PM »

I haven't heard of them ever sending emails as a first point of contact, perhaps they are making some changes.. first thing i would check is the whois on the domain, maybe they got the email from there, as this is where the generally get the name/address of whom to send the letter to. They could care less about who designed it or who is responsible, that's always the domain owner..private registrations would help in this going forward..

2781

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Reply With A Twist

« on: September 01, 2011, 01:23:49 PM »

istock photo is owned by getty, which I find interesting, why doesn't istock send you the letter?? because they can't claim as much is my guess. It's not strange that they won't give you the info you request..they like to keep that to themselves and state they'll show you the info in court..another strong-arm tactic IMHO.

I'm a bit confused with the email part, are you saying they sent the letter to your client and a second persons email?? If so that's a twist for sure..maybe you can clarify this so I can try to wrap my head around this one!

2782

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Letter from Getty

« on: September 01, 2011, 01:17:51 PM »

in a nutshell here are your options

1. don't pay and ignore it... would not look good in front of a judge, and more letters will come as well as the collection agency

2. negotiate them down and pay that amount... still to much IMHO

3. pay the full amount and be done with it......why anyone would do this is beyond me

4. retain OM services to draft a letter for 200.00.....cheaper than paying them, they can no longer contact you, wait to see what happens.

If this is for one image, they "probably" won't file suit, as it would cost them to much..

2783

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Letter from Getty

« on: September 01, 2011, 12:27:11 PM »

read thru the posts on this forum, then make an educated decision, I personally wouldn't pay them a dime, but I would not ignore it either..

2784

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Just saw this and felt the need to share as I find it amusing

« on: September 01, 2011, 11:49:09 AM »

Being as that it took me less than 1 minute to create the above screen shot, could they really use something like this in a court of law to show proof of the infringement?? I would think not..so what else do they have to show proof? perhaps a screen shot from archive.org?? this could also easily be shot down.

2785

Getty Images Letter Forum / whats the deal with Royalty Free images??

« on: August 31, 2011, 05:45:56 PM »

There has been a question of whether GI & MF, among other ever have the same images in their library.. I stumbled upon this today...exact same images in both catalogs.. are royalty free images different?? I would guess not, If I purchased said image from getty, whats to stop MF from coming after me with a threatening letter??

i'd post screen shots, but don't want my hand slapped today, if your curios visit both sites and search chakra.

2786

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A purely hypothetical question

« on: August 31, 2011, 04:44:52 PM »

hmmm interesting, if in fact it means how we're reading it, the poster whom had an served from anoutside source would be off the hook as it were... Which also means that a big portion of the blog-o-sphere would also be off the hook, as mort times they're using images from other blogs, and only linking to them or pointing the URL to them..worst thing going on there is a little theft of bandwidth, which in these days amounts to nothing anymore...

I could very easily link to someones image on flickr and that image could also be in Getty's library, GI sends me a letter, and I have some more scratch paper...

another good find SG (sans avatar)

2787

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Is this plausable??

« on: August 31, 2011, 02:17:00 PM »

well clearly picscout does not follow robots.txt rules and is also fudging it's user agent to look like something else, to me this is boarderline hacking, is there a "law" being broken probably not, but it would be nice to find such a thing, good luck in the search

2788

Getty Images Letter Forum / Just saw this and felt the need to share as I find it amusing

« on: August 31, 2011, 12:56:45 PM »

 “I’m sorry, but no such image exists or has ever existed on this website.  You did an excellent job of mocking up a screenshot, though; we appreciate your need to locate customers, but you are in error....."


When I was approached by GI I promptly removed the images in question, and also quickly supplied GI with the license, which I have had for 12 years or so.. the response from them in regards to the license was something to the effect of " well anybody could have created this"...yeah ok, whatever.. so I just saw this on someones blog and wish I had seen this earlier..

::EDIT:: Who's to say GI aren't mocking up screenshots??? Look they are using my image on their site!! 

2789

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Is this plausable??

« on: August 31, 2011, 11:27:42 AM »

ok here are the questions / comments!

Great find!! once again SG ( sans avatar) Rocks!

I wonder if we could persuade Oscar or another legal eagle to review this and suggest any changes to ensure it is legally binding?

how do we present this to GI, MF, Picscout? will presenting it on a page suffice? or would mailing it certified mail / return reciept be more effective.

Perhaps we could pool some resources ($$$) and politely ask Oscar to draft us up something. I will gladly send out certified letters on behalf of all of my clients, if I was sure this would work..

2790

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copyright Troll Song

« on: August 30, 2011, 05:33:34 PM »

and here I thought I had to much time on my hands!

what happened to your avatar?? someone complain about the use of that image?? everytime I see your posts, I get a chuckle from that dude whomever he is..

I also feel compelled to comment on the fact that we need to inject some humor into this whole fiasco, as opposed to it just being a negative thing....geez now i'm feeling all warm and fuzzy