Messages

286

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Masterfile Letter

« on: June 28, 2012, 11:46:38 AM »

I like that idea Moe.

Righthaven had to do with alleged infringement on newspaper stories.
Linda Ellis had to do with alleged infringement on poetry.
This forum, though originally about Getty, has expanded to Masterfile, Hawaiian Art Network, Corbis, and many other Junior Trolls. Calling it the "Image Extortion Letter Forum" makes sense and should attract any image letter recipient. (However it appears that in more and more cases their first point of contact may be by phone or email.)

287

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: FunnyJunk Attorney Charles Carreon's Wife, Tara Carreon Shows Her Stuff

« on: June 28, 2012, 11:34:31 AM »

Wow! Just Wow.

Interesting find Lucia. That was probably the oddest clip I've seen in months. Hey everybody, string some random words and phrases together, videotape yourself rattling it off in front of a Hollywood movie and Bam! you are an artiste.

And yes that was from The Matrix, which I highly doubt Tara Carreon had permission to use.

"Chop, chop, chop. mashed potato time."

288

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Hello and I just got a letter from Getty

« on: June 27, 2012, 10:23:16 PM »

@alanspicer I haven't really experienced outages here on the left coast. On rare occasion the site might be down for maintenance, but I can still get to to the maintenance page.

In terms of your situation, you have to do what you are comfortable with. I know if it were me I'd tell them to eff off. Seriously. You take a picture of your computer running MS software and they are coming after you for infringement? This is the problem with them relying on software like PicScout. It finds an image match and gets the ball rolling. I used to assume that a human being would actually verify the validity of the claim. But now I'm starting to think that this whole racket is an automated cash grabbing machine.

If you really feel like tweaking their noses a little bit, you might ask them if you should contact Microsoft to clarify if you are allowed to take screenshots of your computer if it happens to display one of their images. I wonder how Microsoft, who presumably licensed the image for use on your computer, would feel about them hounding you?

289

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Cyber Liability Insurance

« on: June 22, 2012, 06:05:37 PM »

Well I cannot answer your question. But I'm gonna post anyway. (Remember, I'm the big "free speech" advocate.) So just skip this post.

Okay, now that the original poster has skipped over this post, let me just share something with anyone else who comes across this thread with a similar issue. If you have other users visiting your site and they are posting content, you cannot be held libel for their infringement. However to protect yourself, you need to file a DMCA agent and that costs $105. Please read this: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/dmca-righthaven-loophole/

Too bad the original poster didn't read this. He may have even issued a polite "thank you."

290

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A puzzling situation

« on: June 20, 2012, 11:35:50 PM »

Hey Oscar, this doesn't make sense to me. If I pay to license a picture of Bugs Bunny (or a photo of a waterfall). And I license it to produce T-shits (or jigsaw puzzles). And I have sales representatives like Target or K-mart that wants to sell this product, are you saying the retailer needs to license the image to advertise this product?

291

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

« on: June 20, 2012, 12:30:05 PM »

Great point SG. I think most people are looking for "closure." They don't want this open claim hanging over their head. But the prudent thing to do is make it very clear what you want from them, and what you are willing to do and then that's it. Further communication could simply be met with, "I was clear what I required from you and until you provide it we have nothing to discuss." End. Of. Story.

292

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

« on: June 20, 2012, 12:01:58 PM »

I was just thinking that Robert. If Getty was smart they'd take the $415. But they will now stop communication with moelle and double up on pestering the client for the original amount. They will be in a position to try and make you look bad by throwing out that they offered you a reduced settlement and that you refused.

Like Robert said, your best move here is to get out in front of the issue and maybe even point your client to this thread. (I sure wish some enterprising lawyer in Canada would set up a letter-writing program modeled after Oscar's.)

293

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: an interesting message from a Getty "Copyright Compliance Specialist "

« on: June 20, 2012, 11:54:28 AM »

Translation: "We don't hold the copyright. We don't even know for sure the person who submitted the photo holds the copyright. We didn't bother to register the image. We don't know if the person that took the photograph registered the image. Now just send us 400 bucks, Okay?"

294

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

« on: June 19, 2012, 01:58:39 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.

295

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: What is Glen Carner's Official Position on Vincent K. Tylor?

« on: June 18, 2012, 01:04:25 PM »

Where is Glen Carner? He promised to participate on these forums DAILY and address questions such as this. I know there was talk about banning him (or charging him to post). But my understanding was that there was a stay of execution offered. I expected he would take advantage of this time to answer questions such as those asked by Activated.

296

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A Message From KeepFighting

« on: June 18, 2012, 12:59:51 PM »

Good for you Greg. I agree the best way to combat the practice of trolling is to be open and direct. I've done a talk at a couple different user groups in LA and I am surprised at the number of people that just paid up.

I also agree that it's up to each individual to "come out" in their own time and when they are ready. But since the stock footage industry has been at this for a few years now, more and more people will be reaching the end of their three year window. I suspect that we'll start to see an increase in people willing to speak "on the record" about this.

By the way, my real name is Jerry Witt. If any extortion victims are ever out in LA, give me a shout and I'd be happy to grab a beer with you.

297

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: NASA? Or Masterfile?

« on: June 14, 2012, 12:33:26 PM »

I posted something about this scenario a while back. It does seem that most images from space would be originally from NASA. But there are a few other factors to keep in mind:
• Other countries are also "up there" and may have different arrangements as to who can sell their images.
• This is the age of CGI (computer generated images). That could possibly not even be a photo, but a rendering.
• There is evidence that at least one of the stock agencies has taken images in the public domain and sold them.

Here is the hurricane on NASA's site: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/hurricane_chat.html

The original image you showed includes the international space station. My guess is that in that case someone used a public domain hurricane pic and added the cgi space station. But all the plain hurricane links you posted? I don't know how they are doing that.

I have an idea. Why not send Masterfile a demand letter? We, the taxpayers, own that image. They are not only presenting it as their own, but they are seeking to profit from it. As we all know the penalty for this sort of infringement is something like $150,000 and could lead to decades in jail. But since we would rather end this amicably, we would be willing to accept $7500 as long as they remove the image immediately.

298

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: How can you tell if you have Getty Images on your site?

« on: June 14, 2012, 12:11:25 PM »

This is totally the Getty Image "style." They say, "Here's a tool that you can use to discover if images on your site are represented by Getty Images." And then the tool doesn't work for most images.

I actually see this as a potential defense for an extortion letter victim. Here's how: A letter recipient could use the tool to run through his or her site. If it doesn't report any matches (or at least the images that Getty claims are theirs) they could then point out that the very tool Getty provides did not discover the images. It's not copyright abandonment, but it does appear that images are made available as "honeypot" traps to generate more extortion letter victims.

I would be very interested to learn if a current letter recipient gets a PicScout match for an image in question.

299

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Class action suit filed against “Getty Images Master Delegate” in Israel.

« on: June 13, 2012, 05:07:40 PM »

Ian, you are my hero of the day. Thanks for doing all the leg work, building a great case, and sharing it with all of us.

300

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Questions about my upcoming battle

« on: June 12, 2012, 01:49:02 PM »

You'd be:
"403 - Forbidden"??