Messages

406

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: My letter Experience

« on: February 23, 2012, 12:50:39 PM »

See I think that in the highly unlikely event of this going to court, it is to your advantage to be able to show that you made a good faith attempt to come to a reasonable settlement. I also think that it is to your advantage to require proof of registration and the chain of title for the images. You'll also need the sales history for this image to prove that it is actually licensing for the amount they are claiming and not just some inflated price they pulled out of thin air. And it is worth it to do this all in writing.

Typically they (GI and HAN) will claim that they only produce this documentation in the event this goes to court. Knowing what I know now, I believe the correct response is to shrug (or the written equivalent) and make it clear that this information is mandatory in order for you to even consider offering money. Masterfile does seem to be more buttoned up than the others and often provides some proof of registration. But even their paperwork needs careful scrutiny.

Also, I wouldn't get too down on yourself for loosing it. These banditos have found a legal loophole through which they are trying to pull hundreds of dollars out of your pocket. You have every right to get pissed. But a written reply allows you to remain above that and say, "You have told me what you want, now here is what I require."

407

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: an interesting comment on one of the posts

« on: February 20, 2012, 03:24:39 PM »

I agree. I've traded several emails with Mr. Carner and he insists that they are constantly fighting with these wallpaper sites to get images removed. But that simply does not appear true. Many of these sites are NOT overseas.

Besides the photographer admitting to uploading un-watermarked, high-res images (!) I found one other tidbit interesting. One can simply contact Google, notify them that you are the copyright holder of a given image and presumably they will remove it from image searches. I wonder why this hasn't been done by HAN.

408

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: an interesting comment on one of the posts

« on: February 20, 2012, 03:13:10 PM »

Wow, I missed that too. Thanks! Anyone with an issue having to do with HAN should read this.

409

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Criticism to Pre-Announcement of "Beat the Getty Images Extortion Letter" Report

« on: February 20, 2012, 03:12:01 PM »

I love it when a troll ...err person's... sole comment is "This is horrible, how DARE you write such a thing. You don't know anything about the topic." Yet there is no substantial criticism about WHAT was horrible, HOW to make it better, or WHY they are uniquely qualified to know best. I'm with bubbhapi, this is clearly a simpleton or a troll (or someone that has a vested interest in not seeing your book get published).

410

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: First Getty... Now Superstock

« on: February 16, 2012, 01:07:37 PM »

This is precisely the kind of situation that gets ZERO sympathy from me.

You dodged a bullet once. You became aware that images you grab from Google are not "free" or in the public domain. You have the knowledge that companies are out there that prey on this sort of infringement. Yet you did nothing. You could have spent $50 and a couple hours of looking at microstock catalogs and replaced those images. Nah, too much trouble.

Usually this place is pretty open and helpful. And maybe someone else might have some advice for you. But for my part, I'll just say "good luck."

411

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Typo in URL

« on: February 15, 2012, 06:48:44 PM »

Probably the less said at this juncture the better. "I do not own the domain you referenced."

Done.

412

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tell them: Cease All Communications - How to file a police report against Getty

« on: February 15, 2012, 12:10:30 PM »

Yeah my first reaction was, "Oh come on, Sticks and stones... getting some emails or calls doesn't really impact you." Then my second reaction was, "Don't the police have enough to do without putting this on their plate? Lets not waste their time."

But then ultimately I thought you might be on to something. Saying essentially, "I have removed the images you questioned. Without admitting guilt in this and in the interest of moving on I made you a fair offer. I have no contract or business with you. I want you to cease all communication with me unless it is to notify me that yo accept my offer."

Obviously this won't prevent them from serving you and seeing you in court. And you have to be prepared to go the distance if you take this stance. But if they simply turn it over to a collection agency, you could try and call the police and report harassment. (Although honestly I think the desk sergeant will ask why you didn't simply hang up the phone or toss the letter.)

Maybe if 100 people were suddenly reporting Getty for harassment, our politicians would get motivated to look into this.

413

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: They don't know who I am?

« on: February 15, 2012, 11:53:19 AM »

>> GI's letter was addressed to the legal department of XXX

Since the company doesn't HAVE a legal department, and indeed, the "company" no longer exists, I'd say that letter belongs in the circular file. I'm not a huge proponent of the "don't answer" camp, but this is clearly a case of Do Not Answer. If it were me and someone calls looking for that company I would just not have a clue what they were talking about.

They could go the further step and track down the register of the domain. That could lead to your web developer. I kind of doubt they are going to go through these extra steps, but you may want to get out in front of it, talk to your web guy, let him know you got his back and ask that if he hears anything else to contact you first.

I have to say Getty would be nuts to pursue this one.

414

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: First Certified Letter

« on: February 07, 2012, 07:51:03 PM »

Another piece of the SG puzzle comes into focus. So it appears that the "lay low" strategy can be effective in certain cases.

By the way, anyone ever notice that in the 70's Charleton Heston was the king of the end-of-the-world type flicks? Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green...

415

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: First Certified Letter

« on: February 07, 2012, 03:58:11 PM »

I still maintain that in this case the OP has had a warning shot fired across the bow. If it's possible to lay low and make it difficult and/or expensive for his adversary to communicate with him at this juncture, then I say by all means do so. Of course if there has already been some communication via email or if his lifestyle is such that he cannot refuse registered mail, that's different.

This just struck me as an opportunity to make the stock company work for it. And there is the factor that they may just turn their attention to low hanging fruit.

416

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Glen Carner's Screen Saver / Wallpaper Entrapment Links

« on: February 07, 2012, 12:12:24 PM »

I have exchanged a few emails with Mr. Carner. I have to say I am very disappointed to see that he is behind the seeding of some of these images. He insisted that these images were in some way hacked from a server and then posted. In part he told me:

"Mr. Tylor never posted his images on any sites other then his own and professional organizations he is affiliated with.  His images were distributed is the same unintentional way other attractive content is frequently distributed on the Internet; copyright infringement."

So is the guy that is representing your images also the one guilty of infringement?

Now, in order to give the benefit of a doubt, I suppose anyone could have posted that screen-saver and had the option to choose which name to use. So maybe it didn't come from Mr. Carner. It sure would be interesting to find out what ip was used to upload that file.

However at least one of those sites mentions the source for the "Wallpaper sized screensaver" as http://www.hawaiipictures.com/screensavers.php. Guess who is the  Administrative Contact and Technical Contact for that domain -- Glen Carner.

I gonna have to call it –– shenanigans.

417

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: First Certified Letter

« on: February 07, 2012, 11:53:32 AM »

Yes, they can not just win a summary judgment. They would need to serve you first.

If I were you, I'd probably stop signing for certified letters and fed-ex for a while. They can still serve you... they would need to hire a process server and I suspect they won't go through that extra effort and expense.

418

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Invalidate response

« on: February 06, 2012, 08:26:10 PM »

Yeah, it seems they are rather careful to NOT apologize or admit to any wrongdoing on their part. The closest one can get is "Getty is no longer pursuing this matter." The only reason I believe Lucia would NOT get such a note is that they are probably aware that she would push them for more info. So maybe they will just let it drop.

On the other hand it seems like she is committed too pestering them (Yay-Yeah). So maybe out of a desperate hope for some closure of their own, they may offer some form of mea culpa.

Good times.

419

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Image on Getty is no longer available

« on: February 06, 2012, 07:13:56 PM »

haha Thanks. Now I gotta go back to work. But to the O.P.:

That is a Russian site. So you have three places to get a price quote from: GI, fotobank.ru and that author.

Keep in mind the stock companies monitor this site. So you should probably get on this. I have a screenshot of the Russian site if you need it. I'm curious about how much are they trying to jab you for. But I understand if you don't want to post it here.

420

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Image on Getty is no longer available

« on: February 06, 2012, 07:07:59 PM »

If I'm right about the image, you could always contact the author of this book and ask what she paid. I bet it wasn't in the hundreds.

http://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Friends-Tracy-Culleton/dp/1842232002