Messages

61

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 22, 2014, 02:15:08 AM »

Of course he's seeded the internet.  He's been hacking into pages and planting images to surprise and scare people.  How else does "his" "watermarked" image end up on so many sites???  Occum's razor says he put the images there.  Even if I took down the image, I'd still owe him?  How can that be anything other than extortion?  Look at the crap he spews on his pages about image theft.  This guy is a psychopath and social parasite.  I came here in good faith to expose him and I've been surprised at some of the responses, but I am glad I am starting to get through to people.  And I'm not worried about being sued.  I'm just trying to warn other people of the scam this guy is making a living by doing.

62

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 11:51:49 PM »

Suit yourself.  I reported him to my state attorney general's office and the BBB.  Hopefully others will listen to my message and not fall prey to his sleazy tactics.  I'm certain I will prevail.

63

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 05:58:54 PM »

Umm, accusing someone of stealing something when it isn't stolen and then telling them to pay or else is extortion.  Lawyer or no lawyer.  Especially if he seeds images onto the internet in a fishing expedition.  I bet he also hacks into websites to plant images too. That's something the FBI would be very interested in.

And since when is $200 fair for a stupid picture on the internet?  He should go learn how to take his own pretty pictures and stop trying to harass, defame, and extort honest folks trying to make an honest living in a tight economy.  He's messing with my business and my food on the table because he is too lazy to do something and make the world a better place.  There's wars going on and all kinds of other stuff that is much more important than this petty crap.

64

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 04:47:39 PM »

I'm surprised nobody here sees the hypocrisy of this guy.  Whatever.  I'll take my message elsewhere.  By the time I'm done with him, he'll have to pay people to use the crappy images he stole.  Holding websites ransom.  Maybe I should go into that business.  Sounds like everyone here would agree with me.

65

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 02:47:04 PM »

The guy shut down my website.  Like hell I'm going to pay.  He owes me!

66

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 02:25:18 PM »

Lets get some facts straight here.  The image is this one:
http://500px.com/photo/1707910/japanese-garden-by-tom-schwabel

And I think you will find he's stolen it from Lik and seeded it all over the net.  It's on BoredPanda and like 1000 other sites.

I know I'm right.  That dickhead photographer is the one who is morally bankrupt here.

67

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 01:28:11 PM »

Oh, and I see he knows Carolyn Wright aka Photoattorney.  He was mentioned in her blog.  So clearly there is something underhanded at work here.

68

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 01:24:47 PM »

Apologize for WHAT?  There are billions of images all over the internet.  If people had to pay for every image on the net, the net wouldn't exist.

Many photographers like this one don't have any original work.  They've stolen everything from someone else.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.  The image in question is a copy of Peter Lik's image.  I've seen Lik's image in a Vegas gallery.  So it is OK for him to steal from Peter Lik, but now I'm the bad guy?  There are thousands of image of that stupid tree.  Just do a google search and you'll get like 100,000 hits.  Are all of those other copycat photographers who can't make it on their own allowed to copy his image and then extort people with something they copied from someone else???  Where does it stop?  Seriously?!

Some lowlife scum decides to jump on the bandwagon of large corporations and start sending out threatening letters to people hoping to scare them into paying for an image that they were tricked into thinking was free.  An image that isn't even his, but a copy of someone else's image.  An image that he doesn't really own that he seeded all over the internet on wallpaper and free stock photo sites to reel in unsuspecting victims who pay before they realize they've been duped.  And you're defending him?  I thought this forum was to help shut down this practice of scamming people into paying for things they shouldn't need to pay for.  This is a disturbing trend if a whole cottage industry of con artists is following on the heels of Getty and others.

69

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 12:31:54 PM »

Thought I was doing you all a favor by bringing a troll to light.  Whatever, he can sue.  But courts aren't collection agents so I wish him lots of luck.

70

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 12:00:45 PM »

So I tried google images on a few of his images, and some are all over the internet with no watermark.  Sounds like I'm not the one who needs to man up!!!  That's entrapment.  If he or any of his bottom feeding friends try to extort me again, I will report them to the police and their bar association.

71

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 10:51:44 AM »

The image had no copyright on it.  I think this guy is either just seeding the internet with unwatermarked images so he can threaten people or claiming ownership in images he doesn't own and then trying to extort money out of people.  He carries on his page about people stealing images like some kind of baby.  Seriously, it is an image on the internet.  I'm not selling his image.  I can get a better image on istock for a few bucks.  Asking a few hundred bucks is shameful and should be a crime.  Who is to say his copyright registration is falsified too?  Who sends a "legal notice" by email?  Whole thing sounds like a scam.

72

Getty Images Letter Forum / Tom Schwabel - copyright equivalent of Nigerian scam

« on: August 21, 2014, 01:28:40 AM »

A "photographer" by the name of Tom Schwabel sent me an email that I had used one of his images on my website.  He claims I removed his watermark, a laughable claim that of course he could never prove.  He wanted me to take down the image and pay him a few hundred bucks.  But here's the thing: I don't think the image he was talking about was his!  I think it is actually an image from a guy by the name of Peter Lik.  So I told him to f**k off.  About a week later he sent a letter to my hosting provider, and they took my site down!  WTF?!?  Sounds like a huge scam to extort money out of people.  I wonder how many others this guy has scammed.  Anybody else been targeted by this scammer?

Guys like this need to be outed and put in jail!