Messages

661

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Photog Accuses Getty of Loaning Images to CafePress Instead of Licensing Them

« on: April 07, 2013, 11:38:54 AM »

Just another example of how Getty treats its contributors and another piece of ammo for us.  Cafe Press is just doing what Jonathan Klein said to do in his TechCrunch video, take and use our images up until the point you make money on them.  I see this agreement being used as a defense much like the TechCruch video.

662

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Prenda trolls appear in Judge Wright’s courtroom only to plead the Fifth.

« on: April 06, 2013, 05:02:35 PM »

With all the new information and relevant cases I don't think it would be wise for Mr. McCormack to take anyone to court, especially if he and/or Getty had sent any of their demand letters to them.  The Dakotah, Inc. v. Tomelleri, 1998 DSD 33 case alone could get them in some hot water.

I keep my eyes open and if I ever see Getty sue anyone again where the facts of the case appear to be an innocent infringer  I would release all my stuff to them if they wanted to counter sue.

Matthews appeal has taken priority for me but I am still working on my next project with regards to Getty and hope to get it going by summertime. 

663

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Complaint with Washington ATG

« on: April 06, 2013, 08:07:27 AM »

Welcome to the forums bulldog1028,

Yes these are typical boilerplateGetty Images responses. You can also write a follow-up letter to the Attorney General's office taking apart the issues with the Getty letter one by one. You can follow the process I used with my complaint letters which always included a follow-up letter after Gettys boilerplate response here:

http://www.scribd.com/collections/3777301/Complaint-letters-filed-against-Getty-Images

Also you are not limited to just the Attorney General's office I filed similar complaints with the Washington state Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, the Ohio Attorney General's office (the state in which I live) and my Senator and Congressman.

Good luck and please keep us posted as to what happens.

664

Legal Controversies Forum / Re: Prenda trolls appear in Judge Wright’s courtroom only to plead the Fifth.

« on: April 04, 2013, 09:35:59 PM »

Here is the same story covered over at Plagerism today and Ars Technica.

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2013/04/04/3-count-da-fif/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/prenda-lawyers-take-fifth-amendment-judge-storms-out-were-done/

And in another article on ArsTechinca about the hearing:

"It should be clear by now that this court's focus has shifted from protecting intellectual property rights to attorney misconduct. Such misconduct brings discredit to the profession." At this stage in the game, that kind of misconduct is "of much more concern to the court" than protecting the copyrights of the porn producers that Steele and Hansmeier represent

It will be difficult, if not impossible, for Steele and Hansmeier to pursue any of their copyright cases. Their porn-trolling operation is likely coming to an end, and several questions remain: What will the repercussions be? And what will it mean for the next group of folks who decide that turning sleazy movies into copyright threats could mean an easy buck?

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/prenda-porn-trolls-clam-up-as-their-plans-crumble-in-an-la-courtroom/

ouch!!

665

Legal Controversies Forum / Prenda trolls appear in Judge Wright’s courtroom only to plead the Fifth.

« on: April 04, 2013, 09:25:26 PM »

I just found this article over on www.fightcopyrighttrolls.com.  Looks like Judge Wright got some of the Prenda boys in court where they immediately plead the 5th and the Judge was furious and ended the hearing after 12 minutes.

http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2013/04/02/most-of-prenda-appears-in-judge-wrights-courtroom-only-to-plead-the-fifth-furious-judge-ends-hearing-after-12-minutes/

666

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: April 02, 2013, 07:44:45 PM »

Welcome to the forums starmanalpha,

I can tell you first off that if you have a web client Getty will not care what you have to say and will continue to pursue your client as the end user. You have a couple of options in your situation, first you can write the letters yourself and have your client send them because as I said Getty will have nothing to do with you in less you are to pay the full amount to them. Second you can retain Oscar and your client will not receive any further communication from Getty and you will not spend thousands of dollars. Third, you can retain another lawyer to handle it for you and lastly you and your client can just ignore the letters.

If this is over one image I can tell you that to date Getty has never sued anyone over the use of a single image here in the states. There last lawsuit for copyright infringement that they filed was Getty V Advernet where Getty sued Advernet for the use of 35 images and ended up winning the case by default by bankrupting Advernet. On the next hearing date when Getty showed up and there was no one on the Advernet side the court rendered a default judgment to Getty. The court then looked at the evidence submitted so far in determined that there was issues with every single image’s documentation that would preclude Getty from collecting any monies on the images. So Getty won but they collected nothing.

I am glad to see that you are joining the fight, continue reading as there is a wealth of knowledge contained here in the forums. Please keep us posted as to your progress and how things go.

667

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: April 01, 2013, 09:21:31 PM »

Okay, here is the last batch of complaints filed against Getty Images with the Washington State Attorney General’s office.   I think getting this information out there is making a difference as when Robert asked for all the complaint the AG’s office had on Getty he got 57 complaints, now less than a year later there have been 54 complaints filed since Roberts’s request.

I plan on composing a letter to the WA AG providing this information along with the number of BBB complaints against Getty and other information I have gleaned inquiring what the tipping point is when the AG’s office will take action to stop Getty’s current business model.  In January the complaints were coming in at a rate of almost 1 a day!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515803/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-45

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515808/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-46

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515811/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-47

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515813/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-48

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515818/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-49

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515821/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-50

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515827/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-51

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515830/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-52

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515833/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-53

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133515842/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-54

668

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Sending MY Letter re:Settlement Demand Letter

« on: April 01, 2013, 08:39:40 AM »

Welcome to the forums excelsior007. Before you send off your letter full of missiles I would spend quite a bit of time going through the forums and gleaning information. It would also help us to help you if we knew more of your story. For example let us know how many images we are talking about, how you got them and how many letters you have received to date and from who. Every situation is unique and responses will vary depending on the individual circumstances.

Give us a little more information and we can get you pointed in the right direction.

669

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: March 31, 2013, 10:35:38 AM »

I don't know if it is true or not, that is why I really want to get a hold of an up-to-date contributor agreement.  This may also be part of the reason why Getty claims confidentiality and refuses to provide a copy of the agreement when requested. 

That would kind of make sense though, if Getty is talking about protecting the artist rights and the artist should be compensated for their works (which they should, just not at extortion levels), you request proof and they send you an agreement that says Getty gets it all and the artist gets nothing their whole story goes up in smoke.  We would be left with what this is, nothing more than a business model to grab as much cash as they can.

If it is true that the photographer does not see dime one from any lawsuits, this gives Getty and even larger incentive to seed the market with photos.  If they license them, the photog gets paid a portion of a small amount.  If they seed the market and sue, Getty gets to split a large amount with McCormack.

670

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: March 30, 2013, 09:20:06 PM »

I received the fourth CD in the mail today, it had been misdirected as I thought and was sent to a Law Office in California who was nice enough to forward it to me.

I saw something interesting in complaint number 36, if you go to page 5 of the complaint you will note that the letter recipient called the actual artist to apologize for using the image.  I found what the artist said very interesting and informative, he said and I quote…..

“He appreciated the call, informing me that the legal use was out of his hands, and noted that he “wouldn't see any monies from any lawsuits anyway”

So in other words, Getty says sign with us, give us exclusive rights to the image, we have control over when and how we pursue any alleged infringements and if we do pursue and collect we keep it all and you get nothing.  I am still trying to get my hands on one of the contributor agreements so I can verify this and many other things I have heard complaints about from artists.

Another interesting item I have noted in the more recent responses to the Attorney General’s office is that Getty has started putting their confidentiality/non-disclosure clause at the bottom of their responses.  I can’t help but wonder since they know that I post the complaints if this is to try and keep me from posting their responses and letters. They should know anything submitted to the Attorney General becomes public record and is fair game, but they have nothing to worry about as the letters are all boilerplate and I remove them and just leave the meat so you all don’t have to read the same responses over and over again.

One final item, complaint number 40 is a perfect example of why this is called “Legalized Extortion”, the complainant said …..

I was in a panic and so sent the payment by creditcard. Now that I've had time to reflect, I am outraged at this company for engaging in what I believe are predatory business practices and bullying.

Here are the complaints off the latest cd:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180058/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-36

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180064/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-37

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180068/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-38

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180071/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-39

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180073/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-40

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180075/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-41

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180078/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-42

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180080/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-43

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133180081/WA-State-AG-Complaint-New-44

671

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: March 30, 2013, 07:01:11 PM »

You are very welcome Tony

Greg,
The combo of the WSBA response in #22 and the #31 complaint are pretty damming. I haven't heard anything recently but the Associations will be next when I do...Thanks for all that you do!
Tony

672

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Recieved Letter from getty

« on: March 28, 2013, 09:16:35 PM »

The deadlines that Getty tries to impose are artificial and designed to panic you into making paying or making a response before you have time to investigate the claims.  I informed Getty in one of my letters that I reject their deadlines and will take a reasonable amount of time to investigate, research and consult before making a reply.  Don't let them force you into sending anything before you are ready because of these deadlines.

I sent a summary response to the cease and desist part of the letter and asking for the removal of any settlement. I am sure it wil be turned down, but I will go into evidence mode from there. I just wanted to get this into the mail and to Getty in a decent amount of time. From here the clock no longer ticks, it is correspondence and evidence gathering and so forth.

Will keep posted. I expect a response in about 10days

673

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: March 27, 2013, 07:39:35 PM »

It looks to me that the Swiss Company is headquartered there, there is a branch in the US that designs sites and the company that Getty is going after is in the US and had their site designed by this company.

674

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images Letter from a Web Designer's Perspective - Any Advice?

« on: March 27, 2013, 07:32:48 PM »

I think Lucia at one time even ran the Pic-Scout app on a page from the Getty images catalog and it didn't even recognize all the images as Getty images.  Nothing is fool proof.

675

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Speech Spoken Here

« on: March 27, 2013, 08:01:47 AM »

I couldn't agree with you more Oscar and as always you make you point very well.