Messages

661

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Newbie question

« on: December 09, 2013, 11:20:30 AM »

ops.picscout.com visiting means it looked at whatever it loaded. You would only get a letter if 'it' concludes that image matches something in the inventory of whoever hired picscout to visit. Your image might not be in their inventory. (Mostly, getty uses picscout, but others could.)

Flat out Getty owns picscout, but there are plenty of other companies /trolls using the services.. the list on the link below is likely outdated and likely much longer now..

http://copyright-trolls.com/site/picscout-trolls/

662

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: I got a letter today

« on: December 07, 2013, 05:46:20 PM »

you stated "this was such a big blow to our financial situation"....does this mean you blindly paid them?? I certainly hope not.

663

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Possible New Tool Being Used By MasterFile?

« on: December 07, 2013, 05:37:25 PM »

We have settled many claims with Masterfile (before the Chaga case was won) using payment plans. While I have many issues with the company and their registration methodology, they are infinitely more professional and easier to deal with than any other player in this arena. Must be because they are Canadian.

Do they apologize after cashing the checks? If not they are not true canadians..

664

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Arghhh...Received Getty Letter

« on: December 07, 2013, 05:21:45 PM »

It's not standard practice to isse a cease and desist first, not is it required by law..it's just the polite way of doing business.  FREE images?? Nothing is free, if you did not take the image yourself or create the image yourself, someone somewhere owns the copyright, unless you gut the image from a public domain government site. Bottom line is if you do not have reciepts or express written permission, you are at risk, not so much from getty, as they would have included any other images on the original letter, but they are not the only copyright trolls out there...there are many more.

665

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: I got a letter today

« on: December 07, 2013, 07:11:03 AM »

If i told you that the domain you are using is mine and to pay me 1200.00 would you simply negotiate with me, based on my word that it's mine? Has Getty provided documentation they even have the rights to the image?? I doubt  it.. I suggest you do a lot more reading here, before opening a dialog with them, based on their "claim" you owe them money. just my 2 cents worth...

666

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Need an opinion on a letter I received.

« on: December 04, 2013, 06:53:11 AM »

It's probably much like Getty. That jackwagon at CDL comes at you first, if he can't squeeze any cash out of you, he "escalates" it to Sanders Law. Sanders probably jumped on board when he got the recruitment email.

667

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Question About Finding the True Owner of an Image

« on: December 03, 2013, 04:00:23 PM »

well look who just appeared from a long absense!! where you been hiding Moe, under a bridge? ( kidding)

668

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Terms of Service Prohibiting Crawlers and Bots?

« on: December 01, 2013, 02:23:34 PM »

True..I tend to look at it like a contract..kinda..with a click through,  it could serve as a digital signature of sorts. without it, it's just a page that most users don't read anyway, which makes it difficult at best to enforce. Hell even Getty's contributor agreement was deemed useless by a judge, the contributor signed on, with a digital signature, but no-one at Getty "signed" anything digital or otherwise...when asked about it, they kinda just shrugged and "didn't know".. Look at any of the big sites out there, in order to register, sign-up, ect..you have to click something agreeing to those terms..without it your SOL for the most part.

669

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Terms of Service Prohibiting Crawlers and Bots?

« on: December 01, 2013, 02:11:10 PM »

You also need to consider the fact that Picscout is out of Israel...US laws means nothing to them, anything that is not password protected is fair game, and would be considered "public" IMO. BOTS/Crawlers are not going to read your terms of use, you would need to have something that is clicked and agreed to by the user, this would probably stop the bots, but also be a huge turn off to real users..

670

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Today I Received my "Letter"

« on: December 01, 2013, 02:04:43 PM »

I'm just going to throw this out there...IMHO you have a very good case for innocent infringement, this deal with getty/flickr is somewhat new, if you got the image from flickr with the understanding it was used under the creative commons license, and you did attribute the image, they really have no case..thats like me saying , sure you can use my image for free, then I decide to license that image to getty, who then comes after you.. whether that flickr user owned the image matters not IMO, you did your due diligence and used what you thought was a creative commons image...totally innocent infringment..

671

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Need an opinion on a letter I received.

« on: November 24, 2013, 06:22:26 AM »

Josh, if do not have a registered agent in place, you need to go thru the entire site and remove any and all images you do not have a license for, unless you are hotlinking to images just to be safe.

672

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: "it was an honest mistake" says Getty Images

« on: November 23, 2013, 04:47:12 PM »

i'm sure Getty will appeal, on the grounds of "innocent infringement" or something along those lines. But just like Getty and Timothy B. McCormack constantly squack at letter recipients, "ignorance of the law is no excuse".

673

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Need an opinion on a letter I received.

« on: November 23, 2013, 09:03:51 AM »

Being as this is a new troll, you would need to speak with Oscar directly in terms of retaining him. The letter program doesn't cover all company's/trolls. But yeah the success rate is very good.. not a single lawsuit has been filed. But again this is a different beast, that have been filing suits like crazy.

674

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Need an opinion on a letter I received.

« on: November 23, 2013, 06:56:52 AM »

if you didn't pay them yet, whose to say you can't change your mind? I would at the very least consider it..Maybe contact Oscar's Office and maybe save yourself a couple hundred.

675

Getty Images Letter Forum / "it was an honest mistake" says Getty Images

« on: November 23, 2013, 06:54:11 AM »

Nice to see the tables turned on these douche-nozzles

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9AL16F20131122?irpc=932