Messages

76

UK Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Atradius/Getty

« on: March 11, 2016, 12:21:10 PM »

Unlike the threatening letters I received from a certain attorney's (who is now in the marijuana growing business) firm in Seattle, I see that at least Atradius can spell.  And what you shared does not mis-interpret prior legal cases and rulings to try to instill fear in the recipient.

I think you are certainly on the right track philpotts99.  Keep up the good fight.

77

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Modified Image

« on: February 26, 2016, 01:51:42 PM »

I believe License Compliance Services is another name for Getty.

Getty doesn't file a lot of lawsuits.  They certainly won't file unless they believe there is something to be gained.  The less they know about you, the less likely they are to want to risk spending money on a suit that might garner them zilch.

That would be my strategy if it was a single image incident and there was no public information available about me.

78

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Modified Image

« on: February 25, 2016, 04:29:16 PM »

First and foremost, take the image down.

Because google led you to believe the image was free, does not make that so.

Because someone modified a copywritten image and led you to believe it was free, doesn't make it so.

My advice is to ignore them.  Make them think you don't even exist.  In the mean time, document where you got the image and why you thought it was free, just in case.

Read the forum.  Get educated.  Bottom line is you will need to make the decision(s) that you think right for yourself.  The more educated you are, the easier that will be.

79

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ImageRights International Inc. (ImageRights.com)

« on: February 18, 2016, 09:30:44 AM »

Timmy deserves the 60% of nothing that his firm got from me.

They worked hard for it and had to defend themselves to the Washington State Bar Association.  If more people raised the cost of doing business for these trolls, they would quickly find themselves in a new line of work - perhaps catering to Washington's need for more marijuana.

80

UK Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty and LCS letters

« on: February 05, 2016, 01:15:10 PM »

If you don't have the ability to pay, you have nothing to worry about.

They will likely figure this out and choose not to sue.  If they do make the mistake of suing, they still have nothing to gain.

I would table the idea of having an attorney contact them.  Unless the attorney you know specializes in this type of law and is well known.  If that's the case, it might scare them off.  But they are very good at convincing other attorneys that their client ought to settle.

I have never really approached this from the photographer point of view.  Have no idea what they would do.  It seems that if the photographer truly has given the rights to pursue copyright infringement to Getty, the photog cannot call them off.  But I've heard that often, Getty claims more rights than have legally been given to them.

What you need to realize is that nothing has happened.  And most of the time, nothing will happen.  Rare is the instance where they file suit.  Unless they do, it is all bluster.

81

UK Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty and LCS letters

« on: February 05, 2016, 09:06:42 AM »

Looks like you've done some reading and have a good strategy in place.

Bear in mind that they have software that found your potential infringements.  They aren't really sure.  They are on a bit of a phishing expedition.  When people contact them to defend their use of images, the trolls glean useful information.  They immediately find out if they have the right contact.  They may learn a bit about the contact's ability to pay.  So my advice is follow your plan, but minimize contact as much as possible. 

And keep reading.  The more you understand the history of these trolls and their behavior, the more confident you will be in your defense.

82

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Rights Managed image?

« on: February 05, 2016, 09:00:09 AM »

My opinion is Getty tends to move images from their Royalty Free Page to their Rights Managed page quite a bit.  I cannot prove that.

My advice is keep reading this web site.  You are on the right track. You are asking the right questions.  You need to decide for yourself if they would be willing to risk the costs of suing you for one image.  Remember, you took it down immediately upon notification and you were under the impression it was free to use.

Everyone has their own tolerance for dealing with these guys.  You need to find where yours is, and quantify that decision by deciding if it is worth paying the trolls or fighting the noble fight.  Hope I didn't give away my bias in that last sentence.

83

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Letters from LCS - no response after 5 weeks?

« on: January 27, 2016, 09:40:18 AM »

Keep reading the forum.  Educate yourself.  It will help with the angst,

84

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Letters from LCS - no response after 5 weeks?

« on: January 26, 2016, 02:44:55 PM »

Their m.o. is to give your conscience some time to scare the crap out of yourself.  They find their targets to be easier pickings this way.

Final Notice usually never means a law suit is coming.  But they sure make it sound like that would be their next step.

85

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Facebook Sucker is proud of himself settling with Masterfile himself

« on: January 23, 2016, 02:41:08 PM »

Timmy's in the drug business.  Pursuing a legal avenue sometimes through illegal means as I am led to understand.  I don't think he is your target market.

To truly maximize your return, you need to get Getty, and Masterfile, and all the others to get together and pitch in to get rid of ELI.  You and this web site have put a dent in the pockets of all those companies.  Only selling to one, gets the others off the hook as free riders.

Don't sell yourself short, Matthew.

86

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Facebook Sucker is proud of himself settling with Masterfile himself

« on: January 23, 2016, 11:56:34 AM »

When you get tired and want to get out Matt, I would suggest that you sell ELI to a consortium of trolls and make them close it.  That way, at least you can actually get paid for all the time and effort that you have put into this site  for over 7.5 years.  We can make a good business case to them about how much money you have cost them in the past, and what it should be worth to them to have ELI out of the way.

Just kidding!  The old MBA in me always wants to monetize exit strategies.

Keep up the good work!

87

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: LCS letters

« on: January 23, 2016, 11:50:27 AM »

It seems to me that if you ask the right questions:

• who holds the copyright
• is the copyright registered
• who holds the rights to enforce the copyright,

and they give their standard, we don't have to tell you till we take you to court BS response, that they are bluffing.

Why do I say this?  If you have a documented letter that you know they received (I only send mine registered to this kind of entity), and they refuse to answer your legitimate questions, no reasonable judge will award them more than the $200 minimum.

Now it costs more than that to file.  So if they did enough of these, they would put themselves out of business.  They might be unethical and scummy, but they are not stupid.  They are trying to stay in business as long as possible.  A much better business plan is to save the filing fees and collect something from a percentage of those they approach.  I would expect that their cost structure is a percentage of what they collect.

So they go after people with a conscience or those who will pay a little to save the potential of big costs down the line.

It's your decision.  I am not a lawyer.  But I did hang through it for 3 years and paid them nothing, with my eyes open to their tactics the whole time.  Their claim on me was something like $42,000 on fifty some mages that my firm used over a less than 2 year period.  Did we use them - yes.  Did I think we did anything wrong - no.  I wanted them to file.  I would have rather spent $100,000 in court, on the public record exposing their tactics, and how they mislead us, and how they tried to cover their tracks about the misleading before trolling. 

Once they get you in a courtroom, their is no non-disclosure statement in the settlement.  In my case, they acted just like a bully.  I am not referring to Getty here or LCS, I am referring to McCormack IP Law.  When I punched back, they ran and hid.

I don't know the details of your case, and I don't know how much effort you are willing to put out to save the money.  But I do agree with Robert.  Keep researching this.  Do what's right for you.

88

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Section 512 Study: Notice and Request for Public Comment

« on: January 18, 2016, 04:46:51 PM »

This is cool and this is big.

I would like to see ELI organize this process from our perspective.  In other words, break down the areas in the DMCA where ELI members have had difficulty, get someone to spearhead each area, which means research and respond in an organized manner.  The spearhead person could ask for input from the community, research past posts on that area, write an organized comment, and open it up to others in the ELI community to review/edit.

I know this sounds like a lot of work.  But the trolls will do it to try to influence changes that benefit them.  This might be an opportunity for us.  I know Greg has a lot of data/examples of little guys being abused.  This might be the time to bring this to the Fore.

89

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Has LCS Crossed a Legal Line?

« on: December 24, 2015, 02:48:20 PM »

Great post, Watchout!

My experience is that trolls like to play the gray area.  And I think you are correct that they are in that gray area if they claim they believe in good faith that the person who uploaded the photo to their site is the owner of the photo.  But you have taken steps to move them out of the gray area, which they are ignoring so far.

My suggestion is that your plan of going dark is great.  I might suggest one modification.  If any attorney approaches you on LCS's behalf, I suggest that you go straight to the Washington State Bar Association with a complaint designed to get that attorney disbarred.  Most of the work is in the post.  All you have to do is use the real names, places, and dates.  Extortion is grounds for disbarment under the Washington State Bar Association code of conduct.

If it does come to this, feel free to contact me and I will help you out with my experience in dealing with the WSBA.

90

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: License Compliance Services Inc. (LCS) provokes EFF to get involved.

« on: December 24, 2015, 02:34:35 PM »

Nice letter!

Seems to me, that letter will make LCS "run for the hills".  The cited cases can be useful to anyone on this site with a fair use claim.