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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty's 3rd Letter and My Site Doesn't Exist Anymore!
« on: June 25, 2012, 10:36:35 PM »Luis1984, welcome to the ELI forum. It's understandable that this situation is stressful to you, especially during a time when you're feeling vulnerable because you're starting your new career. It sounds like you made an honest mistake, but this kind of stuff is happening to people with plenty of experience too. There are many circumstances under which people are getting these letters.
The first thing you need to do is conquer your fear. A lot of us have felt the stress of having to deal with people bullying you for money and threatening to escalate to ridiculous lengths to collect on an infringement issue. The "worst case scenario" sounds terrible, but there are some facts you could consider that would help you understand the situation. Knowledge will help you conquer that sick feeling.
First, you have to consider your realistic options:
1) You can pay them and make it go away if you don't want to deal with them. You mentioned you did not want to do this.
2) You can get some very sound advice from Matthew Chan for a very reasonable fee (a contribution to ELI for $50 or more) if you need to "quickstart" your knowledge curve with a coaching session by phone. Here's a link with more information:
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/eli-phone-support-call-with-matthew-chan/
3) You can hire Oscar Michelen, a very experienced intellectual property attorney, to take over as your representative by writing them a letter and fielding their communications on your behalf. This effectively means you won't have to deal with them directly so you can focus on getting back to work. Amazingly, Oscar Michelen only charges $195 for what should cost many times that much, especially from an attorney of his caliber. Here's a link with more information:
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/eli-phone-support-call-with-matthew-chan/
4) This option does not cost anything except your own time and effort: Read this forum carefully and learn as much as you can retain. It's a lot of stuff, but at least skim through the titles of the topics and check out the threads regarding Getty Images cases. The more you learn and understand about what these people are doing, the more you will feel that you don't have to pay them. The more you read, if you're anything like myself and other members of this community, the more you will WANT to learn. This option will be of invaluable help to you whether you take any of the other three options as you enter a career in which you will have to deal with this sooner or later. It should be required reading for the communications industry and every profession related to it.
Those letters are intended to sound scary. They want you to roll over and pay them to make them go away. The reality of it is that your case is really not that important to them. $844 is a relatively small amount of money and if they've already written you 3 letters, they're probably getting the feeling that they're wasting their time already. It does them no good to put an expensive attorney on your case to collect an amount that's insignificant to them and that you can't pay anyway.
I don't think anyone's ever been taken to court for an amount that small. They very rarely go to court at all, and when they do they're going for thousands of dollars and/or multiple infringements.
Good luck with your case and do keep us posted on your situation. We're keeping track of what these copyright trolls are up to. In union there is strength and in knowledge there is power.
Thank you so much for your advice and encouragement, and yes it seriously was an honest mistake. Now, every time I use an image that is not my own, I purchase it and keep it in record although I've read that most of these stock companies are owned by Getty anyways. Option #3 sounds like a good idea for a good price. I will look more into it.