Messages

1

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: I am a frustrated and sick to my stomach Canadian!! Help!!!!

« on: May 16, 2014, 12:56:52 PM »

Hi Guys,

I promised to keep updating this thread with whatever comes up in my case.  I just got another email from the NCS IP Solutions today and here is what it says:

QUOTE:


Subject: Getty Images/Neamat Tawadrous #164013
Settlement Offer: $1,987.50

Our office has already attempted to contact you on numerous occasions to resolve our client’s claim of the unauthorized use of their protected imagery.  Please be aware that copyright legislation provides for strict liability, regardless of your level of knowledge or intent.  You have been previously forwarded the website and URL where our client’s image appeared.  As the end user, your company is ultimately responsible to ensure that the appropriate licenses or rights to the image(s) have been obtained.  Please be aware that if you hired a third party web developer to design your website, your company is still responsible to ensure that the images that appears on your website have been licensed.  Additionally, if you have purchased or acquired images from a subscription service or a website that provides templates you are still liable to ensure that the imagery appearing on your website has been purchased.

If an effort to resolve this situation our client has agreed to reduce their offer of settlement by 25% provided that your payment is received in our office by June 10, 2014.  Kindly forward your check for $1,987.50  to our Sarasota office.  We have attached an ACH form and credit card form to this email to help expedite your payment.   If we do not hear back from you within this time we will have no other choice than to assume that you do not wish to amicably resolve this matter with our office and we will return the file to our client’s legal department for further evaluation and escalation.

Thank you,

NCS IP Solutions
PO Box 50276
Sarasota, FL 34232

 
T(941)371-9900
F(941)371-9901
 
This is an effort to effect a settlement and any information obtained will be used for that purpose.

UNQUOTE

I have been ignoring all their letters so far but I kind of feel worried whenever I get any emails or letters from them.

Any input, suggestions or opinions are most welcome.

Appreciate your time.

Be Blessed,


Neamat

2

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: I am a frustrated and sick to my stomach Canadian!! Help!!!!

« on: March 28, 2014, 06:20:18 PM »

Thanks Stinger, you really calmed me down and made my night with your response.  I want to say they were 3 images not one but as you said I will not give it another thought until they do sue me if it ever happened.

Thanks again.

NTawadrous

3

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: I am a frustrated and sick to my stomach Canadian!! Help!!!!

« on: March 28, 2014, 02:13:58 PM »

Ok guys, I promised to keep updating this thread with any progress.  Today I received this email from the NCS Solutions and it made me really sick.  Here is the content of the email:

QUOTE:

"Subject: Getty Images/Neamat Tawadrous #164013

Settlement Offer: $2,650.00

Our office has already attempted to contact you on numerous occasions to resolve our client’s claim of the unauthorized use of their protected imagery.  Please be aware that copyright legislation provides for strict liability, regardless of your level of knowledge or intent.  You have been previously forwarded the website and URL where our client’s image appeared.  As the end user, your company is ultimately responsible to ensure that the appropriate licenses or rights to the image(s) have been obtained.  Please be aware that if you hired a third party web developer to design your website, your company is still responsible to ensure that the images that appears on your website have been licensed.  Additionally, if you have purchased or acquired images from a subscription service or a website that provides templates you are still liable to ensure that the imagery appearing on your website has been purchased.

Kindly advise of your intention within 10 days.  If we do not hear back from you within that time we will have no other choice than to assume that you do not wish to amicably resolve this matter with our office and we will return the file to our client’s legal department for further evaluation and escalation.

Thank you,

NCS IP Solutions
PO Box 50276
Sarasota, FL 34232
 
T(941)371-9900
F(941)371-9901
 
This is an effort to effect a settlement and any information obtained will be used for that purpose."
UNQUOTE

I was advised by an attorney not to get into any arguments or conversations with them or with Getty and he told me they will keep harassing and he advised to ignore it all until they actually sue me in court.

Any advises or suggestions or feed back.  I would love to hear from you and if anyone in Canada have been sued before, how did it go?

Looking forward to hear your input.

Neamat

4

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: I am a frustrated and sick to my stomach Canadian!! Help!!!!

« on: February 26, 2014, 10:29:50 AM »

Thanks Lucia and Robert for your input and for the tips.

Lucia, I will never go into an argument via the phone with these people as I am not experienced to handle such arguments over the phone.  I express myself better with writing if I have to.

Thanks a lot and I will be updating this thread with whatever news I will get.

Regards

5

Getty Images Letter Forum / I am a frustrated and sick to my stomach Canadian!! Help!!!!

« on: February 25, 2014, 10:42:41 AM »

Hi there,

I am a Canadian Citizen but originally I am an immigrant to Canada and I happen to use images from the Google Images and I used them for illustration purposes on my blog as I run a blog that teaches about network marketing. 

Honestly, I followed one of the leaders in the industry who I saw in a webinar grabbing the image from Google Images and I just thought it is ok to use.  So, I started using them to illustrate a point about what I write on my blog.  I didn't know anything and I never heard of Getty Images before until last November when I got my first letter from Getty Images asking for $2,650.00 for 3 images that I used.  I was shocked when I got the letter and didn't know what to do at that time as I didn't make money with my blog as it is still new.  All I did was I removed all the images from my blog and I contacted an online attorney and asked him and he told me that this is a common thing going on for a while and lots of people are going through this and he gave me a link to this blog post: http://excesscopyright.blogspot.ca/2008/05/watching-getty-images-watching.html

and they will keep sending these letters to you and I asked what am I supposed to do, he told me to read about it in this blog and just keep ignoring their letters unless they take you to court and the chances are minimal.  This calmed me somehow but again I received another letter from Getty sometime in January and with the same threatening language and I ignored it again until last week I got a letter from NCS IP SOLUTIONS, LLC in Sarasota, Florida with the subject line: This is an offer of settlement and it also has threatening language that if I failed to pay they will initiate court proceedings.

I am so glad I found this forum and I am trying to educate myself as much as I can but I would like to hear from other canadians and how far it got with them.  I am really sick to my stomach and this is affecting all other areas of my life.  Please, if there are other canadians going through the same thing, please chime in with your experience and what to do at this time.  Are there any canadians who have been taken to court for this.  I would love to hear from you please.  I am also open to any suggestions from non-canadians.

Very thankful for this forum and I will keep updating this thread as the matter progresses.

Thanks and Be Blessed,


NTawadrous

6

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: ELI Founder Matthew Chan Returns to ELI After Year-Long Exile

« on: February 20, 2014, 11:54:03 AM »

Hi guys,

I am Canadian and brand new to this forum!!

Can someone help me on how to start a new thread?  I can't find a button that does that. 

Sorry, if I posted in the wrong thread but that what I found most recent and that my message will find a response.

Appreciate it!!!