Messages

1

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Copyright detection software?

« on: December 07, 2010, 09:58:42 AM »

Under US law, every work is automatically copyrighted simply by its creation.  It is my understanding that to collect legal fees and statutory damages, the work must be registered with the US copyright office before the time of the alleged infringement. Otherwise, only actual damages could be collected.

If you can determine who created a work, you can search the US copyright database here: http://www.copyright.gov/records/

The online records only go back to 1978. The copyright office will also do a physical search for you, but they charge a minimum of $330 for the search.

2

Getty Images Letter Forum / Getty's position on providing proof

« on: December 06, 2010, 11:41:09 AM »

It is somewhat ironic that Getty refuses to provide proof that they are the exclusive agent for a copyright holder. Since copyright infringement is strict liability, if it turned out that Getty was not the exclusive agent for an image, the enduser could still be liable for other claims, whether or not they paid Getty.  Getty themselves would never accept it as an excuse that you already paid someone else for an image.

Considering that at least some of Getty's catalog is not exclusive (images can be found on other vendor websites), it seems pretty unreasonable that Getty refuses to provide proof that they are the exclusive agent.  Has this ever been brought up with them?  Has there ever been a case where Getty was required to produce this proof?