1
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Australian Victim
« on: July 27, 2011, 01:36:48 AM »
Thank you S.G., you certainly know your legal stuff. I'll definitely dig around and will report here what I find out.
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2
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Australian Victim
« on: July 23, 2011, 08:45:25 AM »
Yes I know, it was surprising to hear from them again. Although here in Australia, I believe all businesses must keep business records up to 7 years. Therefore, I am guessing because of this, one can still sue and be sued for anything within the last 7 years since evidence (eg. paper trail) can still acquired and produced.
So perhaps, if I do manage to brush them off this time around, I still have another 4-5 years in which to wait for their next approach. That's why I'm more keen towards getting them to stop this now so I do not have to deal with it again in the future.
So perhaps, if I do manage to brush them off this time around, I still have another 4-5 years in which to wait for their next approach. That's why I'm more keen towards getting them to stop this now so I do not have to deal with it again in the future.
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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Australian Victim
« on: July 22, 2011, 05:27:10 AM »
It had been 3 years since I last spoke to everyone here because since then Getty has not contacted me. Yesterday, however, they got back to me. So I was glad that this website is still here and I appreciate Matthew and Oscar for their efforts thus far and in keeping the site alive.
Getty hired a new law firm, but the letter was similar. They did not even bother to update their facts. The letter still insisted that I take off the image from my site, even though I deleted it 3 years ago when I first got their first mail. To me this might be an indication that my case was placed in some sort of a 'too-hard' basket and now, it was passed on to another bunch of people who is now just following up on unclosed cases.
Fortunately, I am generally an organised person and I had no problems finding full records of my correspondence with them so I did not have to try and remember the facts and the details. I immediately summarised what had happened since my last contact with them and asked that they close the case. If they cannot, then I asked that they give me an Ombudsman, or an appropriate independent body that regulates their industry to whom I should make a complaint.
So the take-home message is:
1. Just because you haven't heard from Getty after 2 years, it does not mean they had enough of harrassing you.
2. Keep all correspondence with them so you do not umm and err.
3. Fellow Australian victims, unite! Let's try to get the attention of independent regulators, watchdogs and consumer rights protection agencies to help us here. Let's start thinking towards a long-term massive lawsuit to put some sort of injunction on Getty from harrassing us in the future. No one needs the unnecessary stress and worry. I am considering getting the attention of the media. Anyone want to join me? The more the merrier!!!
Contact me at evo.lutionary (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Cheers!
Mark
Getty hired a new law firm, but the letter was similar. They did not even bother to update their facts. The letter still insisted that I take off the image from my site, even though I deleted it 3 years ago when I first got their first mail. To me this might be an indication that my case was placed in some sort of a 'too-hard' basket and now, it was passed on to another bunch of people who is now just following up on unclosed cases.
Fortunately, I am generally an organised person and I had no problems finding full records of my correspondence with them so I did not have to try and remember the facts and the details. I immediately summarised what had happened since my last contact with them and asked that they close the case. If they cannot, then I asked that they give me an Ombudsman, or an appropriate independent body that regulates their industry to whom I should make a complaint.
So the take-home message is:
1. Just because you haven't heard from Getty after 2 years, it does not mean they had enough of harrassing you.
2. Keep all correspondence with them so you do not umm and err.
3. Fellow Australian victims, unite! Let's try to get the attention of independent regulators, watchdogs and consumer rights protection agencies to help us here. Let's start thinking towards a long-term massive lawsuit to put some sort of injunction on Getty from harrassing us in the future. No one needs the unnecessary stress and worry. I am considering getting the attention of the media. Anyone want to join me? The more the merrier!!!
Contact me at evo.lutionary (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Cheers!
Mark
4
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: The Choice to Be Rational or Fearful Regarding Getty Images Demand Letters
« on: July 22, 2011, 05:05:18 AM »
We definitely need this website open. After 3 years since my last Getty letter, I got one from them again yesterday. I came back to this website and was happy to see it still alive after all this time. Matthew and Oscar well done. To empathise with Matthew and Oscar, I do ask everyone to research their own answers as much as possible. This website has enough information to answer the most basic questions if people invested a little bit of their time. We need to be considerate of Matthew's and Oscar's time as well. Cheers!
5
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Letter scheme
« on: November 19, 2008, 06:43:55 PM »
There are two types of people in the world: People who offer solutions and people who offer no solutions but are good at criticizing others' solutions. DJSek (David Kraham) belongs to the latter. David Kraham, please present your alternative solution before you earn the right to put down the efforts of Matthew and Oscar here. Put a price tag on it, make us an offer, and the rest of us shall assess whether we shall take you up on it. Judging from your post, you believe in free solutions. We trust then, that you can offer your solution to our Getty Problems for free.
6
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Australian Victim
« on: November 08, 2008, 05:03:42 PM »
Thanks for that link mudpuppy. I would guess that this is an excellent tool to determine what Getty can claim for, and prove. I could not find the image that Getty claims to be theirs... I'll continue searching.
7
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Australian Victim
« on: October 27, 2008, 06:37:52 AM »
Does anybody know whether there is a website where we can verify whether an image is registered and when?
8
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Australian Victim
« on: October 21, 2008, 04:49:42 AM »
Hi Matthew,
Thanks for your response. I believe that the frontline is in the US anyway. What happens in the US would most likely act as a precedent for most other countries. As a person from Australia, being informed of what is happening there gives me enough information. It should be left to the rest of us who can, post links, information and so on. This forum, alone, is of great help. Thanks again.
Thanks for your response. I believe that the frontline is in the US anyway. What happens in the US would most likely act as a precedent for most other countries. As a person from Australia, being informed of what is happening there gives me enough information. It should be left to the rest of us who can, post links, information and so on. This forum, alone, is of great help. Thanks again.
9
Getty Images Letter Forum / Australian Victim
« on: October 21, 2008, 04:29:10 AM »
Hi,
I am from Australia and I would like to share my story so other Australians and other victims from the US and the UK may also refer to it.
The image Getty got me for was included in a template that my hosting provider gave to its customers about 3 yrs ago. Then a couple of weeks ago, I got the letter from Getty asking for $1320. I took the image out of my site immediately. It was already the last day before the due date the payment was due. I did not have much time to research it. At first I thought it was one of those Nigerian Internet scams.
By the time, I realised that it wasn't one of those, I sourly paid the $1320 Australian Dollars just before the day finished just to avoid it growing bigger. I emailed Getty to tell them my payment details but I told them I was still looking into it.
My reaction :
What I do not like about Getty's action is that, they do not have the decency to say, "Hey that is our image and we’ll give you a few days to take it down". They assume that you are a crook right from the start. They do not consider that perhaps you have just as much desire to do business honestly.
Getty’s move is just pay us $1300 in 21 days or we’ll advance it to the next legal stage.
Just because they have the financial backing to argue it out in court over its victims, most of which are just part-timers or people who are just getting started in doing something for themselves, they bully everyone else. Just because they can, it does not mean that they should.
They say they are doing it for their photographers but how do we know that it is not their photographers who have lost track of what agreements they have made with whom and when? The image in particular was from a template-making company who then had an agreement with the hosting company, who then gave them to their customers.
I hear about some recipients of Getty letters having hired web designers from India. I believe that these Indian web designers were not necessarily being intentionally dishonest. They might have rightfully licensed the templates from whom they thought were a legal source.
Anyway, advising them that I paid them, I told them about how I felt.:
I am still checking with my webhosting company who currently supplied me with the website template that included the photograph in question. They might be able to confirm at a later date that I had legal authority over the image.
I believe that you are conducting yourselves unethicaly. You automatically assume that people intentionally used your images maliciously. In my case, it came with a template that my webhosting service provided for its customers.
Demanding payment, threatening people with legal action, without first giving them the benefit of the doubt, even with, at least the opportunity to remove the image before robbing them off their money is abusing your power. It is blatant profiteering.
It is almost as if you have intentionally leaked out your images out there, making it easy for people to use them, including people who have no intention in breaking the law, only for you to send out your legal team, a couple of years down the track, to profit from it. Absolutely brilliant, calculating and cold.
=================
In their letter, they asked that if I got the image from a 3rd party, I should give them the name and the contact person of that company/person.
The next day, I researched this issue a little more. Realising that the issue was not so clear cut, I called my bank to retract my payment.
I contacted my webhosting provider letting them know what has happened. They said they held licenses for the templates and the images that came with it from a company called GarageMoney.Com. They were happy for me to give their contact details to Getty. Getty asked me that they will not contact my webhosting provider. Rather, I should tell my webhosting provider to contact them. So, I did.
My webhosting provider contacted Getty and confirmed that I had the legal right to use the image because my hosting provider gave them to me.
Getty came back to me, and my webhosting provider, a few days later. They said the image was not licensed to GarageMoney.Com nor my webhosting provider. Getty is still after me. Getty suggested that I recoup the money from my webhosting provider since I am the victim here. Getty offered me a discount ($990) on their demand which will expire in a week to avoid further escalation. I find this such a bizarre state of affairs. I feel like schoolboy being bullied and my assailant tells me he is giving me a special offer of receiving 9 punches instead of 13 and I should accept it before it will escalate to more punches!
I am still wondering what I should do. If anybody has suggestions, please post it on this website or contact me at [email protected].
I was thinking of creating a separate website similar to Matthew Chan's, but focussing on the Australian perspective, however, I do not know how many Australian victims are there who would participate. Besides, I believe Matthew and Oscar are doing a great job here and it might be better to keep all the information in one website so that it does not get all fragmented. I think it is best to keep them all concentrated. I encourage everybody to be active here in sharing knowledge and information because I do see this us a case of the big corporations taking advantage of their size to trample the rights of small entrepreneurs who have all the intentions of doing business ethically and correctly. We have to rely on each other to ensure that it does not happen.
I would like to thank Matthew Chan and Oscar Michelen for doing what they do. Know that your sacrifices are being noticed and appreciated by the many, like me, who visit this website.
I am from Australia and I would like to share my story so other Australians and other victims from the US and the UK may also refer to it.
The image Getty got me for was included in a template that my hosting provider gave to its customers about 3 yrs ago. Then a couple of weeks ago, I got the letter from Getty asking for $1320. I took the image out of my site immediately. It was already the last day before the due date the payment was due. I did not have much time to research it. At first I thought it was one of those Nigerian Internet scams.
By the time, I realised that it wasn't one of those, I sourly paid the $1320 Australian Dollars just before the day finished just to avoid it growing bigger. I emailed Getty to tell them my payment details but I told them I was still looking into it.
My reaction :
What I do not like about Getty's action is that, they do not have the decency to say, "Hey that is our image and we’ll give you a few days to take it down". They assume that you are a crook right from the start. They do not consider that perhaps you have just as much desire to do business honestly.
Getty’s move is just pay us $1300 in 21 days or we’ll advance it to the next legal stage.
Just because they have the financial backing to argue it out in court over its victims, most of which are just part-timers or people who are just getting started in doing something for themselves, they bully everyone else. Just because they can, it does not mean that they should.
They say they are doing it for their photographers but how do we know that it is not their photographers who have lost track of what agreements they have made with whom and when? The image in particular was from a template-making company who then had an agreement with the hosting company, who then gave them to their customers.
I hear about some recipients of Getty letters having hired web designers from India. I believe that these Indian web designers were not necessarily being intentionally dishonest. They might have rightfully licensed the templates from whom they thought were a legal source.
Anyway, advising them that I paid them, I told them about how I felt.:
I am still checking with my webhosting company who currently supplied me with the website template that included the photograph in question. They might be able to confirm at a later date that I had legal authority over the image.
I believe that you are conducting yourselves unethicaly. You automatically assume that people intentionally used your images maliciously. In my case, it came with a template that my webhosting service provided for its customers.
Demanding payment, threatening people with legal action, without first giving them the benefit of the doubt, even with, at least the opportunity to remove the image before robbing them off their money is abusing your power. It is blatant profiteering.
It is almost as if you have intentionally leaked out your images out there, making it easy for people to use them, including people who have no intention in breaking the law, only for you to send out your legal team, a couple of years down the track, to profit from it. Absolutely brilliant, calculating and cold.
=================
In their letter, they asked that if I got the image from a 3rd party, I should give them the name and the contact person of that company/person.
The next day, I researched this issue a little more. Realising that the issue was not so clear cut, I called my bank to retract my payment.
I contacted my webhosting provider letting them know what has happened. They said they held licenses for the templates and the images that came with it from a company called GarageMoney.Com. They were happy for me to give their contact details to Getty. Getty asked me that they will not contact my webhosting provider. Rather, I should tell my webhosting provider to contact them. So, I did.
My webhosting provider contacted Getty and confirmed that I had the legal right to use the image because my hosting provider gave them to me.
Getty came back to me, and my webhosting provider, a few days later. They said the image was not licensed to GarageMoney.Com nor my webhosting provider. Getty is still after me. Getty suggested that I recoup the money from my webhosting provider since I am the victim here. Getty offered me a discount ($990) on their demand which will expire in a week to avoid further escalation. I find this such a bizarre state of affairs. I feel like schoolboy being bullied and my assailant tells me he is giving me a special offer of receiving 9 punches instead of 13 and I should accept it before it will escalate to more punches!
I am still wondering what I should do. If anybody has suggestions, please post it on this website or contact me at [email protected].
I was thinking of creating a separate website similar to Matthew Chan's, but focussing on the Australian perspective, however, I do not know how many Australian victims are there who would participate. Besides, I believe Matthew and Oscar are doing a great job here and it might be better to keep all the information in one website so that it does not get all fragmented. I think it is best to keep them all concentrated. I encourage everybody to be active here in sharing knowledge and information because I do see this us a case of the big corporations taking advantage of their size to trample the rights of small entrepreneurs who have all the intentions of doing business ethically and correctly. We have to rely on each other to ensure that it does not happen.
I would like to thank Matthew Chan and Oscar Michelen for doing what they do. Know that your sacrifices are being noticed and appreciated by the many, like me, who visit this website.
Pages: [1]
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