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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Client Received Getty Letter

« on: November 05, 2011, 11:36:26 AM »

Thank you everyone for the info.
I wish I'd read them sooner - but either it doesn't e-mail you when there are responses on the thread or my spam filter got a little overzealous.

At this point, I may just end up paying the $780 to not have it hanging over my own or my client's head. It's not as exorbitant of an amount as some others have faced, fortunately. Although still a ridiculous and unfortunate fee to come across. From what I saw in a case or two, and from mcfilms above, when you defend yourself at the $780 level they only drop it to $600. I would almost rather just have it resolved then save the nice $180 chunk.

Either that, or write an e-mail this evening for my client to send off to them (as if it were coming from him.).

I have a hard time going for the letter without having some idea of the typical turnout in a case like mine. It's under a thousand dollars to begin with, so there's only so much they can lower it. Which makes me concerned of whether or not it would even save me anything.

Thank you everyone for your responses here!

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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Client Received Getty Letter

« on: October 31, 2011, 12:18:46 PM »

Anyone willing to comment on or point to a thread with their experience with Oscar's $195 letter? I searched and couldn't find much on what the outcomes were when it was used.

Thank you!

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Getty Images Letter Forum / Client Received Getty Letter

« on: October 26, 2011, 08:52:36 PM »

Hello,
A client of mine just received the Getty Letter yesterday via mail. I told him I would handle it for him - I'm certainly not going to let something like this be a weight on a client's shoulders.

Here is the situation, I either purchase stock from a stock photo site, or use photos from a few free stock photo sites that I trust. (Including one that has coincidentally been acquired by Getty). For this particular image I can't track down where I got it from... yet I can for every other image on the site. I must have made a stupid mistake at some point, and trusted a source, caption, or otherwise that I shouldn't have, because the image apparently isn't publicly licensed.

Getty is asking $780 - a price that seems to be common among others recently. It was a small image used on one page of a local business site. Upon notification of the letter I immediately removed the image.

I have a few questions -

• Of those who wrote a letter in themselves using the info on this site (or in my case, I would write one up for my client to send in), what types of responses have you seen?
• What types of success has there been with the $195 letter? Do they lower their demand? Make it go away? I know this was addressed once before, but I need some type of answer for this. I don't like blindly going into anything.
• Should I contact Getty in my name, on behalf of my client, or is that opening a can of worms/wasting time. The reason I ask, is that I would suspect they might be more willing to work out a deal for company who's website was made for them, vs for a web designer... either way, I'll be footing the bill for this.

Any thoughts and responses will be greatly appreciated... starting my Tuesday with a cup of coffee and a lawsuit wasn't in my calendar this week.