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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Is this sound legal advice?

« on: September 02, 2009, 09:08:53 AM »

It's been nearly a year since my original post and I just received the "offer of settlement" letter from NCS yesterday.

To update everyone what has happened between the time of my original post and the receipt of the NCS letter yesterday:

After receiving the original letter in July 2008, as per my attorneys' advice, I did not enter into any communications with Getty and did not pay them a penny.  I also filed a complaint with both the Washington attorney general and the Pennsylvania attorney general.  I received a letter back from the PA Bureau of Consumer Protection which basically stated that since my problem arises from a business to business relationship, they cannot assist me.  I received a letter back from the WA attorney general stating that they have forwarded my complaint onto Getty and included a two-page reply from Getty Images basically just stating that I AM guilty and I DO have to pay.  According to the WA attorney general, my complaint has been noted and filed but there's nothing they can do.

I received a second letter from Getty Images on October 20, 2008.

Now just received the NSC collection letter yesterday, September 1st, 2009.

Not too sure where to go from here now.  My attorneys will probably just tell me to ignore this one too.

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Getty Images Letter Forum / Is this sound legal advice?

« on: July 29, 2008, 03:31:10 PM »

Well, like the hundreds and thousands of the other unfortunate ones - my business also received "the letter."

I'm a sole proprietor of a small web design/development business.  When I originally created our website about 3 or 4 years ago, I used a photo that I found on a free stock site.  Like most folks in this situation, I can't remember for the life of me where exactly I got the photo at - but I KNOW it wasn't from Getty since I've never even heard of these guys until I received their letter yesterday and I would never, ever, ever knowingly steal anything.  The photo was used on a page that's pretty well hidden within the site - like 3 or 4 page tiers in.

So, here we are, 3 or 4 years later, and I get the letter from Getty.  I immediately remove the image from the site to avoid any further hassle or issues while I have time to research the situation to see what may be going on.  Upon removing the photo, I notice that the version of the photo on the Getty site is a bit different than the photo we had on our site.  Just thought it was interesting.  Did a quick search in Google and found that quite a few other sites are also using the same version of the photo as we were using - not the version on Getty's site.  I'm aware this probably doesn't mean much, just found it interesting.

After finding this site and a handful of other sites about this situation, I decided there's no way on God's green earth that I'm paying Getty a single penny.  I was even going to contact Getty to offer to pay for their stock photo in good faith just to avoid hassle - but now I see how many hundreds of people have attempted that, amongst many other things, and Getty just doesn't care.  This is completely ridiculous.

As far as I'm concerned - if Getty can't prove to me that they legally and rightfully own that photo (either outright or by rights transfer/permission from the original photographer), and that the photo has NEVER been available for sale or for free on any other website since the photo was created - I have no reason to take them seriously and believe that what they're telling me is true.

Our lawyers advised me to: 1) not pay them a cent, 2) ignore their communication and don't participate in it whatsoever, and 3) to file a complaint with the attorney general.

My question to Oscar (HUGE thanks to you, sir, for helping all of us out through this situation) is if it would be a smart move to contact the attorney general?  If so, would I contact my state's AG or Washington's AG where Getty is located?

What do you recommend for the folks who Getty turned over to debt collection agencies?  I know that I for one have worked SO incredibly hard at building and maintaining excellent credit - just the thought of something so ridiculous tainting it is sickening.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.  Best of luck to us all!