Messages

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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Zvulony Settlement Demand Letter by Canadian Lawyer Gil Zvulony

« on: December 14, 2011, 07:26:33 PM »

I just talked on the phone to another 61 year old senior woman in western Canada who received a letter from Gil Zvulony. She took the picture off a free website  and is now being asked to send a certified cheque for $5000. Her letter is exactly the same as mine except she only used one picture. She had seen my letter posted on the www.extortionletterinfo.com website and emailed me .

I wonder how many more people  (especially in Canada) are there that are getting these letters and are afraid or worried about  what to do.

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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Check out this iStock (Getty) photo on a "Free Wallpaper" site

« on: December 13, 2011, 11:17:32 PM »

Check out this iStock (Getty) photo on a "Free Wallpaper" site

It has the "iStock" watermark on it.
The site even includes a ready-made code that can be pasted into a website to display the image.

http://allbackgrounds.com/pot-leafs

Interesting in that when I clicked the above adress (http://allbackgrounds.com/pt-leafs) a notice came up on my computer telling me that my virus protection prevented a malicious website from loading. The same thing happend when I clicked on the address of one of Vince Tylor's  photos.

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Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Hawaiin Artwork, LLC Files Lawsuit!

« on: December 12, 2011, 10:38:23 PM »

I have had a very large increas in the  pages read on my blog for about the last two months.  It went from 2500 pages to about 11000 - averageing from 350 to 400 each day. Didn't really know why but after checking the history now realize  that most of it is seaching images with the the direct names of my blogs. Someone has spent a lot of hours going through my site page by page looking for things. This might be a heads up to anyone else when they have a high increase in volume which they did not have before.

Thanks again.

I saw that at my blog too.  I'm working on a set of scripts to mitigate this for people. For now, at least add the following two lines to the htaccess file in the root for your domain:

# don't permit directory listing
IndexIgnore *

The first line is a comment and does nothing but remind you about the function of the second line.  The second line closes off a great big superhighway method some bots use to find the names of all your file images.  Backroads still exist. That's why I'm trying to find other methods to help people block off the backroads and catch this sudden grazing real time. But at least add the

IndexIgnore *

line.

Even aside from any copyright issues, this behavior is bandwidth sucking (i.e. increasing your hosting costs). So you want to stop it anyway.

Sorry to be so computer ignorant but you give me some idea of how to get to the access file on my blog so I can insert the command you gave to block the bots?

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Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Hawaiin Artwork, LLC Files Lawsuit!

« on: December 11, 2011, 06:12:42 PM »

I appreciate the fact that you will look into Mr. Zvulony. I will fiind out if a Toronto lawyer can practice in Alberta.

I certainly appreciate the support of this forum  and those of you who are willing to help people like me. Thank you so very much. I have been reading and studying information and am learning about what others have done.  I'm looking forward to hearing what others have to say  about this latest letter and wonder who else is getting these Canadian letters.

I have had a very large increas in the  pages read on my blog for about the last two months.  It went from 2500 pages to about 11000 - averageing from 350 to 400 each day. Didn't really know why but after checking the history now realize  that most of it is seaching images with the the direct names of my blogs. Someone has spent a lot of hours going through my site page by page looking for things. This might be a heads up to anyone else when they have a high increase in volume which they did not have before.

Thanks again.

5

Hawaiian Letters & Lawsuits Forum / Re: Hawaiin Artwork, LLC Files Lawsuit!

« on: December 11, 2011, 02:30:32 PM »

I received a registered letter dated December 6, 2011  from Zvukony & Co Lawyers (Gil Zvulony is the name of the lawyer located in Toronto) demanding that I send them a certified cheque  in trust for $10,000 for infringing on their client's copyrights and moral rights.  I have been given 10 days from  the date of the letter to respond.  I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and I had posted another person's blog which included one of the pictures.The second picture I had taken from a site which I thought was a free site which promoted pictures of Hawaii but was not! My mistake! Since receiving the letter, I have taken both pictures off my blog site and Facebook.

I have replied back to the letter via email  stating that I have taken the pictures off the site immediately after receiving the letter.  I have stated that the payment they want is very high compared to the act price of the photos.  I also made the statement that the law firm seems legitimate but how did I know that these pictures were indeed owned by Hawaiian Art Network LLC. 

In reading the information on your forum, Vincent K Tylor has both pictures for sale  for $10.00 under his website Hawaiian LandMark Images and Hawaiian Art Network.

I am interest to hear your comments.