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Messages - PeteGas

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1
@PeteGas

Although it's a pain you could consider deleting the images or the posts you consider at risk and continue with the site.

Unfortunately, the site is heavily reliant on imagery.  And most of the images are ambiguous.  The site has established relations with PR companies who represent major studios.  They will send out imagery that is cast-iron safe, for use with express permission.  But these account for maybe 30%.  The rest is comprised of promotional imagery, but wasn't sent directly... and now Getty appears to be co-licensing a lot of it more and more.

Worse, and to answer the question in the OP after some research, you cannot be hidden from WHOIS.  At least not with DomainsByProxy.  DBP will roll over on an extortion letter, right away.  They will give them your street address and full name.  They are supposedly a songbird 'privacy' service.

2
At this point I think my only recourse is to shut the site down, an entertainment/criticism site that has been online for five years.  Today I notice that Getty is selling stock movie images on their site for huge prices. 

Given that my site has thousands of images, including perhaps hundreds that have been vaccumed up and co-licensed by these cockroaches, I'm now figuring that in the unlikely even that they were to come after me, they'd come after me in a big way.  I'd never realized that these people had at least 'partially' acquired promotional material from tentpole blockbusters. 

It's a commercial site by the way, so fair dealing/fair use does not technically cover me.  So it's a gamble and considering it's practically only a side hobby/beer money project, not worthwhile one from the looks of things.

If you have any further thoughts on that, I'd appreciate it.

An additional question; if Getty holds a license to imagery, but not exclusively, in the UK, can they sue the 'infringer'?

3
So if an image/s is already gone from the server by the time they're coming after you, it's too late?

4
screen shots / time stamps don't always equate to infringement..who's to say the images in question weren't linked from outside sources.. They would need to prove their case.

What about a direct JPEG URL from months or even years ago, that has long since been 404'd?  Is it possible to present a 'time stamp' of that?

5
It's in your best interest to remove any images you don't hold a license to, or have created yourself..Getty could send further letters, and getty is not the only copyright-troll out there, the list is endless, and not worth the risk.

I've purged any liable images.  But my concern is retroactive presentation of time stamps.

6
pretty much useless.. Emails are "not fficial" in any way, they have no way if the recipient got the email, or who the recipient is.. They could get domain ownership info fairly simply if they chose to, but i doubt they would go through that trouble over a single image.

Incidentally, if you had a 'cluster' of images, would the 'claim' be for example $10,000 for 10 images?  Or perhaps 10 separate letters of $1,000?  Am I right in understanding that they deliberately keep the amount below a certain threshold, to make settlements more appealing?  But what if they found a whole forest of copyright images?

What is the largest single claim or combined demand you've seen against someone?

7
If your name and info is not on the site and the domain has a privacy mask for WhoIs... what do they do then, if they only have your email?

Are emails worthless in these circumstances?

8
Legal Controversies Forum / Email from BWP Media/Pacific Coast News
« on: June 07, 2017, 11:03:46 AM »
I'm seeking advice here.  I am in the UK and have received an email from BWP Media/Pacific Coast News.  I run a movie blog and had hosted an image from the upcoming Dunkirk movie.

The email is threatening to sue unless I pay $1,500 through mail or logging into imageprotect.com and paying by VISA.

Another problem is that even though I have deleted the image, the URL for the thumb is still working, it's also still on WayBackMachine and Google images.

At this point I'm starting to think I should delete the entire site and remove all my savings from the bank.

What should I do?

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