Messages

1

UK Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Email from License Compliance Services, Ltd

« on: April 14, 2016, 12:50:18 PM »

Hi the letter wasn't sent by registered mail and was only addressed to the business, which would suggest they are shooting in the dark.
They have managed to dig out 2 email addresses for the business, so it may that they have got that from the whois database as the second one isn't listed on the blog.

2

UK Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Email from License Compliance Services, Ltd

« on: April 14, 2016, 10:25:20 AM »

I got the same email last week over the use of a Press Association photo on a 6 year old blog post. The photo was taken from Google and was "labelled for reuse". When I checked the image it is showing on both the PA site and the Getty site as available for purchase. Would this mean they don't have exclusive copyright for it?

Yesterday I received a letter, posted from Jersey, from LCS with the same information in it as the email. If I do anything at all with it (apart from deleting the image which I have already done) I'm wondering if there is any mileage in purchasing the license for the photo. I think I read a post where someone else had done that and they subsequently backed off.
As has been said in a variety of posts the emails/letters are speculative and do appear to be no more than fishing expeditions.

The Citizen's Advice website suggests that if it did go to court they would be entitled to no more than profit lost in the absence of a license to use the photo. The example they gave was of someone downloading a pirated video for their own use, rather than to sell to others. If the individual had bought the dvd instead the profit would have been £4 from the sale of £12.99. Therefore the loss to the copyright owner was £4. This rule of thumb might not apply to the use of images, but does re-inforce the notion that it would be a loss making exercise for LCS to pursue action through the courts.