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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Confused on Who Getty Targets and Who They Ignore?
« on: November 02, 2017, 08:00:50 PM »
Another webmaster I know got one a few months ago and it did actually cite the date.
They cited a date in May, but he did not receive a letter until July - about 5-7 weeks I think after initial infringement was discovered. It was a photo of a table with a red ball on it.
I actually do know someone who works for Getty, but in sales. He knows a little but not a lot. Based on what he told me, their primary focus is to scan the internet for people using those type of stock images. I'm not entirely sure why, but likely because the abuse is more rampant with them because people assume that it's safe to use them, as opposed to a random photo of a celebrity or a baseball game or the president. And also because website all the time are built, likely thousands a year, with stock images from Getty or some other company, that a designer just grabbed off Google images.
He may be right, because I've read through at least 100 letters that were posted online by people Getty went after and 99.9% of the time it was some type of stock photo.
They cited a date in May, but he did not receive a letter until July - about 5-7 weeks I think after initial infringement was discovered. It was a photo of a table with a red ball on it.
I actually do know someone who works for Getty, but in sales. He knows a little but not a lot. Based on what he told me, their primary focus is to scan the internet for people using those type of stock images. I'm not entirely sure why, but likely because the abuse is more rampant with them because people assume that it's safe to use them, as opposed to a random photo of a celebrity or a baseball game or the president. And also because website all the time are built, likely thousands a year, with stock images from Getty or some other company, that a designer just grabbed off Google images.
He may be right, because I've read through at least 100 letters that were posted online by people Getty went after and 99.9% of the time it was some type of stock photo.
I have seen a few letters that do cite the date of discovery. But most do not.
People need to understand that these demand letters are NOT legal filings. No one has to send a notification, warning, or information letter of ANY KIND to a potential infringer. Accusers can go straight to lawsuit without any warning whatsoever although doing that is fraught with risks and frowned upon.
ANYONE who comes to ELI and don't get the message to clean up their websites are foolish.
As already discussed, there is no telling if or when you will receive a letter or not. Some people are luckier than others. But letters do come out of nowhere. You cannot turn back time. All anyone can do is to clean up the websites of unlicensed images and hope for the best.
If you had one or two images, the risk is probably very low. But if a website owner made a practice to use MANY licensed images for several years and only now taking it down, then yes, they have reason to sweat for the short term of getting a letter.
The more infringing images, the greater the chance of discovery. It is just plain statistics.Do they actually cite the date of discovery? I would assume they have to by law?
What I'm saying is, if I found some infringement violations today, and took the images down, do I have to sweat for the next few months wondering if they caught the images prior to removal and plan to issue a letter.
From your personal experience, I'm sure you've seen countless cases to get an idea of when someone is in the clear so to speak.