1
Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Should i settle???
« on: July 09, 2012, 02:30:50 PM »
It's certainly a personal decision but I didn't settle. I almost did in the initial phone call I made to them from receipt of their letter. My fine was only $800 and I was going to settle at $600.
Upon further reflection and inner guidance, I sent an email saying I was pressed to come up with the money (little did they know I have the money but it’s not how I choose to spend it). Told them I looked into what my rights are a little bit and have learned a few things, that I have rights in such circumstances. Also told them that I learned that "the law recognizes that some people 'innocently infringe' others copyrights (as is true in my case). If the infringer proves in court that his or her infringement was innocent, the statutory damages are often dropped."
They responded via email with a seemingly rational argument that none of my points were valid and I still was liable to pay them the fine. She wrote, "this is not going to go away." I initially fell a bit prey to this but still, per my inner guidance, I wasn’t going to cower to their fear-based strategy.
I felt it was worth taking chance to not pay, prolong the case and see if they would really do anything legally (and doubted that they would). It's been 9 months now and I never heard from them again. So, I think it's worth not succombing to their "threats" and they'll probably just let it fall away like they did with my case.
P.S. This website and forum posts helped support me a lot. THANK YOU to all who contribute!!
Patrice
Upon further reflection and inner guidance, I sent an email saying I was pressed to come up with the money (little did they know I have the money but it’s not how I choose to spend it). Told them I looked into what my rights are a little bit and have learned a few things, that I have rights in such circumstances. Also told them that I learned that "the law recognizes that some people 'innocently infringe' others copyrights (as is true in my case). If the infringer proves in court that his or her infringement was innocent, the statutory damages are often dropped."
They responded via email with a seemingly rational argument that none of my points were valid and I still was liable to pay them the fine. She wrote, "this is not going to go away." I initially fell a bit prey to this but still, per my inner guidance, I wasn’t going to cower to their fear-based strategy.
I felt it was worth taking chance to not pay, prolong the case and see if they would really do anything legally (and doubted that they would). It's been 9 months now and I never heard from them again. So, I think it's worth not succombing to their "threats" and they'll probably just let it fall away like they did with my case.
P.S. This website and forum posts helped support me a lot. THANK YOU to all who contribute!!
Patrice