Messages

61

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Cabinet Bouchara Avocats/Vanessa Bouchara / Getty Images Censorship-Gag Letters

« on: January 12, 2017, 08:09:33 PM »

I think Eugene was prepared to gear up for a big fight and then we would have to have a legal reunion.

However, Greg still hasn't gotten his apology yet so it isn't quite over yet.

Eugene is so funny. Their half assed apology "spoiled/ruined" his fun! LOL!!!

Ya...'twas funny that the "disregard" and "sincerest apologies" went to EUGENE first WTF??!
Glad to hear that actual  "LETTER RECIPIENTS" of this bullshit got an apology as well for what that is worth anyway.

I did send the following letter out yesterday and received and apology from Vanessa today which I appreciate but I also insist on one from Getty as well.  I will be sending out another letter hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

January 11, 2017
Ms. Vanessa Bouchara
Cabinet Bouchara Avocats
17 rue du Colisée – 75008 Paris

 
RE: Getty Images Cease and Desist Letter sent to GettyImagesMustChange.com

 
Ms. Bouchara,

I received your cease and desist letter in the mail on January 10, 2017 by registered letter. You sent it to the wrong address and it took a few days to catch up to my new address. I must say I was a little surprised by it.  After looking you and your law firm up, I see you claim to be intellectual property specialists. I was very confused as to how you assume French Law would apply to me and my website being an American citizen operating a U.S. based website directed at U.S. citizens.  My site contains document-supported, fact-based reporting accompanied by my personal opinions on your client’s business practices.

The Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage (Speech Act) states that foreign defamation judgements are unenforceable in the U.S. unless the foreign findings are consistent with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  All statements on my site that are not document-supported are my OPINION which is fully supported by my First Amendment rights. I also believe that under French Law, any claim against me or my site must be made within 90 days of the original posting, not 90 days from when you noticed it. Prior to receiving your letter, my last post was almost two years ago. This is a moot point anyway, as I stated my opinions are protected speech.

You accuse me of “acts of gross disparagement seriously damaging Getty Images’ image” yet I believe it is your client who is doing it to themselves by doing things like having foreign law firms send me letters threatening me with legal action over protected speech using foreign law.  This, Ms. Bouchara, is the type of letter I refer to as “harassing”, “bullying“ and “unethical“ and the type of behavior I have come to expect from your client.  Why does your client not attempt this with a U.S. lawyer?  Because, in my opinion, they know it has no merit and are hoping that the letter recipients will panic and fear the implied imminent lawsuit and take their websites, articles, or blogs down.

You state in your letter that if I do not comply with your client’s demands, they will “initiate all appropriate action against me”.  Again, it is vague but threatening and definitely an implied legal threat.  I will tell you right now that I have no intention of complying with your client’s demands and fully intend on reporting on all this and your clients attempts at censorship of free speech.  The last time your client threatened me with the possibility of legal action after refusing to negotiate in good faith, I ended up launching a campaign to inform recipients of your clients letters that if they felt as I did and Getty Images refused to provide proof of claim or negotiate in good faith, they could file complaints with the Attorney General and other agencies.  It appears this resulted in 117 complaints filed with the Attorney General in the 18 months. I tracked it.

Your client’s new letter attempting to remove free speech they do not like has irritated me enough that I am considering starting the campaign up again reaching out to all those you have sent these letters to.  I really do not want to do this, I have better things to do with my time.  I am willing to let everything go and dismiss this if I receive an apology from you, Ms. Bouchara, and your client along with dismissing this claim.  If I receive these apology letters or emails, I will do a follow up article showing your client has withdrawn their claim and apologized.  I truly hope we can end this amicably.


Regards,
 
Greg Troy
GettyImagesMustChange.com

62

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A New Getty Problem - Cease & Desist Letter from France

« on: January 12, 2017, 08:01:39 PM »

First Eugene Volokh in the Washington Post now TechDirt, I'm sure someone at Getty has some 'splanin to do about now.

63

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: January 12, 2017, 10:10:30 AM »

Two days ago on January 10, 2017 I received a cease and desist letter from the French Law firm of Cabinet Bouchara - Avocat on behalf of Getty Images stating I was guilty of "acts of gross disparagement"  for reporting on Getty Images business model and using phrases like "...The settlement demand letter sent out by Getty and McCormack, in my opinion, are designed to panic and instill fear in the letter recipient."   You can read the entire letter in the link above.

Needless to say I was not happy with the letter or the attempt at censorship by Getty Images.  I had thought Getty was improving, their letters had been toned down and less threatening, the amounts they were asking for seemed much more reasonable.  In fact until receiving this letter I had not felt the need to write an article about Getty in almost two years.  The letter appears to be an attempt to remove negative comments throughout the interwebs,

I now am riled up again and have opened my folder of ready-to-go complaint letters and am getting ready to start informing all those who received these attempted censorship letters the can respond with complaints to the proper agency.  There is a definite legal threat in these letters as they state if the articles/site/blog are not removed within 8 days of receipt of the letter then they have been instructed by Getty to "initiate all appropriate action against you".

Here is the letter I drafted and sent in reply....

January 11, 2017
Ms. Vanessa Bouchara
Cabinet Bouchara Avocats
17 rue du Colisée - 75008 Paris

RE: Getty Images Cease and Desist Letter sent to GettyImagesMustChange.com

Ms. Bouchara,
I received your cease and desist letter in the mail on January 10, 2017 by registered letter. You sent it to the wrong address and it took a few days to catch up to my new address. I must say I was a little surprised by it.  After looking you and your law firm up, I see you claim to be intellectual property specialists. I was very confused as to how you assume French Law would apply to me and my website being an American citizen operating a U.S. based website directed at U.S. citizens.  My site contains document-supported, fact-based reporting accompanied by my personal opinions on your client’s business practices.

The Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage (Speech Act) states that foreign defamation judgements are unenforceable in the U.S. unless the foreign findings are consistent with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  All statements on my site that are not document-supported are my OPINION which is fully supported by my First Amendment rights. I also believe that under French Law, any claim against me or my site must be made within thirty days of the original posting, not 30 days from when you noticed it. Prior to receiving your letter, my last post was almost two years ago. This is a moot point anyway, as I stated my opinions are protected speech.

You accuse me of “acts of gross disparagement seriously damaging Getty Images’ image” yet I believe it is your client who is doing it to themselves by doing things like having foreign law firms send me letters threatening me with legal action over protected speech using foreign law.  This, Ms. Bouchara, is the type of letter I refer to as “harassing”, “bullying“ and “unethical“ and the type of behavior I have come to expect from your client.  Why does your client not attempt this with a U.S. lawyer?  Because, in my opinion, they know it has no merit and are hoping that the letter recipients will panic and fear the implied imminent lawsuit and take their websites, articles, or blogs down.

You state in your letter that if I do not comply with your client's demands, they will “initiate all appropriate action against me”.  Again, it is vague but threatening and definitely an implied legal threat.  I will tell you right now that I have no intention of complying with your client's demands and fully intend on reporting on all this and your clients attempts at censorship of free speech.  The last time your client threatened me with the possibility of legal action after refusing to negotiate in good faith, I ended up launching a campaign to inform recipients of your clients letters that if they felt as I did and Getty Images refused to provide proof of claim or negotiate in good faith, they could file complaints with the Attorney General and other agencies.  It appears this resulted in 117 complaints filed with the Attorney General in the 18 months. I tracked it.

Your client's new letter attempting to remove free speech they do not like has irritated me enough that I am considering starting the campaign up again reaching out to all those you have sent these letters to.  I really do not want to do this, I have better things to do with my time.  I am willing to let everything go and dismiss this if I receive an apology from you, Ms. Bouchara, and your client along with dismissing this claim.  If I receive these apology letters or emails, I will do a follow up article showing your client has withdrawn their claim and apologized.  I truly hope we can end this amicably.

Regards,

Greg Troy
GettyImagesMustChange.com

I will now wait and see if I get my apology or not. As always, I will keep you posted.

64

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Cabinet Bouchara Avocats/Vanessa Bouchara / Getty Images Censorship-Gag Letters

« on: January 11, 2017, 07:01:59 PM »

I think Eugene was prepared to gear up for a big fight and then we would have to have a legal reunion.

However, Greg still hasn't gotten his apology yet so it isn't quite over yet.

Eugene is so funny. Their half assed apology "spoiled/ruined" his fun! LOL!!!

Ya...'twas funny that the "disregard" and "sincerest apologies" went to EUGENE first WTF??!
Glad to hear that actual  "LETTER RECIPIENTS" of this bullshit got an apology as well for what that is worth anyway.

Not over by a long shot.

65

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A New Getty Problem - Cease & Desist Letter from France

« on: January 11, 2017, 04:45:33 PM »

Matthew got his apology email today, I am still waiting for mine. 

66

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Cabinet Bouchara Avocats/Vanessa Bouchara / Getty Images Censorship-Gag Letters

« on: January 11, 2017, 04:37:08 PM »

These are comments Oscar Michelen made on Eugene Volokh's Washington Post piece:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/01/10/american-bloggers-criticizing-american-company-threatened-by-french-lawyer-citing-french-law/

"I have to agree with some of the commenters here Eugene that I find it hard to believe that Getty US was wholly unaware of Ms. Bouchard's campaign. For something this extensive to have been contrived on her own without Getty's knowledge seems like a leap. I told Matthew the same thing when he contacted me about this and I told him about the Speech Act. Getty's response to you strikes me as the same thing as the French police chief in Casablanca being "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here"

Eugene is so funny. Their half assed apology "spoiled/ruined" his fun! LOL!!!

Ya...'twas funny that the "disregard" and "sincerest apologies" went to EUGENE first WTF??!
Glad to hear that actual  "LETTER RECIPIENTS" of this bullshit got an apology as well for what that is worth anyway.

I've not got my apology yet and I am dead serious about starting up again if I don't.

67

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: An Experiment Against Getty

« on: January 11, 2017, 12:23:53 AM »

Well, it looks like this thread may have to become active again since it looks like Getty is trying to get into the censorship business.  Getty is sending out C&D letters through the French Law Firm of Cabinet Bouchara-Avocats demanding under French law that blog post, article and sites be taken down because of what is being negatively said about Getty and their business model. 

I have received said letter and have posted my first article on it over on Getty Images Must Change.

http://gettyimagesmustchange.com/site/getty-images-now-trying-to-control-free-speech-and-limit-opinions/

68

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images (Cabinet Bouchara Avocats) Attempts to Intimidate ELI to Kill Links

« on: January 10, 2017, 09:53:45 PM »

Due to the extremely threatening letter from Vanessa Bouchara, we will henceforth be calling ourselves blackmailletterinfo.com and referring to the outrageous demand letters as "copyright blackmail letters."

:-)

Ha!

69

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Cabinet Bouchara Avocats/Vanessa Bouchara / Getty Images Censorship-Gag Letters

« on: January 10, 2017, 09:51:51 PM »

I have received one of these letters today and am working on my response as I type this.  Good thing I saved my "Unleash Hell" folder for when/if I ever heard from Getty again.  I really never thought I would, I thought they had enough of me last time.

So much as we can thank Timmy for bringing Matthew back to us after the Linda Ellis events I guess we should Send Ms. Bouchara a thank you letter for bringing me back into action.  I had kind of drifted away but I'm back and gearing up for another fight.  Make no mistake I am not worried about this letter in the least and actually chuckled while I was reading it. 

I also don't by for a minute that Getty Images did not know about what Ms. Bouchara was doing. I seriously doubt any law firm/ lawyer will send out all these letters demanding that blogs, websites and articles be taken down or face law suits all on their own.  No money is asked for in the letters, just an implied threat if the articles are not removed, they are not going to do all this and pay for signature proof letters out of their own pockets, they are billing Getty for their services, you know it, I know it and Getty damn well knows it.

What is the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  Why would Getty think they can try and harass and intimidate me (ooops, I used those bad words Getty doesn't like again).  So stay tuned as I'm more than certain the results will be the same as last time....a hugely disproportionate response.

I'm back ..... (mike drop) 

70

Getty Images Letter Forum / Our Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi) Needs Our Help.

« on: January 09, 2017, 07:09:39 PM »

Eli Community,

I am asking for you help, ELI's own Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi) needs our help.  He has come under attack from an anonymous source (currently anonymous) and taking a page from Linda Ellis' play book has started sending emails to Robert's customers, sports leagues he and his wife are involved with and his wife's work place associates.  The legal issues are being handled but Robert will be sending responses to those that have received the anonymous (fake email accounts) emails and I would like for those here that know Robert to write a character testimonial letter on his behalf that he can include along with his response.  For those of you that have been around a while you will remember we all did the same thing for Matthew during his fight with Linda Ellis.

If you wish to contribute you can send me your letter at gregtroy<at>cinci.rr.com.

Thank you for your help and support of Robert.

71

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Bogus/Nonsense Smear-Shame blog against ELI's Robert Krausankas

« on: December 28, 2016, 09:44:05 PM »

Some things to look at with this blog that makes it obvious it's just an attempted smear job. 

1)  I am thinking about moving to Jupiter because apparently Jupiter must be a utopia, since the blogs creation on 12/22/16 they can find nothing that needs attention or addressing in Jupiter other than Robert.

2) While they even quote Robert as saying he stands behind what he writes this "large group of concerned" citizens remains anonymous taking pot shots at Robert and his family. Stand behind what you write and come forward. 

3) The way Robert's name is bold texted and repeated constantly, anyone looking at it can see they are just trying for search engine results.

4) Talking about having the help of other groups in WA and GA (who could that possible be )  I haven't heard a peep from Mr. McCormick since he went into the legalized pot growing business and I would doubt he would want to become involved again, especially after his stellar performance before the GA Supreme court and Ms. Ellis has been quite for some time as well.

I have know Robert for many years now, I have had countless conversations with him and have done and do business with him.  I know he is an honest person, devoted family man.  Robert I stand with you and you have my full support brother!

72

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: A New Getty Problem - Cease & Desist Letter from France

« on: December 28, 2016, 09:07:38 PM »

If your articles are just informative, stating the facts and or your opinions I don't see what they could do to you.  I would think your American First Amendment rights far outweigh any French law. 

I have read some of your articles in the past and from what I remember I saw nothing wrong with them.

Please keep us posted on what you do.

73

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Photographer sues Getty for extortion letters over her work

« on: August 06, 2016, 03:21:41 PM »

.. I'm betting that, those fucktards Jonathn Klien and pot growing Timothy McCormack are glad they got out of this..

I've been out of the loop for some time but
I did not know that Timothy B. McCormack actually "got out"?
Interesting...I was under the impression that he was still sending
letters on the side so...good to know.

May the entrepreneurial Timmy continue to "grow" in his new endeavor.
Movin' on up...I'm tearing up now.

It has not been confirmed that he is "out", but he's been very quiet as of late, so that's an assumption on my part..

We should have an answer shortly, I will be putting in my yearly request for all complaints filed against Getty and we will see if we are still getting the McCormack complaints in there too.  My guess is a few but WAY down.  Pretty hard to be mean and a bully if your new business keeps you mellow all the time.

74

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Zuma Press v. Getty

« on: August 06, 2016, 03:16:39 PM »

nice observations, boy I hope these 2 suits get to discovery...will be fun watching Getty squirm!

You and me both brother!

75

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty Images, Picscout, License Compliance Services (LCS) Sued by Photographer!

« on: July 31, 2016, 09:12:59 PM »

IN the Ars Technica article, Sarah Lochting (supposed Getty Images VP of Communications) tries to bullshit the reporter by saying:

Lochting also underscored that LCS and Getty Images are "separate entities and have no operational relationship."

In all of LCS correspondence we have seen, they outright use the same physical address as Getty Images. ELI has long reported through its own independent research that LCS and Getty Images are closely intertwined sharing a common physical address, technology, and organizational structure.

The Ars Technica article states:

However, DNS records show that LCS' listed address is 605 5th Avenue South, Suite 400 Seattle, Washington, which is Getty Images' corporate address, a fact that she would not explain to Ars.

"It’s a no comment in response to your follow up questions," Lochting e-mailed.

It's "no comment" because the Getty scrawny bimbo, Sarah Lochting,(see Google Images) doesn't realize many people aren't that stupid and ELI already knew about the connection for nearly a year now before anyone cared about looking into how LCS came into existence.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/license-compliance-services-inc-corporate-naming-hanky-panky/

This is the same BS Getty plays with the Washington State Attorney General too.  When a complaint is file against Getty over a LCS letter they reply saying you have the wrong company and make the AG's office send a second letter to the exact same address addressed to LCS or the company who LCS sent the letter out for.  Then LCS responds with a letter on letterhead for the company they are trying to collect.

I have copies of this practice in my Ag complaint files.