Inadvertent Image Pirating and Getting Nailed for it.

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by SurfDoctor, Jan 9, 2011.

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  1. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    My brother-in-law just called me on the phone in a panic. He was messing around with building a website and was considering trying to start a business with it. In building his simple site, he pulled some images off of the web using Google Images and stuck them in a few places as place fillers. He then showed his site to a couple of people, including me, and then decided to drop the idea. His website has been sitting around dormant for almost a year.

    Just today he tells me that he got a letter from a company called getty images demanding that he owes them $1250 for use of one of the one of the pictures that he pulled off of a website he found through Google Images.

    Nobody is sure exactly how the people found their image and found his website since it was not marketed in any way. They obviously got his address from a "who is" search of his domain name. They didn't seem to actually know his name because they addressed it to the domain name of his website and put his address on it. It all seems a little fishy to me.

    Needless to say, he just deleted all pictures from his site, since none of them actually belonged to him. Now he is having panic attacks.

    Does anyone out there have any experience with this sort of thing? Any insight?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 10, 2011
  2. airtorn

    airtorn Moderator

    On a semi-related topic, there is one particular newpaper in Nevada that sues websites such as forums and blogs for copyright infringement when part of one of it's articles is cut/pasted onto another site. Even if the lawsuits turn out to have little to no merit, the legal fees aren't something the average blogger or forum owner wants to deal with.
     
  3. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 9, 2011
  4. GeneralSnus

    GeneralSnus Member

    This site has links to several resources for individuals who have received settlement demand letters from Getty Images.
     
  5. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Very good info. It smelled like some sort of trap to me. That website was very helpful, thanks so much. Now I have got to make a call and make a relative very happy and relieved! Thanks again!
     
  6. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    At the website that GeneralSnus pointed me to, I learned that this is a racket that this company engages in. They post nice pictures and make them easy to get onto your personal site, they make it so it's not readily apparent that you will owe money and then they use 'bots to find the images again and generate threatening letters demanding huge sums of money. Apparently, it works often enough to be worth the effort. According to that site, in the US, the most they can do is send you a "cease and desist" order, if I understand it correctly, they can't force you to pay unless you refuse to remove the image. Somebody look over the site and tell me what you think. http://www.zyra.info/getstu.htm
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 9, 2011
  7. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Yeah I would take down the photo (which it sounds like he's already done) and reply to the email informing them that the photo has been removed. Hopefully that'll be the end of it. For a relatively small amount it doesn't seem likely that they'll actually be willing to pay the money to collect it.
     
  8. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    If anyone is interested in using the photos of others, you may want to check out the Creative Commons.

    -Matt
     
  9. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    Getty is a large stock image house, and apparently they are pretty aggressive with theft of their images. It's likely their images are invisibly watermarked with the Digimarc technology. If so, they can simply sign up for Digimarc's spider service, which constantly crawls the web, looking for stolen images.

    However, generally speaking, if you remove the image promptly upon receiving notice of infringement, there isn't much they can do. There is a statutory fine for copyright theft, which is large ($25,000 per image) but it is very rarely enforced.
     
  10. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Yes, this is my understanding too; I'm glad that people I respect can confirm this fact. My bro-in-law removed the image even before he called me in a panic.
     
  11. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    From Wiki on Getty
     
  12. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    To paraphrase Homer Simpson, "DegreeInfo, is there anything you can't do?"
     
  13. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I'm still single, so DegreeInfo has granted 3/4 my wishes.
     

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