Getty Images Extortion Letter - Copyright Trolls
If you are reading this, you are just one of the thousands (if not millions) of individuals or owners of small businesses who have been receiving extortion letter for using an image off internet which a company called Getty Images claims is theirs. They are misusing (and misinterpreting) the copyright law to make large amounts of money (in millions of Dollars), by employing greedy attorneys and legally abusive collection tactics i.e. letters, phone calls, etc. A little search over internet will reveal thousands of other links which are complaining about such extortion practices of companies like Getty Images. It is surprising that neither the Government, nor Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken serious note of it to stop it. There is a pending legislation in the Congress against such copyright trolls and you are highly encouraged to speak to your local Congressman to pass it as soon as possible.
Getty Images is an American Company (part of a Carlyl Group based in Seattle, Washington) operated by Mark Getty and Jonathan Kleinand. It owns hundreds of websites and operates with different names online i.e. Allsport, Word View, Liaison Agency, Newsmakers, Online USA, Hulton Press Library, Picture Post, Hulton Deutsch, Hulton Getty, Keystone Collection, EyeWire, Energy Film Library, Archive Photos of New York, Image Bank, Hulton Archive, Archive Photos, Pictorial Parade, Frederick Lewis Stock Photos, image.net, MediaVast, WireImage, FilmMagic, Contour Photos, Master Delegates, Isifa Image Service, Laura Ronchi, Jupitermedia, Jupiterimages, stock.xchng, StockXpert, Redferns Music Picture Library, PhotoDisc, Tony Stone Images, Hellman & Friedman (H&F), Flickr or iStockphoto. They deliberately populate the internet with their images, enticing people to get them off their websites for FREE by using keywords i.e. Royalty Free Images, Free photos, License free photos, etc. And then they use a software tool to spider all over internet, searching for their images, taking screenshots and sending them over to their attorneys who in turn combine all of that as "EVIDENCE" to scare and hound naive individuals and small business owners.
The best rule of thumb is to IGNORE such a non-sense. If you will speak to an attorney, that's how they make money and they will want you to take it seriously. No court of law will punish you for doing an innocent mistake and removing/replacing the image immediately. If you are really that much interested in giving Getty Images some hard time via "out-of-court" settlement which they are desperately seeking (since they live off such activities), here are some of the questions that you'd want to ask Getty Images or their attorneys. In response they will either deny your request for further information (which is a clear proof they can't take you to the court) or will offer you a more negotiated settlement. In either case, you can simply issue a "CEASE AND DESIST" request from contacting you any further. If they don't stop hounding you, then you can start collecting all of the relevant evidence of their illegal practices and take them to the local civil court (using the legal aid help from local bars). Irrespective of what other attorneys tell you or whatever you hear from internet forums, IGNORING is the best, easiest and the most effective rule in addition to talking to your local Congressman about it. So, here are the questions you need to ask Getty Images whenever you decide to respond (provided you really have to get it out of your system);
1. How did you come to know about my website using your images specially things like;
a) The time and date you found out
b) The procedure you used to identify your images on my website
