Questions about my upcoming battle

[sortey]

Helllloooooo all and thank you founders for having this site. This is my first time coming up against something like this and extremely happy to have such a resource at hand. I'm still in the process of reading the forum materials since this morning and viewing some videos before i go too much further but was wondering if perhaps any details were significantly different based on my scenario. I'm not trying to claim special case or anything of the sort, just not seeing anything necessarily in the same boat to the same degree so i wasn't sure if it was further down and i just hadn't gotten to it yet. I tried searching for my hosting provider but nothing came up there. Anyways, back in 2007 I bought a domain with my hosting provider for my wife and her company she was starting. I'm in IT by trade but definitely not web design, so i used the free templatebuilder provided by the web hosting service. I tried going in to build a new site now but the image in question that Getty wants $1300 from me for is a banner image on my site that they have for some reason no longer put in the template builder. Before i contact my hosting provider i was wondering if i even should or should i proceed the route of accepting the fact that I'm the end user and according to the letter I've read from Getty it is ultimately my responsibility according to them? Also, despite the fact that the domain name is registered to me and has my address and my name (albeit the phone number is no longer active) they (Getty) has contacted my employer and sent my legal department cease and desist letters. Is this even a valid approach? My employer has absolutely ZERO to do with my wife's business that has never netted us more than 100 dollars in the 5 years of existence because she never told me to take it down or leave it up. How can they draw attention to me in this manner and can i do anything to fight it or at least get it out of my company's sights because this affects my employment. I've never even used my company email to do anything to the site ever and it has never been on any of my domain registrar information ever, because that's a personal thing that again i don't want impacting my career. Just wondering how they're allowed to contact my employer for something with absolutely no correlation to my employment? Wouldn't that be like Best Buy calling my employer about me being late on a payment for a TV? I told my wife about it too and she instantly wanted to remove the image and leave it be but i told her we can't ignore this and need to act but to give me the day to continue researching.

I look forward to any feedback and while still really really early on in my fight (even though my work has been apparently shelving this repeatedly for over a month apparently ugh) i thank any and all for their feedback.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

They contacted your employer?? who specifically did this? how did they get this information. It's certainly unethical at best! This has me fired up! I'll address more in depth once you answer these questions, and I will also respond to your questions about your hosting company, but at the moment i'm floored by this seemingly new twist on things.

[Matthew Chan]

Something doesn't sound right to me. What did you include in your domain name registration or your website?  I am not defending Getty but I can't see how they could "magically" find Getty without you providing some information.

I have followed this and this sounds very atypical.  Who actually did the contacting?  Was it Getty themselves, a collection agency, Collection lawyer, employee, or what?

I feel we are missing something here.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

That's exactly why I posed these questions, before I get all worked up for nothing..how the hell did they get your employer information??

[sortey]

Wow thank you for the quick response. My VP came into my office probably about 6 hours ago and made me aware of everything and handed me the original documents from the 24th of May and let me know that our head of legal counsel has been talking to him about it and said he should let me know about it so I'm holding the original documents in my hand and they basically said to  handle it. I'm an open book on this but i read elsewhere that they read these forums as well and until i have a better understanding and game plan i want to make sure i keep as many details either in pm or some other means. I'm pretty sure they got my employer either from spokeo or linkedin. I try to keep most of my info off spokeo as possible but that's turned into a quarterly battle since the turn of the year.

The original document is 9 pages and is addressed to the legal department of my company. The address on the letterhead is gettyimages with the Seattle washington address and their 800 number and web site, It has a case number and an access code for remitting payments (very convenient if i had the $1300 to shell out like that lol).

My domain registrar information and account have only my personal physical addresses and email addresses and i will gladly pm other domains of mine for y'all to reference. The only thing i think could be tagged is my mobile number which a few years back was brought into the company umbrella so perhaps that's how, but it doesn't show up in the whois, only the old phone number for the business which has been out of service for about half a year. Sorry i do concede i can be lazy about updating whois info. I was actually on the fence about calling you Matthew, but after reading some of the posts, i know it takes a lot out of you day in and day out so i wanted to be more knowledgeable about it before i did. I am more than happy to contribute again though to get the phone call if you think it would be best.

I don't want this falling on my company's legal counsel by any means and i do want it rectified i just don't want to jump any guns and i most assuredly can't afford their mortgage and car payment for a picture.  I think the only part that bothers me again is the fact they contacted my employer and that this all came from a business venture my wife didn't really care to continue pursuing but we never fully decided to call it quits on the site.

Also i should mention i have not removed the image in question yet but as of posting this i will be. I've screen captured it to file but i was really hoping i could go to my provider and see what they say but the more i read, the less I'm inclined to believe they would actually do anything to help.

[stinger]

It's really wrong of them to send this to your employer, but it may be a new tactic to up the pressure.

They might figure the amount is small enough that perhaps the employer would pick it up for you to keep you from being distracted for the next 3 years.

Still, it's WRONG WRONG WRONG!

[sortey]

I think you may have hit the nail on the head. I think they were hoping my employer would pay but that's not going to happen. I could understand if this was the collections portion of the process, but the letter looks to me like the initial typical stop it, here's screenshots of proof and initial offer. The letter ends with it being from the Copyright Compliance Team - Getty Images. The funny part to me is the report data has the email address for me at that domain and i have never received anything from them in email. My physical mailing address is good and they could have just as easily sent it there. The only bit of information on that report is the fact the phone number is no longer valid.

I've summarized the options for either going about this our own with my wife or paying for Oscar if he is available and mentioned she and I should discuss this tonight. My wife is a very strong-headed woman so I could see her seeing this as a challenge she wants to take on, but I don't think she really would lol after all this is related to a business started and kind of brushed off to the side. Can't really do that with this though.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

This is completely different, I wouldn't do anything until we get more feedback on this, my first thought is a complaint to the Attorney General, BBB, and anybody else we can think of, this is completely un-reasonable. Are there any names, beside "copyright compliance team"??

[sortey]

The only names ever mentioned in the entire document are my own, and the original photographer. It almost looks like they are 2 separate letters but both dated the 24th of May and both addressed to:

Legal Department
My employer, Inc.
Employer Address
City, State Zip

[Peeved]

The only names ever mentioned in the entire document are my own, and the original photographer. It almost looks like they are 2 separate letters but both dated the 24th of May and both addressed to:

Legal Department
My employer, Inc.
Employer Address
City, State Zip

Hmmmm...looks like they went surfing to try and find an address for which to send and figured this would do! Well...except for this statement "My physical mailing address is good and they could have just as easily sent it there."

This is going to get very interesting!
 

[SoylentGreen]

Lol'd at this one.
Maybe you can "lay low"?
If they sent demands to the wrong address, then I'd hardly say that you're obligated to respond.
I wouldn't write or call them and give them the "correct" contact info, either.

S.G.

[Peeved]

Lol'd at this one.
Maybe you can "lay low"?
If they sent demands to the wrong address, then I'd hardly say that you're obligated to respond.
I wouldn't write or call them and give them the "correct" contact info, either.

S.G.

LOL...Good point Soylent. However, you KNOW they will CONTINUE to send to his employer!

SO NOT COOL!
 

[sortey]

Yeah I did a google on my name and employer name and yet another Spokeo listing is there. That site is a complete pain in my rear. Especially with having to use a different email address for every removal request it's simply ridiculous. I'm sure they found it that way, but i'm going to see what the Captain advises and try to take it one step at a time. The sheer amount of this going on that i have been reading about here you would think would garner national news at some point in time, but even on some of the other sites it pains me to see when some lawyers side completely with getty images and one of them was even speaking out at Oscar. I can only imagine how outlandish they would find it if their child mistakenly used a licensed image by getty...

I know it won't change anything, but should i go ahead and take my wife's site down since she said to or would that possibly hamper things? Thanks again and good night. time to try and get a couple hours sleep.

[Peeved]

I know it won't change anything, but should i go ahead and take my wife's site down since she said to or would that possibly hamper things? Thanks again and good night. time to try and get a couple hours sleep.

I'm not sure of all the details here but I don't see why you would need to take your Wife's site completely down. Hopefully you have REMOVED the image/s.

That's my opinion for now until you hear from the "Captain".
 

[SoylentGreen]

This is one of those subjects that's a bit delicate.

If it was me, I'd see if I could get the front desk secretary to mail a note to Getty on company letterhead stating that it's the wrong address.
Additionally, I'd ensure that no current address of the extortion victim was forwarded.  Keep a copy of this.
If Getty continued its actions, it could be liable for HUGE damages.  In the millions.  They could be liable already.
The employee could now allege that any near term career hurdles were due to Getty's harassment.

In any case, Getty blew it.  The victim in this situation now has a case against Getty.
If push comes to shove, all he needs to do is threaten legal action because they contacted his employer, and this will disappear.

But, that's just me.

S.G.