Questions about my upcoming battle

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

SG's right about Getty exposing themselves to a liability through their actions. Getty is making the assumption that by placing the image on your wife's site your owe them and they are trying to collect. By contacting your employer they
are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

http://www.nationallegalsystems.com/fdcpa_enforcement.htm

No one can tell you what to do, but if it were me, I would write them a letter demanding all the standard proof of registration and contract with photographer type stuff. I would tell them that you have removed the image in the meantime. I would then point out their transgression. I would be sure to focus on the effect it may have with your employment with the company and that Congress specifically passed a bill like this to prevent these things from happening. It's hard to place a price tag on what they have cost you.

But the good news is, you could be convinced to set the whole business aside. You will require a letter stating that your removal of the image from the site has cleared up the matter and no further action on that image will be taken. If they decide not to do this, you will be left with no choice but to lodge a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and pursue further action.

Anyway, thats probably what I would do.

[SoylentGreen]

I'm glad that McFilms is still here...
...otherwise I'd be:

http://www1.skoftenmedia.com/images/picdump/166/38.jpg

S.G.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

You'd be:
"403 - Forbidden"??

[SoylentGreen]

Funny... I can see the image.
Let's try again:

http://fumaga.com/i/sadimir-putin.jpg

S.G.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I agree with MCFilms and S.G. as well, Getty has crossed the line with this.  It's just a matter of time and they'll cross the line with the wrong person and they will file a counter suit like Aloha did to HAN. 

[sortey]

Morning all, just some small updates. I had a very informative phone call with Matthew last night (this box has been open for 2 days I actually talked to him the evening before last) and my legal department here at work this morning (yesterday morning). Apparently our company gets a couple of these letters per year that he (legal counsel upstairs from my office) deals with and he replies that he needs proof of the image and it's copyright and how long it was on the web site reported. Apparently he then got the letter with the screenshot and the domain name and knew it wasn't one of the company's and passed it along to my boss who brought it to my attention. He hasn't responded yet that it doesn't belong to the company but said he will be writing the letter in the next couple of days.

He said he thinks i should get a hold of my hosting provider which has changed the templates from what they were so i can't get proof it was there before, and make them aware of the letter from Getty and see what they say. I don't have high hopes for feedback from provider but we'll see. So far i can't even find a phone number for support. He also thinks i should construct a letter to Getty if i don't hear back from my provider and let Getty know that i do know about my employer getting a letter but that it has nothing to do with the company and that my hosting provider provided the service and templates for me with me paying for their service with the understanding on my part that the images they used were properly licensed and that i shouldn't be held accountable in that regard. I brought up that in the letter they claim if the third party doesn't want to pay up or settle then it still falls on my behalf to settle and then settle with my provider separately.

He has also offered to help me when I'm writing my letters which is nice but i don't think my company has any interest in pursuing the matter to the point of going after them so that decision would fall on me. I personally would love to dig into Getty for wrongfully contacting my employer without any contact with me, but i would hate for my company to be brought into it without really wanting to pursue it so i know it's a tricky situation.
Right now I'm focusing on trying to hear back form my hosting provider but i don't have high expectations. If by early to mid next week i haven't heard back i guess i will start my letters to Getty. Sorry it took me so long to reply, this box has been open for 2 days now on my work computer but I've been slammed. 

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

I'll take a stab here at a couple of items..

1. if you company gets several letters per year from Getty, your company's legal team is not to bright to begin with. they need to draft a letter back to getty stating the comany has nothing to do with this domain.
2.  would not contact until, they contact you directly, with a new fresh letter.
3. you hosting provider doesn't supply a phone number?? They must be real professional! Don't count on them for anything, as apparently they don't even want to talk to clients / potential clients....

I hope you at least removed the images and removed them from archive.org as well in the meantime.

[SoylentGreen]

Just few quick comments.

The less that you say the better.  I don't like the sound of the whole "crafting letters" thing.
The more that you write or talk, the more responsibility that you're taking for this alleged infringement.
You need to understand that they don't care what you write, they just want your money and they'll keep at you.

I still don't understand how your website has been connected with your employer, or why your employer receives a couple of letters per year.
It's nice of your boss to help you assume responsibilty for the infringement, and to steer Getty right in your direction.
Make sure that you tell Getty when you're home so that they can deliver a lawsuit to you. lol.

I don't think that you're handling this properly.  But, it's your money, not mine.

S.G.

[sortey]

Just to address BuddhaPi first and then I'll hit SoylentGreen's.

1) My company is a large conglomerate of smaller commercial businesses that rely on web sites to generate sales leads etc. We have about 800 internet domains out there associated with the company and the ones we don't host are generally hosted by us. We have a lot of web pages and sometimes our outside vendors that host the web sites can apparently get us in trouble. The lawyer at work said he responds to them with "show us proof of how long and what image" and generally doesn't hear back. This was the first time it was for an employee's web site not pertaining to the company and for an employee that he knew. If i got a legal notice about one of my employees like this i would probably be taken a bit aback as well.
2) i do kind of like that idea and i think i'll follow that first before acting.
3) Yeah i'm learning that this provider might not have been the best to go with, but it's that whole "look how much i saved" back in 03 when i started using them for just a single domain no hosting, it was easier to add a service from the account page than to move domains and find a new hosting and registrar provider. I can get a live web chat for sales but not support lol. I'll keep plugging at them though.

The image was removed the day before i talked to Matthew on the phone. I also browsed to make sure it wasn't sitting anywhere else in the server as well.

Soylent, the simple fact they went to my employer is the one thing that has bothered me too. I shared the paperwork with Matthew and my name, address of where i'm sitting right now typing this, our old home number, and my email at the domain they listed as the offender is all on the report. I have explained to my boss and legal very thoroughly that i never use my company email address outside of work for anything because i don't ever want anything i do in my personal life to ever reflect upon my career. Not saying i have a dark side or anything, i just strongly believe in the philosophy of not mixing business and personal.

I thought i was handling it well but i appreciate the criticism and will try to go about looking at it differently and see how i can adjust. To be honest, mostly i've been spending time talking with my wife to make sure we're both on the same page and where we go. The phone call i had with Matthew was severely informative and I can't thank him enough again for that. I think i'll wait to hear from hosting provider, see if they reply if not, i'll wait and see if i'm contacted directly.

There's a very strong likelihood that I will ask Oscar for his help in this. I didn't get a vibe from the lawyer at work that this would be something the company felt like going after, after all they're in the business of making money. My biggest thing again is i want my employer left out of this. They have employed me and kept food on my plate and a house over my family's head for almost 9 year now. I appreciate that and i don't expect them to fight my battles.

I guess my only concern right now will be if i hear from the hosting provider or not. Worry about the next step after that    Thank you all again for the feedback. Glad this place is here.

[Oscar Michelen]

I don't think its worth getting over entangled in this.  The image has been taken down and a stern letter from you not to contact your employer should be enough to end further communication from Getty to them. It is a bit disturbing that Getty went to an unrelated third party without any proof of a connection between the third party and the alleged infringement. I don't think its part of a new corporate strategy, but probably an overzealous employee thinking they were being thorough in finding an address to send the letters to. That being said, Getty should be alerted that it was inappropriate.