We are the latest victim of the Getty Image extortion scam

[lucia]

3) Make a reasonable offer of 50 -200 dollars.
[...]
It doesn't really matter if it's hotlinked, they'll bug you regardless, but still can't do anything without the copyrights.

Sure it does. Because if it's hotlinked you don't offer zero ($) and you are done.  They may write back-- but you reitterate that it was hotlinked and will send zero.   In contrast, if it was not hotlinked, you offer something-- making your offer contingent on them proving they have a contract from the copyright holder and that a copyright registration of some sort has been filed.

[SoylentGreen]

Getty won't take 50 or 200 dollars... so it may as well be zero.
But, I'll put all that in...

S.G.

[Peeved]

Getty won't take 50 or 200 dollars... so it may as well be zero.
But, I'll put all that in...
S.G.

Yup...it may as well be ZERO without any proof to back up the demand! If one has done his/her homework they will know ahead of time whether or not there is proof in Getty's claim. If you are "hotlinking" then yes you should already KNOW not to make an offer!

[Sandy443]

EVERYONE, thank you for your input and time and bluntness-which I appreciate.  I am clearly new on the block and getting my feet wet, doesn't truly describe it but what the heck. 

So I am totally in agreement, it's my responsibility to do my own leg work and get the information especially since it is all here.  The problem I had right off the bat, wanting to read the entire Forum and get the info, after reading 90% of posts all the way through starting a few years back and working my way forward in time.....I gotta go to work and sleep, oh yah and eat and other things. I started in the older posts and there was a bunch of UK stuff there which I read and didn't realize they did not pertain to the U.S. until later.  My eyes bugging outta my head I took a stab at the letter. I didn't read far enough forward I guess. 

So my two cents worth concerning the website and forum, yeah totally do some sort of FAQ or Capsulized info page.  Cuz, damn, there is a LOAD... tons of info and for a new person who really wants to take a stab at their first letter, it's a lot to have to pour through 36 pages of posts.  Huge.  That said, it's totally a wonderful asset, it's just really really big.  Thank you to all who made it possible and yes I'm going to put my money where my mouth or mouse is. 

OK, now, I've rewritten a new draft letter.  You'll be proud, I HOPE!  I don't really want to post it here yet, mainly cuz I don't want Getty to read it ahead of time.  Any volunteers, I can email it to for a review?  It's just one page.
Thanks

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Feel free to send it to me.  [email protected]

[Oscar Michelen]

While I think an FAQ page is a good concept we would have to make sure it is accurate and thorough and yet still let people know that these issues are not really prone to one or two sentence responses. Perhaps better would be some kind of site map that let's people know where to go for basic information or highlight those many posts that explain the Getty issue.  I'm all for whatever makes the volumes of info on our site more manageable.

[Oscar Michelen]

BTW - I just remembered -  the front page of this site has a locked forum on The Getty Images Issue which summarizes pretty much everything. Do we need to augment that somehow?

[SoylentGreen]

Many good points have been made about the FAQ issue.

I just saw that the forum regulars are typing in much the same information in answer to general queries about Getty letters.
About 90 percent of what's typed is essentially the same information each time.
There's a lot of fatigue associated with this sort of thing.  The end result will be that there may be little or no response to such queries on the forum in the future.
But, when the victim does a search for the topic, 1000 results come up, with a baffling range of discussion regarding same issues each time.

But, Oscar makes a good point that there are already resources on here that address many of the issues.
Maybe they need to be better utilized?

I any case, I do realize that it's pretty cathartic to explain to new visitors how Getty is such a sham.
Again, there's nothing to stop with the friendly, personal approach.
Maybe we need something (only a couple of pages) that gets the "boilerplate" stuff out of the way?

However, if people aren't interested in using it, it might be a waste of time.

S.G.

[Mulligan]

How about using the sticky function to put key threads at the top of the various forums?

Also, I bet Matthew still has plans to finish the ebook he was working on. Having that available would give new comers a time-saving option if they don't have the time or energy to read the entire forum, which took me almost three days over a year and a half ago. And there's a lot more information (valuable information, I might add) that's been compiled here since then.
 

[jot]

I know on another forum I am on (a car site), we have sticky's for certain threads and that seems to work well.  Global mods and topic mods have the ability to create a sticky and lock it.  One note though, even with stickys or a FAQ thread, you will still get posts from newbies asking questions they can find if they just did a search.  Many times we won't answer the question, but just provide the link to the correct topic for them to read themselves in the reply.  That does help on the typing a bit, unless we get one like what Matt had to deal with when he had the flu...LOL   

[Moe Hacken]

Jot, you're right about the sticky threads and how some people still won't read them anyway. Matt's put up several sticky posts on top of the forum's home page. It seems a lot of people go right past those looking for the way to post a question that's answered clearly in the FAQ sticky posts.

Some of the older members are becoming quite sensitive about duplication fatigue, which is valid. I suggest replying to those questions by simply pointing people to the FAQ URL and tell them it's required reading before posting.

Maybe there's a way to create a filter so that a new user can't post until they've at least visited the FAQ post pages? That way we help people cool down off the initial rush of feeling threatened by an extortion letter before they actually post a question or comment, and hopefully that would reduce endless duplication of topic discussions.

[SoylentGreen]

HEY!!  WE AREN'T "SENSITIVE ABOUT THIS"!!!  lol.

However, I don't see much support for a FAQ or Guide at this time.
So, we'll just see how it goes.  Like I said, if the forum prefers a more hands-on approach, I'm ok with that...

S.G.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

@S.G. I fully support some sort of FAQ, but I don't support wasting ones time creating it, knowing that most newbies are just going to post the infamous question "got letter, now what?"... I think maybe a better approach would be a sticky post containing the "must read" threads, which would cover anything that would be in the FAQ, plus other general stuff, then when we get the newbie question we can simply reply with a link to the must read stuff..

[SoylentGreen]

It's a good way to crowdsource the SEO too...

Me?  I'm gonna make some more memes..!

S.G.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I am currently working on this as time permits but there is a lot of information to go through. I am working on the links pertaining to Getty issues currently. Perhaps someone would like to volunteer to go through the threads and find relevant links pertaining to masterfile issues, Canadian letter recipients, issues related to hotlinking, public domain images and so forth.

These are all on my to do list but will be done in my spare time which isn't a lot.

@S.G. I fully support some sort of FAQ, but I don't support wasting ones time creating it, knowing that most newbies are just going to post the infamous question "got letter, now what?"... I think maybe a better approach would be a sticky post containing the "must read" threads, which would cover anything that would be in the FAQ, plus other general stuff, then when we get the newbie question we can simply reply with a link to the must read stuff..