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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Received letters from CEG

« on: October 22, 2012, 04:54:30 PM »

Thank you for the advice.

2

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Received letters from CEG

« on: October 22, 2012, 11:42:40 AM »

Hello.

I am looking for some advice on an issue I am having. I apologize ahead of time since this post will be pretty long.

About two months ago I received a letter from CEG telling me that my website (a television themed Wordpress blog) had a copyrighted image on it that was owned by a company named AKM Images. This is the first correspondence I received and I never received a cease and desist letter. They wanted a settlement of a couple hundred dollars in order to avoid taking the case to court.

Since I have never put copyrighted material on my website I knew something was off. It turns out a couple months prior; Wordpress had a security hole that allowed unapproved users to access your server and upload files. At the same time my hosting service also had a security hole that I later found out about (I have an email from the hosting service proving this one).

Needless to say a hacker took advantage of one or both of these security holes and uploaded html files to my server. I believe the hacker hacked into my website so they could upload a bunch of html files that linked to other websites (I am guessing that were owned by the hacker). One of the html files had the image on it that CEG claims that I took. The image was never on my server. The html files referenced an image on another webpage.

These html files were put into a random folder on my server that had no link to them anywhere on the website. I don't know how anyone could have found them. The webpage the image was on was also a totally different design than the actual website and my blog never discussed celebrity gossip so this image would never have appeared on my website.

After receiving the letter, I contacted CEG by phone (I know probably not the best idea) and explained the situation. I told them that my website was hacked and I deleted the html files as soon as I found out about them. I did not admit any wrongdoing. They told me they would get back to me since they had to talk to their superior. They never did and I contacted them several other times and they never contacted me back. So I assumed they were dropping the case since I did nothing wrong and the hacker was responsible for the copyrighted materials. Yesterday I received a letter from a Marvin Cable law office in Massachusetts saying that he now wants $2,000.
I am wondering what I should do. I am unemployed so I have no money to pay the settlement even if I wanted to. I don’t want to pay the settlement anyway since I feel I did nothing wrong. I didn’t put the image on my website and I definitely didn’t receive any benefit off it since no one should have been able to find it. There was also no way I could have made any money off it since the page the image was on had no ads and was not asking for any money.

With this said I have the following questions:

1.   Due to my website being hacked, I was wondering if any of these copyright trolls have ever been accused of or been found guilty of hacking someone’s website, uploading their images, and then turning around and suing the website owner? When I called and talked about hacking, he went into defensive mode and said things like it was ridiculous and his company would never have done that. I never even said anything about thinking they were responsible. In the words he used and the manner in which he said them it seemed that he was hiding something.

2.   Do you think they will ever even bring the case to court? Looking on this site it seems like most of the time these cases never go to court. It was only one image and I have some proof that my website was hacked. Plus I have no money (have been unemployed for quite a long time) so he wouldn’t be able to collect anything anyways. Do you think I should just ignore the letter since the case is unlikely to go anywhere, should I try to discuss the case with him, or should I consider settling?

3.   If this case would go to court, where would the case be heard? The lawyer who sent the latest letter is in Massachusetts, AKM Images is I believe in California, and I live in the Midwest.

4.   If this case would go to court, what defenses would I have since I didn’t put the images on the website?

5.   I read on the “Copyright Enforcement Group aka CEG TEK International” thread about the Perfect10 v. Google case. I looked up the case and believe due to the images not actually being on my server that this case could be relevant for my defense if the case should ever go to court. The paperwork they sent me even says that the image url is of a website I don’t even own. Am I right with this assumption? If I am right, if I contact the Marvin Cable law office should I bring this up and he will realize that I am educating myself on the issue and will not settle easily with him? Do you think this would make him realize that he will just be wasting his time and he will stop harassing me?

6.   As I was reading some of the other threads people were mentioning looking for similar photos and finding out how much they were charging for the image. I didn’t find a lot of information so I was wondering if anyone knew of the best websites to look for comparable images (celebrity photos) to see what the market rate for a similar image would be?

7.   If I decide not to settle (I am leaning towards this option) is there some way I can stop these companies from harassing me?

8.   Would it be advisable to call the Marvin Cable law office and try to get this settled? I would not admit to anything and would most likely just ask him to prove he has the copyright to the image, that he has proof that the photographer transferred the copyright to them, how he came up with the ridiculous settlement offer of $2,000, and proof of sales that lead to that calculation. I am guessing that calling him will not get him to drop the case even if I explain what happened and that I have no money?

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post. Any help would be appreciated. Once again thank you for your time.