Messages

1

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Carolyn and Evan Photoattorney

« on: September 20, 2011, 10:21:47 PM »

http://www.collegefootballfansite.com

I'm guessing this is your website?  If so you're playing a bit loose with copyright infringement regardless, you have a lot of photos from the AP on your front page.  I'm also not sure what the rules are when you copy a few sentences of an article and then link to the actual story, like what you are doing.

Just be careful.

2

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Anybody mind?

« on: September 20, 2011, 10:15:18 PM »

I'm impressed that you would take those guys on.  The Aryan brotherhood runs deep.

I'd hire Carolyn Wright and Evan Andersen, then ask for $15k.

3

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Carolyn and Evan Photoattorney

« on: September 20, 2011, 10:12:25 PM »

It's good to see that Carolyn is raising her prices, the last one we heard about was $10k, this one was $12k.  Inflation is rampant at the Wright law office.

http://www.photoattorney.com/?p=2830

Nice little poll Carolyn has going on!

Also, her list of clients has more than doubled since I checked her site a few weeks ago.  I have a feeling that Photo Attorney is going to be a major player in the copyright trolling business.  I bet Evan's parents are so proud of him!

4

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Just saw this and felt the need to share as I find it amusing

« on: September 01, 2011, 11:35:38 AM »

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001173/

I think that picture is of Aaron Eckhart, aka Harvey Dent!

5

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Just saw this and felt the need to share as I find it amusing

« on: August 31, 2011, 09:37:41 PM »

I've got a business plan.

You buy a camera, learn SEO, take a ton of pictures of famous landmarks, toss them on your blog, Flickr and Picasa.  Register your photos, wait a few months, hire Photo Attorney or Brandon Sand and then send out the extortion letters.

I'd be fascinated to know how much money you could make.  The photos wouldn't even have to be edited, just take a ton of photos that people Google for and then bust them when they toss them up on their site.

Entrepreneurship 101.  You'd actually be better off taking generic photos, as people will Google terms like "Yankee Stadium" or "Empire State Building" and that's when SEO skills come into play.

Mike D "Photo Attorney, I'd like to hire you to take my cases on a contingency basis?"
PA "Ok, are you a professional photographer?"
Mike D "No, but I've learned a lot about copyright trolling from Ryan McGinnis and plan on using his business model to make some cold hard cash"
PA "Welcome aboard"

6

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: $9,000 for 1 image! Photo Attorney Extortion Letter by Carolyn Wright's law firm

« on: August 17, 2011, 08:48:58 PM »

http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/photo-by-ryan-mcginnis/

Ryan is making a lot of enemies.

7

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: GR/PPH/CON Form

« on: August 17, 2011, 05:52:18 PM »

So what are the consequences if you submit your photos for copyright after they have been published but you do not submit that form?

8

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: $9,000 for 1 image! Photo Attorney Extortion Letter by Carolyn Wright's law firm

« on: August 17, 2011, 05:33:07 PM »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digicana/257006413/  (copyright notice on the bottom middle)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digicana/3824421125/ (copyright on the bottom right)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digicana/257006414/ (no copyright)



Ryan McGinnis, photographer from Nebraska, is really inconsistent.  I almost wonder if he puts his copyright notice on the Flickr image right before he sent out his demand letter so that can tack on additional damages, but does not watermark his images up until that point.

One thing is for sure, that picture of Lincoln, Nebraska is easily worth $9,000, it's a classic, one that could never be replicated.

9

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Alaska Stock Images Settlement Demand Letter

« on: August 16, 2011, 10:44:13 PM »

Wow, Ryan McGinnis and Photo Attorney are not going to like being upstaged by these guys, guessing they will increase their next extortion requests to $16,000 per image.

10

Getty Images Letter Forum / GR/PPH/CON Form

« on: August 16, 2011, 04:16:25 PM »

Is filling out the GR/PPH/CON form completely optional when copyrighting photos or are the times when you must do it?  Or is the VA form enough all the time?

Thanks,

11

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Unfavorable Court Rulings ?? Getty ??

« on: August 16, 2011, 03:48:11 PM »

Even if you've been infringed upon, you still have to threaten many people, you may become paranoid when a strange car parks in front of your house, you have to pay thousands up-front for a lawyer just to take your case, and you may never even collect a single cent.

SG, you make a good point. 

I would be nervous sending out all of these extortion letters, knowing that there are a lot of crazies out there who might actually come looking for you.  You never know what state a person will be in when they get that extortion letter, did someone close to them just die, are they going through a divorce, did they just lose their job?  You're playing with fire and I imagine if you do it long enough, you will get burned.

12

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Unfavorable Court Rulings ?? Getty ??

« on: August 14, 2011, 10:27:56 PM »

Newzshooter,

I think you're being foolish if you truly believe that the average Internet user is well versed in copyright laws.  I think for most Americans when they think of copyright violations they think of a musician stealing the hook in a song, such as Vanilla Ice taking Queen's "Under Pressure."  Or a person taking someone else's photo and using it in a poster, such as the Barack Obama Hope poster.  They think it's when someone steals someone else's work and makes money off of it.

However, when a blogger tosses a picture up on their blog that they found in Google images search, I guarantee you most of those people have no idea what they are doing could land them an extortion letter from someone asking an insane amount of money that they probably do not even have.  I get a laugh when you talk about the terms on Google image search, assuming people read those, come on.  

Yes, what they did was wrong. Asking them to remove the image is fair.  But is fair asking someone to pay thousands of dollars for a mistake?  We are in a recession, unemployment is rampant and these extortionist are causing stress and adding financial hardship to people's life, for a mistake, a mistake.

Answer me this, did you ever burn a CD from a friend, ever, even once?  Ever download a song of Napster?  If you did and you're out there asking people to pay thousands of dollars, you're a hypocrite.  Well... unless you went back and paid four digits for a song that you downloaded on Napster, which I'm sure you did.

13

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: $9,000 for 1 image! Photo Attorney Extortion Letter by Carolyn Wright's law firm

« on: August 04, 2011, 03:05:41 PM »

http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First

You can try this search, but odds are they registered their photos in bulk so you'll have no idea if the photos in questions are in that bulk registration.

14

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Can we start a "Success Mission Accomplished" Thread for success stories?

« on: August 04, 2011, 02:39:34 PM »

buddhappi,

So did you counter offer or Oscar just sent a letter and they left you alone?

15

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: $9,000 for 1 image! Photo Attorney Extortion Letter by Carolyn Wright's law firm

« on: August 04, 2011, 02:12:38 PM »

http://www.photoattorney.com/?p=1425

Even on the Photo Attorney website Carolyn Wright states that you should register your photos within three months of the first publication of the picture.

I like how she also states that actual damages usually don't amount to much so that attorneys will not take your infringement case on a contingency basis and I'm guessing they took Ryan McGinnis' case on a contingency case.