Messages

1

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Photographer responded to my email ....

« on: August 02, 2011, 11:41:09 PM »

Thanks for the explanation, mcfilms.  I had to go and find an expensive image in google - couldn't have used a crappy image!  Jeeze!  Also, thanks for the tip (Pond5.com) - I love having reasonable resources like this! 

You brought up another point I was wondering about.  Now that they have these 'trolls' out there, I would like to use a troll to find out if a little image I may use is indeed safe.  I have been using TinEye, it seems to be better than the Google image search.  Is there anything else out there that is even better?  I can't afford to have this happen again!

thanks!
Kristi

2

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Photographer responded to my email ....

« on: August 02, 2011, 09:29:35 PM »

I have another question then.  This particular image that I used was referred to as a 'Rights Managed' image.  Is this a way around the copyright ownership thing?  According to the Getty people, that makes this image more expensive.  Does anyone have insight on this? 

Kristi

3

Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Photographer responded to my email ....

« on: August 01, 2011, 06:16:57 PM »

S.G.

Well, I reread the demand letter and I didn't see anywhere where they actually say they own the copyright.  They use the word 'represent':

"...you are using an image represented by Getty Images." 
and
"Getty Images, on behalf of itself and its represented photographers,
 is committed to protecting its imagery from unauthorized use."

I would love to ignore the letter, but being that I was hired by a company to build their website, and THEY got this nasty letter, I want to settle this ASAP so they don't continue to be harassed.  How embarrassing!!  But at the same time, I want to see if I can settle for a reasonable sum.  As Oscar suggested, in my response letter, I told them what I felt was a fair amount (based on the usage and size from the Getty site). 

Well, for now I am glad to have this email, it might come in handy.  But if I have to pay, I would rather give it to the Photographer!! 

Kristi

4

Getty Images Letter Forum / Photographer responded to my email ....

« on: August 01, 2011, 04:36:58 PM »

Hi there, your site has really been helpful! My letter was asking for $900 for a 100 px x 80 px image I was using as a placeholder - it simply got overlooked when the site went live.

After reviewing your videos, I sent an email letter back to Getty explaining my Innocent Infringement in using the tiny photo.  I also sent the photographer an email asking if Getty owned the copyright to the image.  This is what the photog wrote back to me:

Getty images doesn't own the copyright, but as long as its on their website 
I can't sell the image on my own because of the contract I have with them. 
If you have any other questions feel free to contact me.

Before I call Getty to follow up (they haven't responded to my email yet), is this anything I can use in my defense, or is the 'contract' the photog refers to, something that gives Getty all the rights to use the image, even though they don't own the copyright.

Thanks for any insight on whether I can use this little bit of info or not.

Kristi