The Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter is a deliberate attempt by Getty Images to intimidate and bully recipients to pay an extravagant “settlement fee” in exchange for Getty Images agreement to NOT sue the recipient. Recipients of this letter have allegedly infringed on the alleged copyrights owned by Getty Images.
There are two sides to every story and disagreement. Recipients of the Letter know Getty Images side. This website will assemble the stories and legal arguments of “the other side”. We trust this website will be both helpful and beneficial to you.
The above is a quote (slightly edited) of the lead paragraphs on the following web page.
via The Getty Images Settlement Demand Letter: Reporting on the Extortion Letter Scheme.
Here’s another resource: http://www.zyra.info/getstu.htm
I found out about this scheme recently when someone I know got this letter. I had not heard of the scheme previously, and knew Getty to be (I thought) a reputable stock photography house. I was surprised what I found out when I googled various phrases in the letter.
Now, I’m no lawyer, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. And do your own research.
But it seems odd to me that they are going so hard against people who, as far as they know, did nothing wrong, tried hard to obey the rules, obtained the pictures in what they thought was a legitimate manner, made essentially no money from the pictures, etc
This heavy-handed approach can only tarnish Getty’s reputation. Why would they want to do this?
I also have recently received Getty Image’s threatening demand payment letter. They demand $780.00 payment for a tiny thumbnail cropped image of a PDF article that was published in a magazine in 2007. I happened to write the published article and the graphic was purchased by the magazine publisher. But Getty wants me to pay for infringement because their image appears on a PDF I posted online. This action bt Getty smacks of being a scam.
I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the People. This is in regards to the outrageous “Getty Extortion Letter” received by many webmasters who unintentionally use a copyright protected image often found of free image sites or purchased as part of a template. Getty is demanding thousands of dollars in penalties for an unintentional act.
Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/gd8