Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: MJH on December 24, 2008, 11:05:07 am
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Just got a bill from getty images for unauthorised use of a picture of a cone on my website!!!!! :o :o
Great xmas present!!!!
Any similar experiences? no warning just a stupid demand!!!!
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write to them back and say that you got the image from a free image website
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Someone built the site for me!!! but it states im responsible!!!
Don't know where the image came from!!!
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Someone built the site for me!!! but it states im responsible!!!
Don't know where the image came from!!!
shocking and i very much doubt it would get to court,
its been done before, and the website owner just said a guy down the pub built the site for him, he didnt know it was a image from them,
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i can't quite believe it, its a cone for god sake it sounds like a scam!!!! but i have checked it and Getty are legit!!
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Greyscale the image, Im sure an alteration/edit effectively renders a copyright null and void.
Im probably wrong, but a bloke down the pub told me that ;D
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Getty are a big image archive company
who built the site for you, they might have paid a license to use the image, the license are only about 50 quid ( if my memory is correct )
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a friend built it its stressing me out :)
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Unfortunatly Getty are very likely to follow up their demand with court action, they are I believe the Worlds largest holder of images.
I would you write and make an offer stating you were unaware of the infringement of their copywrite.
They will have had to pay the photographer/original owner for use and like any stock photograph organisation also have to pay the owner every time the photograph is used the fee is from £50.00 upto thousands depending on the importance of the image.
Making the excuse that the photograph came from a free image website is certainly not an option, as they would know this isnt true.
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How can they justify £1000 for a cone for god sake ???
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Not being fuuny but if you've used a bit of their imagery that has copyright then they are entitled to bill you....however....you are then entitled to require them to justify the amount billed.
Personnally I'd ignore them and their ridiculous bill....chances of them taking you to court on a scale of 1-10 are around minus 3 as it's not worth their while!
£1000 is their opening wishful thinking...they'd take £50!
But in the 1st instance definately ignore them.
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Say the bloke whos site is doesnt live there anymore ;D
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I am sorry to say this but this happened to me - charged £5000 for 3 photos that we hadnt even put on there - the web designer did. We settled out of court for a lot less as we only had the pictures up for a couple of months, but we did have to settle - their lawyers were on to us every week. Think we paid about £1500 in the end but luckily our web designer admitted liability in writing and so we made him pay half (he tried to get out of it but we had it in writing and sent it to him and he just paid)
Sorry this happened to you too - I would advise seeking some sort of not too expensive legal advice.
Good luck with it - don't let it spoil your Christmas!
Merry Christmas everyone! xxx
Claire
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Thanks it's just what you need on 24th December ;)
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p.s. the pistures we used getty charged £200-500 for them, they are NOT cheap. some photos are different to others but ours were images of bugs on SEM very close up so pricey.
We ended up paying this initial cost rather than the £5000 as we took the photos off straight away and said that as we were not awar of breach of copyright this would be sufficient. They have a HUGE team of lawyers working for them, unfortunately :(
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;) I would check all the other photo's if I were you!
Woman on telephone!
Workers with poles etc!
Just to make sure
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Its simple to find duplicate pictures too. They use special search engines that can find duplicates of their own pictures. Theres plenty of free places on the net. Or subscribe to a facility.
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;) I would check all the other photo's if I were you!
Woman on telephone!
Workers with poles etc!
Just to make sure
Its all going offline now!!!
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the first thing is to get it off your site, then at least you can try to claim ingnorance and say that as soon as it was brought to your attention, you fixed it
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Did they send you a print out with the pic on your website with the time and date?
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Thanks it's just what you need on 24th December ;)
have you had your tax bill today as well
i have :(
merry xmas
mike
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Did they send you a print out with the pic on your website with the time and date?
yep :)
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You will have to pay something. Write back to them tell them that you are sorry ect ect, not your fault someone designed it 3 months ago ect ect and offer them a good will gesture. Tell them the photos have been removed from your site and again you are sorry.
My friend had this and he ended up paying around £300-£500, from a £2000 original bill.
If you are with the FSB, ring and speak to the solictor.
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You will have to pay something. Write back to them tell them that you are sorry ect ect, not your fault someone designed it 3 months ago ect ect and offer them a good will gesture. Tell them the photos have been removed from your site and again you are sorry.
My friend had this and he ended up paying around £300-£500, from a £2000 original bill.
If you are with the FSB, ring and speak to the solictor.
Thanks, its a headache i could do without at this present time!!
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I know, he was stressed out as well, took him a few months to finally settle. He also had the site designed for him, they paid towards the final bill, so maybe worth banging on their door.
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How much was your bill?
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£970
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Well good luck, try not to let it get to you!
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Just got a bill from getty images for unauthorised use of a picture of a cone on my website!!!!! :o :o
Great xmas present!!!!
Any similar experiences? no warning just a stupid demand!!!!
OUCH!!
Sorry to hear that MJH. And thanks for posting it up!
...theres a lesson in there for all of us.
Keep your chin up fella.
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URGENT!!!
The information I gave earlier was actually wrong - have just spoken to Mum about it and in the end we didn't pay anything as we had a really good lawyer. she says she has all the paperwork relating to it in the attic so if you want to see our arguments etc let me know. Only thing is - not sure I can get them to you by new year.
Please get in contact with me if you need this info!
TAKE THE PHOTOS OFF NOW! But don't take the website off if it can stand alone without a few pics
Claire x
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time to sell a pole ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
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mery X muss and a hapy new year tell em to bog off i sade tell um to bog off ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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looks like your web site is down
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Having looked at this further im thinking this could now be a scam!!! How can a reputable firm demand that sort of money with no warning, expect immediate payment! and via bank transfer to an american bank in London??
Something doesn't quite ring true.
Will go to my solicitor monday to investigate!!!
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As a follow-on to all the above: I would never use any images that I didn't know the origin of. All the photo's on my site are ones we took ourselves.
OK, they may not be up to top professional standard, but we've had many compliments about the site, and no criticism of the photo's.
In these days of digital photography, you can go out and take thousands of photo's at next to no cost. Among them there are bound to be a few brilliant ones.
PLAY IT SAFE ;)
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you can use any of mine mjh on www.windowwash.co.uk
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Cheers lads, that's why i paid someone to do my site i thought this would be taken care of!!!
I will get to the bottom of this as cheaply as possible!!
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Hi MJH
I can assure you this is no scam. I had the same thing happen to me last year and the longer your
leave it the more it will cost you. I advise you contact your soliciotr as soon a possible and try to work out some deal with them. I myself thought it was a scam but still ended having to pay.
Regards
Karl
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http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2008/05/watching-getty-images-watching.html
It seems that its happening over thew big pond as well >:(
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http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2008/05/watching-getty-images-watching.html
It seems that its happening over thew big pond as well >:(
Thanks, that's an interesting post :)
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http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2008/05/watching-getty-images-watching.html
It seems that its happening over thew big pond as well >:(
From the above link:
The first thing I did after the research was to remove the 'alleged' copyrighted images from the website.
I then sent an email to Getty confirming the removal of the images and then requested confirmation/verification for a few items:
* Proof of the title of copyright including exclusivity
* The date of first publication and the date of copyright issuance
* How many companies have been granted the rights to distribute the images
* Proof that the images have never been contained, in any other image libraries
* The date GettyImages obtained the legal right to distribute the images
* A breakdown of the costs claimed to have been incurred as a result of the alleged copyrighted images being displayed on the website.
I received the letter just 6 days prior to their 'demand settlement payment date'. Subsequently I then gave THEM a deadline of 10 days to respond with the proof. I stated that if I do not receive the required information by the date given that I would assume they are unable or unwilling to provide the information and I would be paying nothing.
I have heard nothing back since - although I understand it can take Getty weeks, if not months, to respond.
I will NOT be replying to any further communications they send me!
Hope this may help to calm other people who may have received one of these strong-armed letters.
I would follow this advice and stop worrying :)
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http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2008/05/watching-getty-images-watching.html
It seems that its happening over thew big pond as well >:(
From the above link:
The first thing I did after the research was to remove the 'alleged' copyrighted images from the website.
I then sent an email to Getty confirming the removal of the images and then requested confirmation/verification for a few items:
* Proof of the title of copyright including exclusivity
* The date of first publication and the date of copyright issuance
* How many companies have been granted the rights to distribute the images
* Proof that the images have never been contained, in any other image libraries
* The date GettyImages obtained the legal right to distribute the images
* A breakdown of the costs claimed to have been incurred as a result of the alleged copyrighted images being displayed on the website.
I received the letter just 6 days prior to their 'demand settlement payment date'. Subsequently I then gave THEM a deadline of 10 days to respond with the proof. I stated that if I do not receive the required information by the date given that I would assume they are unable or unwilling to provide the information and I would be paying nothing.
I have heard nothing back since - although I understand it can take Getty weeks, if not months, to respond.
I will NOT be replying to any further communications they send me!
Hope this may help to calm other people who may have received one of these strong-armed letters.
I would follow this advice and stop worrying :)
Thanks for your advice Ian this is good news for me, fortunatly my wife also knows a lawyer who speialises in copyight law so i will run it past him.
I was just amazed by how threatening the letter is, it makes my blood boil, i will definatly email them with the list.
Regards Matt
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sit on it and see what happens dont pay dont reply it wuill go away its a scam any decent solicitor would write recorded letters at £100 a go they are jus taking the p
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http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2008/05/watching-getty-images-watching.html
It seems that its happening over thew big pond as well >:(
From the above link:
The first thing I did after the research was to remove the 'alleged' copyrighted images from the website.
I then sent an email to Getty confirming the removal of the images and then requested confirmation/verification for a few items:
* Proof of the title of copyright including exclusivity
* The date of first publication and the date of copyright issuance
* How many companies have been granted the rights to distribute the images
* Proof that the images have never been contained, in any other image libraries
* The date GettyImages obtained the legal right to distribute the images
* A breakdown of the costs claimed to have been incurred as a result of the alleged copyrighted images being displayed on the website.
I received the letter just 6 days prior to their 'demand settlement payment date'. Subsequently I then gave THEM a deadline of 10 days to respond with the proof. I stated that if I do not receive the required information by the date given that I would assume they are unable or unwilling to provide the information and I would be paying nothing.
I have heard nothing back since - although I understand it can take Getty weeks, if not months, to respond.
I will NOT be replying to any further communications they send me!
Hope this may help to calm other people who may have received one of these strong-armed letters.
I would follow this advice and stop worrying :)
Got a response within two days via email, they failed to give me direct answers for the above!!! suprise suprise!!!! said they took over the image bank a few years ago so they own the image regardless!!!!
Still no concrete evidence and they want paying by the 16th jan :)