Hi,
I was wondering if someone can provide any advice, as my company is receiving threatening letters about a photo that was on my website.

Here are the pertinent facts:

1. The website is owned by my corporation, and is a very new business – only about a little over a year old.

2. I received business coaching to build the site, and was referred by my business coach to a website where I could find photos for my site.

3. The website offering the photos said they were free to use for any purpose as long as I was not creating a commercial product featuring the photos (derivative work) to sell (which I’m not – my site is on health products, and all photos are purely decorative).

4. A couple of months later, I received a letter from some image licensing company (I will call them Company X), stating that a photo on my site was in violation of copyright law. (Note that the letter was addressed to my website address, NOT my corporate name – there is no business entity created in my website name.)

5. I immediately removed the image in question from my website.

Several months later, I received another letter, saying that I owed Company X something ridiculous like $1,200 for using their picture, even if it wasn’t on my website anymore. (Or I could pay them $1,200 for a license to use the picture.)

I just received another letter titled “Notification of Case Escalation” and saying it my “last chance” to pay the settlement.

Okay, so my question is, what should I do here?

First of all, they are not actually threatening to sue my corporation, but a business name that does not even exist. Secondly, I removed the photo immediately upon notification of the violation and never received any compensation from (or during) its use. Thirdly, I try to be pretty cognizant of copyright law, and I did believe in good faith that it was okay to use the photo – shouldn’t the person who was offering the image for download and “free usage rights” on the photo download website be the one who is penalized?

And lastly, I absolutely don’t have the money for this (my business is very new, and I have made a total of just over $100 so far), don’t want to use the photo that badly anyway, and my corporation has no holdings.

Should I reply and tell Company X this? Do you think it is just a scare tactic? Surely they won’t take my corporation to court if there is nothing they can possibly gain – since my corporation owns a total of $0.00 – right? Then again, I don’t have the money for legal fees either.

Any valid advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Rose.

Iscariot asked:


I am interested fà ¼ r a schöne digital camera under or around $ 200 fà ¼ r the purposes of the Blogging (as in WordPress, blogger, etc.). I try, blog, which täglich approximately around the photos, which I take despite the fact that I am not really a photographer, but only do it from Spaà Ÿ are received based. All cool features such as video wäre groà Ÿ also well-behaved, but above all I am straight in the search for something that I can make the Qualität photo, and that becomes hopefully hide my altogether amateur Fähigkeiten. Thanks boy!

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Justina Q. asked:


I have heavy pressure with some fà ¼ r a friend to do, and I need a printer, print auà Ÿ ergewöhnliche Qualität (photo without stares on the faces of humans). Above all, I must on heavy paper printed, not 60lb, but rather like 100lb paper.

Phone Cards

I have a personal blog about professional American football that I just started. I want to use some of the pictures found on sites like everystockphoto.com, where there are tons of images available to you that you can use for free.

I’m new here, so I’m unable to post a link to one of the photos I want to use (to make this easier), however, if you go to everystockphoto.com, type in “NFL” (for example) in the search box at the top of the screen, you’ll see many photos appear in the results. If you click on the third photo from the left (a picture of an NFL player running with a ball), on the resulting screen, if you click on the “Attribution License” link directly to the right of the image, you’ll see where it says:

“You are free:

* to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
* to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

* Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).”

My question is, even though the author says the image can be used, that doesn’t mean that the NFL is fine with me using that image, correct? My hunch is that using websites like this for images of people or other items is ok, however in instances where an entity is involved, in this instance, the NFL, I was thinking that I’d need their permission in addition to the photographer’s, who took the photo.

Am I right or wrong, here?

Hello,

A blog was created in my name, by someone dead set against ruining my and my husbands life. They created this blog/site, and proceeded to write an article about our sexuality, as well as post copyrighted images that are originally from our personal profiles (some from a dating site, clearly copyrighted – they simply took screen shots of images) as well as from our professional sites. Is this a copyright issue? Can this blog (blogger, a free account) remove this site? I have contacted them to do so recently, have yet to hear back.

In addition, they are impersonating my husband by using his name not just as the name of the blog, but also for the posts, they use his first and last name, and his photo as the “poster” which clearly is an impersonation.

And, I believe they are using the blog for discriminatory purposes regarding our sexuality preferences.

This is a very big deal, and any information is greatly appreciated before i keel over and have a heart attack, my husband as well.

Thank you kindly.

The following occurred in Maitland, Florida.

I apologize in advance for the spaces between links. Because I don’t have at least 15 posts, I cannot add links to my posts yet…

My vehicle was recently caught on camera going straight through a red light at an intersection. I have been reading many things on the internet about this whole system, and I have some questions pertaining to Florida law.

There are a number of methods of “dismissing” these tickets, that are in question right now. Here are the ones I don’t know about, and would like to learn:

1) If there is no (photo) evidence that the registrant was driving, is the ticket still valid?

2) If “Photo-Enforced Light” (or the equivalent thereof) road signs are not visible from ALL sides of the intersection, can the ticket be dismissed?

3) For future reference, is PhotoBlocker Spray ( h t t p : // phantomplate.com/index.html ) legal?

And my most important question topics:

4a) If you simply ignore the “ticket” sent in the mail, and no person comes personally to serve the “ticket” to you, are all the charges dismissed, with absolutely no penalty?
(This question was sparked when reading h t t p : // blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2008/12/how_to_beat_a_photo_enforcemen.php )

4b) If you wait past the 30 day time period, and then someone serves the ticket, is there a fine? Can they actually increase this to a uniform traffic citation (see below)? If so, what exactly is a UTC?

4c) Does this add points to your license? Does it add points it if becomes a uniform traffic citation?

Here’s some more information about (on) this “ticket”…

Company/Address:
Violation Processing Center
700 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, NY 12110

Phone Number: 1-877-393-8375

5) Furthermore, since this address is in New York, what are the chances of someone coming out to serve the ticket personally?

Here’s some important text on the back, especially pertaining to question 4 (mainly b ).

I really need to know if these things are valid ways to end a case in Florida.

Thank you for any help.
Chad

In Late July 2010, I received a letter from Getty images stating that I was using an image represented exclusively by Getty Images on my website. I contacted my web-designer and asked them if they knew anything about this. I also asked them to replace the photo. The web designer told me that it was a stock photo and that they would change it. They also told me that Getty images sends out thousands of these letters everyday hoping that people just pay up. They advised me to ignore it, “Getty is trying to bully you into paying”. Getty wants $1300.00 for one 2inch x 2inch photo.

I ignored it. About a week ago, I received a letter from NCS Recovery Corp stating that they have been retained my Getty images because I have failed to pay the settlement demand. I am not sure what to do. This seems a little shady. The form from NCS has a place on the bottom for me to fill out my credit card information and send in the payment. The letter came in the regular mail, if this was a real effort to collect would it have arrived certified mail?

When I read articles on the internet about Getty, the reaction from people is that it is a scam and they are trying to bully people into paying. I thought that a cease and desist letter was the first step by companies and then they could follow up with a bill if the C/D was ignored?

Any help would be appreciated

Do I need a lawyer.

Question….
A red light ticket came addressed to my roommate, however the car in the photo was mine. The car is in my name, and is registered to only me. This is not a case of me sending something in saying that the driver was not me, and naming her, this is the first notice that was mailed out. How is this legal? I have had other photo tickets sent to me that I was able to get dismissed as I was not the driver, but this seems like a bit of a stretch. Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated

A friend of mine came across my picture in an ad for a porn website. I’m underage in the picture and didn’t submit it myself. What do I do?

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