If You Have A Website, You MAY Have A Problem!

Mike(VA)

If you had, or are having, someone else design your website, you could possibly have copyright infringement problems if you have generic pictures, music, or video clips on your site. Another forum I am on had a short thread by a member who was being threatened with legal action and was presented with a demand for $4000 due to them using images 'borrowed' from a company called Getty Images. Seems like some developers use images from other sites without permission and apparently Getty and another company called Jupiter Images are aggressive about stopping it.

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com does a better job than I can in explaining what is happening. What Getty and Jupiter are doing is legal, apparently, but rather unethical but I wouldn't want my company or myself to get tangled up with this.

Many website developers use other designers, some in off shore places like India, where the techies don't know about or don't care about copyright issues. You may know the guy who is doing your site, but you may not know if he is using someone else to write the code.

So if you have images, music, or video on your site that you did not supply to the designer, you may want to check into this. If you supplied any images, music, or video yourself, and you just pulled them off of other sites, you may want to consider getting rid of them.

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I EXPECT THAT SOMEDAY I WILL SEE THE FRUITS OF MY LABOR. IS IT SOMEDAY YET?
Clifton, Great Falls, McLean, Fairfax Station, Manassas, Virginia Renovation Contractor

Cdat

Getty images puts a watermark on all it's images so people won't use them. If you're silly enough to still use them, have the decency to use a photo editing software to remove the transparent layer on top.

neolitic

Don't know about Jupiter, but Getty and Black Star,
and other photo agencies have been in business for
a long time.
They buy photos, copyright them, and sell them.
How is that unethical?
How about you pay an architect to draw
a set of plans, and I waltz into your office
steal them and build a house for your client?

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(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

Mike Finley

Funny how the guy on that website who calls a companies legal right to protect it's products and services is also willing to write a letter for you for $150.00. I wonder if somebody copied his site if he would write them a letter saying. Cool man!



This is old news Mike, not sure why this would be a hot topic, image banks have been protecting their products this was for about 10 years now.

Mike(VA)

Neo, I misunderstood myself. I did not mean that the business that Getty and Jupiter do is unethical. What they provide is fine and them wanting to protect what they have copyrighted is also fine. I have no problem with that at all. Apparently the approach they take to bully and badger those who have infringed on that copyright is questionable. There are certainly people who steal other people's work and pass it off as their own and borrowing someone else's material without paying royalties is wrong plain and simple.

The amounts they seek in damages, without a judgement, and the method used to intimidate, is what is in question. However, I am not defending them or impuning them just passing on information that may help someone who has infringed on purpose or inadvertently. Maybe I should have left off the comment as it really wasn't germain to the issue:

What Getty and Jupiter are doing is legal, apparently, but rather unethical but I wouldn't want my company or myself to get tangled up with this.

__________________
__________________________________________________ ___________
I EXPECT THAT SOMEDAY I WILL SEE THE FRUITS OF MY LABOR. IS IT SOMEDAY YET?
Clifton, Great Falls, McLean, Fairfax Station, Manassas, Virginia Renovation Contractor

neolitic

Cool.
Pretty much everybody wants to
protect their property.
Some do it with guns.
Some do it with lawyers.
Not sure which is scarier....

__________________
Put your location in your profile!
(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

Mike(VA)

Not sure which is scarier

A lawyer with a gun?

__________________
__________________________________________________ ___________
I EXPECT THAT SOMEDAY I WILL SEE THE FRUITS OF MY LABOR. IS IT SOMEDAY YET?
Clifton, Great Falls, McLean, Fairfax Station, Manassas, Virginia Renovation Contractor

ChainsawCharlie

+ YouTube Video

tinner666

I know lots of them in Va.

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Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.

tinner666

As for website data, I prefer my own photos, and quite a few donated to the site from clients, friends, and people I've communicated with on DIY forums. TO be honest, 'stock' and magazine like photos are a huge turn-off to me and others.
I, for one, don't hesitate to use in-depth pics to further my credibility with contractors and clients alike.
Having a developer do a site can make this a hassle.

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Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.