Getty being sued for $1Billion

http://pdnpulse.pdnonl​ine.com …pyright-infringement.html

Russ

How did Getty get the images? are they illegally licensing other work that has been placed into the public domain?

Even if Carol doesn't get the full amount awarded to her, at least this will deter GI and others from misusing photos in the future.

Well done to that lady!

I had a modicum of respect for Getty. But to send a demand letter to a copyright holder for her use of her own image? That takes balls. If I got a letter like that, you'd see dollar signs in my eyes and big smile on my face.

Hope she wins.

I was pleasantly surprised to find on opening the link to the article a photograph of Claes Oldenburg's Shuttlecocks. I have nearly that exact same view from the front offices of my place of business here in Kansas City.

Wow, just wow. Basically 18,000 images stolen by Getty and being licensed away. I hope she gets every dollar.

Getty Image needs to go down. It destroyed the entire photography industry and cheapened the art as well....

Really quite amazing that Getty can take copyrighted material from the LOC and sell them advertised as exclusively their own. I mean WTF???
How many other photographers are getting the shaft? Perhaps this needs to be a Class Action lawsuit? This is absolutely stunning.

For that size of infringement and the egregious nature of it, she deserves every penny.

It's sad to see how many (large) companies just try to get away with almost anything. Make money with stolen pictures and trust your lawyers to make it really expensive for everybody to get their control back. I salute the chutzpah of this woman to take on the beast....

Bravo to her for taking on the gorilla.

The billion seems high to me but $468,875,000 about right. <G>

AZGeorge wrote in post #18085541
The billion seems high to me but $468,875,000 about right. <G>

If I read it correctly, the higher number comes from a law that says if you were already sued for the same thing, and then continue to perpetrate the same crime, the next time you can be on the hook for triple the damages.
(and it should continue to scale up with more repetitions! IMHO. Don't know if it does though)

It makes good sense to me, if just coughing up the damages doesn't deter you, something has to get ratcheted up.

In this particular instance, when getty lost to the tune of a mere 1 Million, they likely at the same time had profited many orders of magnitude more than 1 million committing the same crime over and over. Coughing up the 1 Million was a drip in the bucket compared to the profitability of the larger theft.

So if one in 1,000 manage to win a case, and all they have to pay is what they gained, they only lose 1/1,000 the profit. So just keep stealing, and pay the piper when you have to, and still come out far ahead.

Not sure if Getty's statement was posted here, in which they defend themselves:

http://press.gettyimag​es.com …egarding-highsmith-claim/