Quote:
|
Originally Posted by joshuaguff
Are you sure? Today I found a letter from NCS Recovery corp on my desk, they say that Ghetty has turned it over to their collection agency to collect the money, they are making phone calls and the letter is threating legal action if we don't pay. $1,200 for each image is a little much don't you think? But on the other hand, if they choose sue us for five times that amount if we don't pay - we don't have much of a choice.
It was wrong for us to steal the images, but is Ghetty serious, or are they just trying to make money off our fear.
|
You need to get a lawyer ASAP. Personally, I'd say there's a valid argument that $1,200 per image is an excessive penalty and there might be a case to fight it down to something more realistic, in the same fashion that UK banks are getting their wrists slapped for excessive charges. Basically there's a law that prevents companies from applying penalties that do not correspond to the companies expenses. They can charge whatever they like for general work - in the case of Ghetty, they can put whatever price tag they like on photographs - but specifically for penalties they aren't allowed to charge more than the associated expenses and costs that they incur, even if those extortionate charges are written into a contract.
I'm certainly not condoning the action of IP theft, but the punishment should match the crime. $1,200 might be a reasonable penalty charge, but it'd certainly be worth checking the opinion of an actual lawyer.