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1/25/2013

From: Copyright Compliance [mailto:Copyright.Compliance@gettyimages.com] Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 10:23 AM To: ATG MI Bellingham CRC Subject: RE: 423690 : A notice from the Washington State Attorney General'sOffice 605 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 400, Seattle, Washington 98104 Tel 206 925 5000 Fax 206 925 5001 www.gettyimages.com Via e-mail to belcrc@atg.wa.gov and Fax to (360) 738-6190 January 25, 2013 Jeanette Bouwman Complaint Analyst Consumer Protection Division Attorney General of Washington 103 East Holly Street, Suite 308 Bellingham, WA 98225-4310 Re: Brenda Ohm (Golden Consulting Group LLC) Your File # 423690 Our Reference # 1265876

Dear Ms. Bouwman: We are in receipt of the complaint filed by Brenda Ohm that you forwarded to us on January 15, 2013. By way of introduction, Getty Images is the leading creator and distributor of still and moving images. More than 4,000 images per day are licensed on our website, www.gettyimages.com, which features wholly-owned content (i.e., images to which we own the copyright), as well as exclusively licensed content (i.e., third-party contributor images which are licensed exclusively through us). Customers such as graphic designers, advertising agencies, and publishers license our imagery for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to print advertising, billboards, newspaper and magazine articles, brochures and websites. Our license information is clearly available from each page of our website, and we do not permit the use of our imagery without a license. Notwithstanding the license requirement, like other digital media companies, Getty Images does fall victim to individuals pirating its intellectual property. To combat this, Getty Images uses both employees and digital image recognition software to locate entities that have used Getty Images imagery without paying a license fee. One such entity recently identified as having used unlicensed imagery from our collections is Golden Consulting Group LLC (Golden
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Consulting Group). On December 12, 2012, we sent Golden Consulting Group a letter with notification that we had found unauthorized use of one of our images on its website, www.goldenconsultinggroup.com. The image is part of Getty Images Rights-Managed Photographers Choice collection, # 200133432-001 (the Image), and can be found on our web site at http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/200133432-001. We informed Golden Consulting Group that use of the Image without a license constitutes copyright infringement, and that Golden Consulting Group must either: (i) provide evidence that a license was issued, or (ii) pay a fee for use of the Image. In this instance, the fee was $780.00, and we provided an invoice in that amount, which featured a thumbnail of the Image and its image number along with a screenshot of the Image on Golden Consulting Groups website. The amount invoiced is in line with what typically would be charged for a license of the Image under these circumstances. Ms. Ohm characterizes our attempts to settle our copyright infringement claims against Golden Consulting Group as extortion. However, our communications with them do not in any way constitute wrongful threats within the meaning of extortion statutes. On the contrary, demand for payment in satisfaction of a legal claim is not wrongful conduct. Ms. Ohm states that Getty Images has not provided proof of copyright, but Ms. Ohm appears to , confuse copyright registration and copyright ownership. As of 1978, when US copyright law was substantially revised, copyright exists the moment a work, including a photograph, is created. Registration is optional and is not a requirement of copyright ownership. Consequently, copyright registrations are not required of us to pursue infringements on behalf of our contributors. While it would be necessary to provide these registrations in order to file suit, this is our attempt to settle any infringement without further action. The campaign to file complaints against us is misguided and misdirected. As noted above, we are well within our legal rights to seek damages for unauthorized use of our images. Getty Images has acted appropriately and in good faith in pursuing the unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and at this time, Ms. Ohm has not raised any valid defenses. Regardless, we remain hopeful of reaching an amicable resolution to this matter. Should you require any additional information about this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us. Regards, Getty Images Copyright Compliance Getty Images - Copyright Compliance PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS: 605 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 400 Seattle, WA 98104 T: (206) 925-5000 F: (206) 925-5001 Copyright.compliance@gettyimages.com www.gettyimages.com
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This message may contain privileged or confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute, or copy this email or any attachments hereto. Please notify the sender immediately by email if you have received this email by mistake and delete this email and any attachments from your system without copying or disclosing the contents. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of email transmission. If verification is required, please request a hard-copy version. Getty Images, Inc., 605 Fifth Ave. S., Ste. 400, Seattle, WA 98104, USA, www.gettyimages.com

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