The copyright and intellectual property of photographs must be absolutely respected in all cases, after all photography is always a masterpiece that requires patience and important work of angulation, work of lights and shadows, quality of photographic material such as set of lenses, tripod, among many other problems that, when violated, violate the work of those who should really have the merit of image quality.
And that’s exactly what happened to the gigantic getty Images agency, which is already trying to get compensation for the great damage it may have suffered.
- According to information initially disseminated through the North American website PDN.
- The company that has one of the largest databases relating to photographs taken by licensed professionals or licensed partners in the world of commercial photography was allegedly damaged by a man named Walter A.
- Kowalczuk who illegally allegedly used the access data of two of Getty’s main customers to download high-resolution photos and resell them at much cheaper prices than usual without the company’s knowledge or permission.
Kowalczuk’s ability to detect fraud can only initially be detected through a Getty licensed partner who, interested in purchasing six sports images in March of the same year, approached Walter in a private Facebook group to make the acquisition and took the opportunity to inform the company. of the possibility of an irregularity.
Aware of this fact, Getty decided on the situation and constantly began contacting the scammer in order to understand how he extracts the contents of the database in order to perform the resale, being collected through all the negotiations and investigations of the company itself. thousands of messages dating back to 2015 about the sale of “spaghetti” and “apples,” codes delivered to the models of images he owned in high definition in a stolen collection that would reach more than 3,000 images.
Although the problem has been going on for at least four months with the warning given by Getty’s approved partner, it is only now that the case has been made public because last Wednesday (8), the Seattle-based company, USA, has been able to make its case public. Usa, launched a formal lawsuit against Walter Kowalczuk and all the people who bought products through this frantic action.
According to the case notes, the charges that may be included in the case in question are intentional (intentional) copyright infringement, contributory infringement (for those who acquired the photos through this illegal route), digital fraud and also infringements that are included. in American digital law, which is governed primarily by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or, in literal translation, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.