Graphic Infringement Claim

Tell them to get lost!

Well you definately should NOT do what the person who just replied to this thread suggested.

If they say you infringed and you do not possess a license from Getty for that image then you are very likely infringing.

Getty has a legal department that does nothing more than find infringes like your self unlawfully using their copyrighted images.

They will not let you blow them off... in fact $600 is a more reasonable demand compared to what other companies have been demanded to pay them and you are best to remedy the issue as fast as possible... if you don't you may get hammered by them legally and end up spending much more to try and defend your self.

You might try taking the image down immediately, telling them that you had outsourced your website to a freelancer and thought that they had used properly licensed images, and that you have removed the image in question. Or you might take the image down and not respond at all. This however does not guarantee that they do not continue to pester you or even sue you. The best advice is to consult a copyright attorney on how to handle the issue if you are unsure.

But if you want to know whether they are serious or not you might just search google:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Getty...gal+department

You made the mistake that many website owners like you have made... you trusted some outsourced web designer to properly license an image without demanding that they provide you proof that they properly licensed every image used in any graphics on the site created for you before they get paid a dime for their work.

You might be interested in this article as well that addresses how to handle it:

http://extortionletterinfo.com/

Consult an attorney. I am not one. Getty likely has some on retainer ;-)

This is not directed at you, aeriol, but a majority of folks these days don't even know what copyright is. Ironically, some of the people I'm referring to even work in the (book) publishing industry.

What?

If there is a wrong answer, that is it.

This post should be a big reminder that you are responsible for what your purchase.

All of those PLR websites for sale, do you really think all of those designers bought the extended licences for those graphics? Hellz no. Not at the prices they are selling those themes for, they wouldn't even break even. Same goes for many of those pretty PLR covers. Image licensing for multi and resale use is expensive.

A lot of people have no problem stealing, as the OP found out for the small sum of $600.00. <--- not accusing the OP, it was the dirtbag outsource turd.

I would follow Josh's and Ed's advice and ask a copyright attorney.
There may be some that will do a free consultation and advise you of possible steps to take.

Can't you contact your outsource and get the proof of license? If Getty is selling so many images (I'm assuming, of course) how do they know which ones were paid for?

Tell them someone else built you that site and they purchased the license (assuming they did) and see what Getty Images says.

I've been through this with the same kind of insignificant image. An image which came in a software box I bought on a retail shelf. Regardless I consulted an attorney who deals with this exact issue and ghetty.

Do not respond to their letters. Do not contact them ever.

Simply take the picture down. You will likely get a second letter affirming you owe payment.

Do not respond

It will go away.

Unless you respond to them, so don't do it

Oh yeah Getty Images is well-known for going after people using their images illegally. I had a site that relied on images and I did a lot of research on where to get images before I put up anything.

From what I've heard, usually they'll hit you with a $2,000 fee in order to settle out of court, and you could end up paying a whole lot more if you try to take them to court.

It's Getty images so their lawyers are going to be the best in the image copyright biz.

thank you muchly. Best Aeriol

Frankly speaking I have no trust on overseas developers.

Here's what my research has yielded so far. This is from several hours of reading dozens and dozens of online complaints maybe over a 100 and there are 100's more out there.
Getty images makes their images on their site so expensive that no one will pay the sum of money.

For the small image of 3 keys and little red key fob approximately 150x 15 pixels they want over $11,000.00. (the one on my site) so the thought is that if they find one of their images on your site and they know it is a copyright infraction because they have never sold their images. This is conjecture. I don't know what is true or not.

What I did uncover is that they apparently own other image companies. It is thought they are the owners of Greedy Images and that they licence out the sale of their images to these other companies. I have no means to check this out here in Canada.

These other image companies then sell the rights to these images to the unsuspecting consumer, IStock photos is one such company and there are many others. I Stock is commonly used by many people for their blogs and websites, they have great shots.

Then when Getty finds that image on your site they then site you with a copyright infraction, threaten you and demand sums of money. Of course if they do in fact own the copyright then it is an infraction. The challenge is in finding out if they are telling the truth or not.

The majority of people who totally ignored them seemed to have the best luck, although I doubt this would be good legal advice. They seemed to just go away most of the time after sending a few more letters and sicking a collection agency on you for a few months.
It seems that calling or contacting them is the worst position to put yourself in as they are then on you like a pack of dogs. Any offer to settle is said to make them sense weakness and they salivate.

Most people who called them got immediate offers to settle at a lower price. IT is appearing that they are principally making their money threatening small businesses and small people running little websites in the hope they will settle for lumps of cash. $600 is nothing, some of the amounts on the web for one or two tiny images are ranging to demands of up to $2000.00.

Of course you can ask them for proof that they own the copyright and did so at the time you bought the image. For me that was back in January 2005. I have the bill from Elance.com where I hired my designer who supplied the images as part of the contract.
Many of the complainants say that they bought the images legally. I doubt they are all liars, a few may be.

Some even found them on legitimate FREE image web sites. Truth is you can get a free image and then at a later date this person can register with Getty.

They refuse to supply you with their copyright proof and threaten you with law suit. Of course then they start the legal guns rolling..... They run up a huge legal bill on you immediately so that you will settle out of court without further adieu.

One small business in England refused to back down on them out of principal. The settlement was almost 30,000 British pounds or almost $45,000 U.S. $ . The actual settlement portion was about $4500.00 and the rest was legal fees. So they of course have their own in house legal and this is a money maker for them.

Needless to say if this information is correct & it can't all be lies this is a very nasty but Legal Scam. No one ultimately stands up to them due to their international status and their billions of dollars that they are worth.

The bottom line I gather is to say very little to Getty, see what they do and make a quick final settlement if necessary before they sue you. It is a game of chicken.

Going forward it is advisable to keep a file in your pictures folder called Website images.
Keep a permanent record of the .jpg. along with a word document clearly giving the permissions which are usually under the image with dates etc. on the free websites.

Best to stay away from all paid image sites as Getty may in fact own the copyright.

Lastly get your handy dandy little digi cam out and go snap your own shots. That's what I did for the rebuild on my latest sites.

This cuts out the photographers from their income which is not good, however they must at some level be buying into this unless Getty is not giving them part of the settlement fees they are collecting. Who knows.

But I won't be buying anymore images online anymore.

Anyway this is what I have ascertained after several hours of reading and research. You also have to read between the lines as some people are not particularily logical or think that because they didn't know it doesn't count.

If i get anymore insights I will post here. Thanks for all your help. Aeriol

Well, i have got an email like that once - it was about a website that was built upon a (commercial) website tempalte from a VERY respectable template website that always using only royalty free images to avoid copyright problems.

Nevertheless i have got an email from the law firm stating that i owe them several thousands and my first born child. I can not remember if it was Getty or one of the other large image stock websites. Anyways since the niche was pretty targeted i did a search on their database and clicked through all 20 pages of the images - none of the images on my site showed up.

I have just ignored the email since im overseas and i felt that i was right (which is not the best thing to do probably).

Anyways i think that it is impossible for them to prove that i broke THEIR copyrights unless they owe exclusive rights to the images. But photographers submit the images to a lot of sites mostly so this is rarely the case.

However, please dont take it as a legal advice and do not send or email ANYTHING back to them - especially not the settlement templates they send to you - without a proper legal consultation.

I do not know why anyone would ever purchase images from getty in the first place, not only are their images not that great, but they are waaaay overpriced.....

Please keep us updated. I am so freaking sick and tired of seeing people get scammed online. Why can't people just be honest? Why would anyone feel good about wrongfully charging others? I can't stand that.

I wish there was something people could do against stupid stuff like this. If it is their image, and your designer did take it without proper permission, they have a case, but it all does sound a little shady to me.

I wonder though - what is the license documentation in these cases? I mean, I often use 123rf for stock photos. I deposit money into the account, and then, simply download the image I want and the cost is automatically taken from my credit. There really is no TOS, License or anything else, for that matter.

Seems i have started quite a storm of answers with this and everyone has lots of opinions. It is most interesting.I will be looking for a copyright lawyer here in Toronto just to learn my rights or the lack of them. I won't be mounting a fight.... not worth the bother...or the cost... they have more money than I do. will then make a decision how to act. However, I think this is a good venue and good feed as people learn more about how this Getty Images company is conducting themselves in general and why they need to be avoided like the plague and also any other image companies that they may secretly own and thereby be tricking people with. thanks for all the great responses.

P.S. before this I had never heard of Getty Images.... I am sure many others are in the same boat... .beware the internet.

noticed this thread as a client of mine went through a similar thing but they where faced with a much higher bill

i did some research and i believe there is an Israel based company that has proprietary software that scans the web specifically for images both raw and manipulated from gettys vast library, reason being they get a hefty commission from every image they find and fulfill a claim.

My client had an attorney deal with the claim and ended up paying around 25% of the initial bill plus of course attorney fees!

From all the documentation i saw both the manipulated images that where used and the getty images they said where stolen and they did match up.

From my understanding in the initial claim process they will send you the getty image ID of the original images that are being used on your site.

This happened over a year ago now - although $600 may not be a lot of money to Getty 10,000 copyright claims a year is a cool $6,000,000 which i am sure they would rather have in their pocket from people who dont put up a fight and just pay it... not to mention i am sure those Israeli guys would get a nice chunk of that - just sayin'!

@OP good luck whichever way you decide to take this claim