Please Help! Getty sent my client a demand letter.

[derailed]

Hi everyone,

I really need your help. Recently, my employer got a letter from Getty Images threatening to sue them unless they pay a $944 fine for using one of their images on our website. A brief background about me - I work in the Philippines and my client is in the United States. My role with them is a Social Media Manager (as a contractor, not really an employee), so aside from managing their Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (and all other social websites), I usually do graphic design for them.

The picture in question was **a woman facing a mirror and putting cream on her face**. It was used for a blog post on our website which was about adult acne, more on how to treat it with over the counter drugs. I do not know if this is qualified as "commercial use", but for me it's more about educational, as my client did not endorsed herself (though she mentioned to contact a doctor if it worsens, but she did not pertain it to herself). This was uploaded January 2014 and my client got the letter January 2015.

I now know ignorance is not a valid reason to infringe someone's work, but honestly, it is indeed my ignorance that led us to this. I really didn't know that it was illegal. I though all images on the google website was free except for those with watermark. I've learned my lessons and will not do it again. But now I'm paranoid on what may happen next.

   1. Our website is now clean of any images. Now, will they still sue me for something that was already removed? Can they send another demand letter, let say after 1 year for images that are no longer there? I read a forum which claims that Getty (or Picscout) is using Wayback Machine to track down violators, so I checked the site and found that they do not have records of the blog posts.
   2. Will they sue for images posted on social websites? There might be difference between each sites policy, but what I'm concerned is Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, WordPress and Constant Contact? I have already removed the images from those sites but I'm worried that they still records of those images.
   3. I did some google image search and some of the pictures are still there, even though it's no longer in our website. I have used the Google Webmaster Tools to report that the images are no longer there, and up until now it's still in pending status. Is there any way I could contact them to have the removal expedited? I also have the same issue with WordPress, the entire blog is removed. Google search is still showing the images, but some of them already give the 404 Error - but for some reason, the picture which has the copyright still remains on their server.
   4. Over the course of this fiasco, I've been paranoid to all the things that could still happen. One thing is that my client had been working on having the website transferred to a different developer. The transition has been ongoing for month and from what I understand (though not confirmed yet), there is a chance that the image in question might have been copied to the new website. Take note that this website is not yet live, which should be next month, but what I'm worried is that Getty would send another letter for that website. My question is, how many time would Getty send a demand letter for the same image, same business, but different website?
   5. Lastly, I apologize if this is too long, but can you give me tips to prevent Getty (or other companies) from suing us for the photos I've uploaded? I am now extremely cautious of the photos I'm going to upload, but the paranoia of getting another demand letter for previous uploads is getting too much of me.

I realized that my actions were wrong and I want to do something to correct it. I don't want my employer to pay a large amount for fines when it's not really their fault. I have no intentions at all to infringe anyone's work. Thank you in advance for your answers.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

see my comments inline below

Hi everyone,

I really need your help. Recently, my employer got a letter from Getty Images threatening to sue them unless they pay a $944 fine for using one of their images on our website. A brief background about me - I work in the Philippines and my client is in the United States. My role with them is a Social Media Manager (as a contractor, not really an employee), so aside from managing their Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (and all other social websites), I usually do graphic design for them.

The picture in question was **a woman facing a mirror and putting cream on her face**. It was used for a blog post on our website which was about adult acne, more on how to treat it with over the counter drugs. I do not know if this is qualified as "commercial use", but for me it's more about educational, as my client did not endorsed herself (though she mentioned to contact a doctor if it worsens, but she did not pertain it to herself). This was uploaded January 2014 and my client got the letter January 2015.

if on a commercial website, it's considered commercial..

I now know ignorance is not a valid reason to infringe someone's work, but honestly, it is indeed my ignorance that led us to this. I really didn't know that it was illegal. I though all images on the google website was free except for those with watermark. I've learned my lessons and will not do it again. But now I'm paranoid on what may happen next.

watermarks or not doesn't matter someone owns it..the cars in my driveway don't have my name on them, but I own them hard lesson learned here..

   1. Our website is now clean of any images. Now, will they still sue me for something that was already removed? Can they send another demand letter, let say after 1 year for images that are no longer there? I read a forum which claims that Getty (or Picscout) is using Wayback Machine to track down violators, so I checked the site and found that they do not have records of the blog posts.

yes they can, yes they can and will send another letter, the statute of limitations is 3 yrs., They already have a record, if not from wayback machine then another source there are many other options.

   2. Will they sue for images posted on social websites? There might be difference between each sites policy, but what I'm concerned is Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, WordPress and Constant Contact? I have already removed the images from those sites but I'm worried that they still records of those images.

yes they can "sue" they most likely won't regardless of where the images are posted;

   3. I did some google image search and some of the pictures are still there, even though it's no longer in our website. I have used the Google Webmaster Tools to report that the images are no longer there, and up until now it's still in pending status. Is there any way I could contact them to have the removal expedited? I also have the same issue with WordPress, the entire blog is removed. Google search is still showing the images, but some of them already give the 404 Error - but for some reason, the picture which has the copyright still remains on their server.

don't worry about this, if you removed the images from the server the google results will adjust over time, it has no bearing on the demand letter.

   4. Over the course of this fiasco, I've been paranoid to all the things that could still happen. One thing is that my client had been working on having the website transferred to a different developer. The transition has been ongoing for month and from what I understand (though not confirmed yet), there is a chance that the image in question might have been copied to the new website. Take note that this website is not yet live, which should be next month, but what I'm worried is that Getty would send another letter for that website. My question is, how many time would Getty send a demand letter for the same image, same business, but different website?

until someone pays them, you need to advise the client to cull all images that they do not have a license to use.
   5. Lastly, I apologize if this is too long, but can you give me tips to prevent Getty (or other companies) from suing us for the photos I've uploaded? I am now extremely cautious of the photos I'm going to upload, but the paranoia of getting another demand letter for previous uploads is getting too much of me.

don't upload images that you don't have a license to use, unless you've created them yourself..pretty simple solution really..

I realized that my actions were wrong and I want to do something to correct it. I don't want my employer to pay a large amount for fines when it's not really their fault. I have no intentions at all to infringe anyone's work. Thank you in advance for your answers.

you'll need to step up here and either pay your client to pay getty, or work out some other arrangement, Getty will not deal with you, they will continue to hound your client.