Advice on Getty Image situation

[xanderp]

I am new to the site and figured I would write my story in the hopes of getting some advice from others in my same situation. Getty Images has been one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with as they continue to treat me like I am a criminal.

I am a web designer in California and recently used a couple of Getty images on a website that was in a development stage for my client. Development stage meaning that there was no real content on the site and it was just for the client and I to see while we worked on it. These two images I used from Getty were images that I thought would look good in the banners of the website which i was trying to sell the client on buying before we launched the site. Long story short, the client disappeared for about a month pushing us over the 30 day limit you can use the photos for. The photos were up for about 2.5 months I hadn't been aware of this time frame to warn my client as Getty images makes you have to really search their site to get this information. I feel in a way that they want you to go over that 30 day marker so they can come after you.

Getty images then sends my client a letter demanding immediate removal and payment of $1800 for the miss use of photos. In hearing this, I immediately took the images down and started calling Getty images to explain the situation. Janea Davis who is our case manager at Getty Images and is one of the meanest most unreasonable people I have ever spoken to in my life. Before I could even explain my situation I was immediately under attack.

Regardless, this has now become more of a principal thing then anything else. I have sent numerous clients to Getty images this past year probably totaling more than 5k in sales. After doing my best to explain my situation, show her that I was an asset to Getty Images etc. Her line was "That's too Bad Sir"... I am willing to fight tooth and nail on this. If it was me I would just walk away from them but being that it is my client involved, I feel that I must handle this matter.

Has anyone had a similar story? Will they really come after us for $1800? I was going to try out Oscar Michelen, any advice on this?? Thank you so much for any incite. I am livid about this situation.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Similar situations have happened before, they are well covered in the forums, keep reading and get educated.One item worth noting is that your client would need to retain Oscar if that is the end decision, naturally you could foot the bill for this, but Getty will not want  to deal with you as the developer, bottom line is the domain owner is responsible.. Might I suggest password protecting projects that are in the develop stage from here on out.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

If you read this site you'll see that it is highly unlikely that GI will go after you. If you dig around, you will find my story, which is similar and ultimatly I got them to drop their case.

However they will continue to nag your client. Their beef is with the owner of the site, so that's who they'll go after. It's one of the tactics they seem to employ to embarrass developers into paying. So if you want to hire Oscar on their behalf, I think you have to get your client's permission.

But you need too look objectively at what has happened so far. Did you remove the GI watermark? That weakens the case that it was FPO (for position only). Was the domain at root level or was in in some obscure development directory? Have you really spent thousands on GI photos? If that were the case, I wouldn't engage the person you are talking to. I would speak to an account rep and explain the situation and ask them why they are threatening to sue their customers. Point out that this is probably not a very good business practice.