Infringement Letter- Hawaiin Art Network LLC

[Biopharm]

Just received a infringement letter from an attorney representing Hawaiian Art Network LLC. The image in question is plastered all over the internet for free downloads. Go and Google: Twilight-Color-at-Emerald-Bay-Lake-Tahoe  This photo is all over the place for free download. The firm sent out a letter for $3500 for this one photo. This photo was obtained from one of these free download sites. Obviously, we had absolutely no idea it was a copyrighted image. This whole thing is so legally sneeky and lame.
Can anyone give some advise in these regards? My wife and I are a small time webdesign team and this is way beyond us. Thanks.

I guess I have to clarify, our website client received the letter. Of course we are working with them on this. Funny thing is that the photo in question is taken from Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe which is where we live. This just happens to be one of the most photographed places in the world (so I've been told). I think I was just standing behind this mystery photographer and took the picture myself

[Matthew Chan]

Who is the person, law firm, or attorney that sent you this letter? That has some bearing.

Regarding advice, start reading up on the various posts on the forums is a good starting point.  Very few are going to provide advice starting from ground zero as there have been thousands of people who have received letters.

Get educated and informed, and then ask clarification questions. Those will likely get answered then questions where someone has done no research or reading.

Matthew

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Can't help but notice all of the results on the first page are all wallpaper sites...I think downloading a wall paper image, would be a bit different than using the same image on a site, as thats not it's inteneded purpose. I would also guess that most of these "FREE" wall paper sites are loaded with swiped images, not of the 20 or so i glacned at only 1 looked legit, until I looked at the terms, then not so much. legimate sites will clearly outline the privacy policy, terms of use, and they should also have a visiable DCMA takedown link, which will give them safe harbor ids someone were to upload someones elses images. do a search for coca cola logo and it will yield over 4 million results, this doesn't mean I can use the logo as I see fit...just say'in..

you'll need to educated not only in terms of the letter, but also copyright in general if you want to stay in business for any lenght of time..

[Biopharm]

Peter Holt - Holt Law Firm
@Matthew-  I would send you a copy, but I am unable to send PMs for some reason??

[Biopharm]

Can't help but notice all of the results on the first page are all wallpaper sites...I think downloading a wall paper image, would be a bit different than using the same image on a site, as thats not it's inteneded purpose. I would also guess that most of these "FREE" wall paper sites are loaded with swiped images, not of the 20 or so i glacned at only 1 looked legit, until I looked at the terms, then not so much. legimate sites will clearly outline the privacy policy, terms of use, and they should also have a visiable DCMA takedown link, which will give them safe harbor ids someone were to upload someones elses images. do a search for coca cola logo and it will yield over 4 million results, this doesn't mean I can use the logo as I see fit...just say'in..

you'll need to educated not only in terms of the letter, but also copyright in general if you want to stay in business for any lenght of time..

Yes, some of these sites are wallpaper sites. But you will also notice that several of the sites clearly have HTML for cut/paste of the image to your website. In fact, it clearly states on the website that it is for use on your own personal website.

One thing, my wife and I have removed and altered any photo which may be questionable on all the websites we host/control. Is there a post or list of websites on this forum that list websites that have photos that are OK and free to use for personal usage on websites?

Is there a way to find out who has the copyright of this photo in question?

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

The problem here, is you don't where the images came from, the site owner may have a license for the images, (or not) but generally the license is not transferable. The days of FREE images are long gone for the most part.

Here is an article that will be helpful and it has some link for free image sites

http://extortionletterinfo.com/boycott.htm

another good source is freedigitalphotos.net, the selection is much smaller tham most, but the images are in-expensive or free providing you give credit back...again read the terms!

you can try to search the copyright office site to see if your image/artist is there.

[Biopharm]

So all the websites that are offering this FREE photo, are they in the clear? Are they violating the copyright of this photo also? I mean, they are offering a high resolution wallpaper. I'm being hastled over a 173 x 130 pixel picture that's on some random deep page of the website that's been live for about 4 months.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Anything is possible, the artist may have given permission for folks to use the image as wallpapers, we have no way of knowing any of this Bottom line is if you don't have a license for the image in question, or a receipt that you purchased said image, you're infringing, whether or not the other sites are in the clear is irrelevant to your particular case