Help from Switzerland

[eli80]

hello!
i received from getty images england a request of payment, last december 2008.
i have a personal website, non commercial, www.eliodelbiaggio.ch and i used to insert abstracts from third parties (text news) with a link or a deep linking... since decembvre 2008 i store directly all the content on my web server (hosting in switzerland).
i manage this site since 1996 and until now i had no problem for nothing.
i didn't answer to the getty images letter and i received a secondo letter, from getty images usa-united states of america, without answering from my part.
a third letter was coming from getty and return, because i was abroad, this last months.
now, during the last days, i received a 4.th letter, but this time from a legal office in switzerland (i didn't see the letter, because i was abroad and the letter returns aumatically to the sender from the swiss post).
i ask me now about getty images procedure, because from my part i linked to an external website, from my pages, where it was a text and an image (photograph 150x100 pixel) for which i receive a reqeust of payment. it wasn't intentionally and just a fortuit case.
could anybody help me, because i didn't want legal problem for an externel linked image 150x100 pixel copyright request, online just during any days.
i think that's really absurd!
thanks a lot and greetings from switzerland.
eli

[Oscar Michelen]

Dear eli:

You will have to get some advice from a Swiss intellectual property lawyer as the laws vary from nation to nation.  Switzerland, for example has had legal cases arising out of the "copyrightability" of photos.  In one case the high court held there was copyright in  a photo of Bob Marley because of the artistic quality of the image; in another it held there was no copyright in an image of a person holding two books because it lacked "originality."  You would need to examine the image at issue against those two cases and Swiss law to see how your case fits in.  Getty has not been known to sue over a single image, but that you were contacted by a Swiss attorney is also unusual.  They usually don't involve counsel and handle it internally.  

I was unable to determine if Swiss law has an "innocent infringement" defense like many other countries' laws do. So I really can't give much more guidance than that.  Hopefully you can find a lawyer in your area that will answer your questions in a free consultation.  Good Luck and keep us posted please.  

Oscar

[eli80]

thank you very much, oscar!
here we are and during this last days, this private attorney office in switzerland as sended another letter with a request of information, to determine the amount due to getty images for this image i used on my website without intentions, unfortunately and really as an innocent infringement...
i discuss with a lawyer who tells me that they have to refer to a swiss court, and it is then this swiss court who determine what is to make and if for every case.
this is just for your information, and i think always it is really over every limit of understandability from the side of getty images.
unfortunately, we can't discuss with this people and we can't explain what is the really situation and the intentions.
:-(

[Oscar Michelen]

Thanks for the post and the update