I am a small time niche market web designer. I built a site for a client and had used a picture that I found on a wall paper site, with a different watermark than Minden. There was a large number of other sites using the image as free wallpapers. I cropped the image, overlayed a type of border and some text over the picture and used it as a button. They sent my client a letter demanding $697 for this picture. The picture was up for just under 6 months and has since been removed. The time stamp of their "proof of use" was from June. He just received the letter now, so I am assuming they used the way back machine to find the earliest it was used. The site is hosted on my server as well.
I won't let my client pay the fee, as it was my fault. I read through all the crap they send and there is a part that says they will not reach out to 3rd parties, but we can reach out to them. I'm just not sure if myself and my client should just ignore it? If I should take over and try and settle with them? His physical address is not on his website or whois so I'm assuming it would take some work for them to find his real mailing address.
Should I try and settle for a realistic price? It's an image of a wild turkey which I could have gotten just about anywhere for a few bucks at most.
I'm so stressed over this. Thanks.
I won't let my client pay the fee, as it was my fault. I read through all the crap they send and there is a part that says they will not reach out to 3rd parties, but we can reach out to them. I'm just not sure if myself and my client should just ignore it? If I should take over and try and settle with them? His physical address is not on his website or whois so I'm assuming it would take some work for them to find his real mailing address.
Should I try and settle for a realistic price? It's an image of a wild turkey which I could have gotten just about anywhere for a few bucks at most.
I'm so stressed over this. Thanks.