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PicRights.com

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dthornton:
Has anyone dealt with PicRights.com? We recently received a letter from them. It appears as though a copyrighted image appeared on our Newsletter which got posted to our 4 websites. It was taken down several months ago, but they have still just now have sent us 3 separate letters (1 with a reference to a different website) asking to pay $224 in each of the instances.

I've dealt with Getty earlier this year on a different instance (that is when I began checking through the website to make sure no other copyright images were unintentionally used on the website and took everything that was not our own work down), but I'm not familiar with PicRights.com. We ended up paying the Getty fee to get them to stop harassing us.

My question is: has anyone else dealt with PicRights.com? I am all for making sure the artist is compensated, but $224 per usage (on the same item) is a bit high for stock imagery--especially when similar images are $10-$15

Thanks

icepick:
Are you in the US? A quick scan of their website makes them look like an international operation without a US attorney, yet anyway. And if the copyright holder is in a different country, that usually makes court enforcement much more expensive and difficult for them due to the travel to come to court for the lawsuit like Higbee is finding with the Nick Youngson cases.

If you are in the US I don't believe they can file a suit unless and until the copyright is registered so I would check that out.

dthornton:
Yes, we are in the US. How can I check to see if the copyright is registered?

icepick:
This is one way http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First

They will usually let you know if it is registered as a way to try and make you think they are 'serious.' You can either demand to see the registration from them or laugh at them if they try to file a case without registering it.

Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi):
a suit can be filed, regardless if the image in question is registered. Registering the copyright with the copyright office affords the creator with more options in regards to any monetary rewards.

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