annalise--
Asking for registration is not making any admission against your interest. So, it's not the sort of thing Oscar is suggesting you omit from your emails, phone conversations or letters. Material to omit are statements like
- "Yes. I own that web site".
- Yes. I personally copied the image and hosted it on my web server from day X to day Y and I've now taken it down.
- I hired joe blow and he put it on my server and site.
All these things my be true and you might be required to reveal them during discover if Getty ever gets around to suing you, but it is better to make Getty collect their own evidence or wait until discover to get information they need to fully make their case. Instead of saying things like "I did host the image from x to y", you could try to figure out the most uninformative way of letting Getty know the image has been taken down while not actually admitting anything that is contrary to your interest should you end up in court. Depending on what points you think are ok to confirm or reveal, this could take a bit of doing because you a) must not lie and b) you don't want to say something so ridiculous sounding third parties will really think you are being too cute for words.
If, for example, they sent the letter to you, but really, it belongs to someone else who you know (husband? Club?), you could write your friend, ask them to take down the image, and respond:
"Dear Getty,
I received your letter about image X at site. I've examined the site in question. The image no longer appears at the site.
Sincerely,
Joe Blow "
This fails to inform Getty who owns the site. Heck, it's not even an admission the image every appears! If they sent the letter to the wrong person, you didn't let them know that fact. They can't win a suit against the wrong party, so if they don't know who to sue, they have to figure that out. In contrast, if you wrote them and said "I don't own the site. Party X owns it", you've done some research for them.
On the other hand, if you own the site, you know that ownership information is trivial to discover, the letter came to the correct place and so on, then you might just say "I edited the site and the image no longer appears". This statement is an admission that you have some control over the content-- after all-- you can edit. But don't tell them them any more than the fact that you've edited the content in a way that made the image vanish. It's not an admission that you were in control when it appeared! (Heh!) As far as you've admitted, the image might have been hotlinked-- which the 9th circuit court ruled not copying under the US copyright act -- etc. You might not have full control of the site. You might not own it. The image might have been hosted on your server or someone else's. Getty might be able to find out, but the point is, they need to do the work.
The fact is: You don't even need to present all evidence in your favor in your first letter (or 2nd or 3rd.) Notice they don't send you complete evidence in favor of their case. They don't
admit the obvious or possible flaws in their case.
When writing them remember: They are not the judge. They are unlikely to write by "Oh. You're right." They are much more likely to be crafting stock defenses for every possible defense they think will come in, and sending them out. They will continue to send out letters at a cost of $0.37 + cost of paper, employee costs for envelop stuffing and printer ink.
In restrospect, had I read this site further, I my first letter would have been more vague. I would have in parallel done some research and collected more evidence for my file. (My case is one of hotlinking-- so I think getty would lose in court if they sued me. But I don't think I even needed to spare their time by explaining the hotlinking and sending them evidence that I was only hotlinking in my first letter. I still wish I would have been more vague and strung them out and presented my evidence that I wasn't infringing until later. But that's water under the bridge. But knowing Oscar's advice now, my first letter would be more vague.)