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Getty Images Letter Forum / Getty letter received - No clue what to do...
« on: May 15, 2013, 06:53:11 PM »
I've read a number of posts in these forums, but I still can't seem to get a handle on what my best course of action here is.
I have a very small business and built my own website. The business is animal related, and I originally added images of dogs to the site that I found on a "Free Wallpaper" site. For back-up, I dragged any image I found on the site into Google search to make sure the image was widely used, and used by all types of sites, businesses, etc. I (perhaps incorrectly) assumed this meant the image was "safe". None of the images I used had any watermarks or other markings for copyright.
Yesterday, I received a letter demanding $1,175 for a single image. This image is on 1000's of pages online at high resolution (clearly not licensed on most), was found on a free wallpaper site, and has no markings. I had actually even removed the image prior to receiving the letter, so it's not even on my site anymore. Stupidly, perhaps, I called Getty and told them I had no idea, I got it from a free wallpaper site, and it wasn't there. They offered me a $940 settlement if I paid within 7 days.
My understanding is that a company is required to protect their copyright, and that, at a point where an image is saturating the web unlicensed, the company has in effect not protected their copyright, and has therefore lost claim to said copyright. At the same time, I have neither the time, nor the knowledge, to fight this in court.
Simply put, for those of you who have a superior knowledge on the subject, do I pay?
I have a very small business and built my own website. The business is animal related, and I originally added images of dogs to the site that I found on a "Free Wallpaper" site. For back-up, I dragged any image I found on the site into Google search to make sure the image was widely used, and used by all types of sites, businesses, etc. I (perhaps incorrectly) assumed this meant the image was "safe". None of the images I used had any watermarks or other markings for copyright.
Yesterday, I received a letter demanding $1,175 for a single image. This image is on 1000's of pages online at high resolution (clearly not licensed on most), was found on a free wallpaper site, and has no markings. I had actually even removed the image prior to receiving the letter, so it's not even on my site anymore. Stupidly, perhaps, I called Getty and told them I had no idea, I got it from a free wallpaper site, and it wasn't there. They offered me a $940 settlement if I paid within 7 days.
My understanding is that a company is required to protect their copyright, and that, at a point where an image is saturating the web unlicensed, the company has in effect not protected their copyright, and has therefore lost claim to said copyright. At the same time, I have neither the time, nor the knowledge, to fight this in court.
Simply put, for those of you who have a superior knowledge on the subject, do I pay?