Welcome to the forums DavidvGoliath,
First off thank you for coming on to the forms and sharing your experiences and point of view and I would like to start off by saying I firmly believe that an artist should be compensated for their work and you have every right to collect when your work has been infringed upon.
Having said that let me tell you my experiences and you can see the frustration that exists for the nonwillful infringer. I was well aware that images have copyrights and you could not just taken image from a Google search and stick it on your website or in your blog. I run a small remodeling business in all of the images on my site with the exception of two where my own and of my own work.
I have a blog on my site offering free advice to homeowners on things they can do themselves to maintain their homes to avoid having to pay someone like me to come out to repair them. One blog post was tips on how to make your home more energy efficient in the summer to keep your air-conditioning costs down and I put a humorous picture of a Beagle dog standing in front of an oscillating fan cooling himself. This image was found on a website belonging to someone we will call John Doe. John Doe had several "galleries" with pictures in them, the picture in question was located in a gallery titled "public" . Not only was the image in a public gallery but every image in this gallery had John Doe's name on it with a title leading the person to believe this was his image which he had placed in a public gallery for people to use.
My first indication that this was not John Doe's image was when I received a settlement demand letter from Getty in a style that look like a lawsuit was being prepared against me, telling me I am guilty of copyright infringement and that I must pay $875 within 14 days or this would be escalated. I replied to Getty including screenshots of where and how the image was obtained stating everything appears that the image belongs to John Doe, I had remove the image immediately and I was willing to negotiate with Getty if they had exclusive rights as they claimed but please send me proof of your claim.
Getty said they will not send me any of the information requested and to go to their website and view the image and that is all the proof I need. They also said in their letter they would only provide proof of claim during discovery or in other words when they sue me. In an effort to settle the matter amicably I even had a local IP attorney send Getty a letter letting them know we were willing to negotiate but we just needed the information I had requested and if Getty was not sending it due to confidentiality agreements we would both be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement of our own barring us from disclosing any information sent other than with Getty for the purposes of settlement. Getty reply to this letter saying they would not send the information because it takes extra time and cost extra money to send us the proof and once again telling us they would only provide proof when they sue us.
This is the issue that many of us have with businesses like Getty images using settlement demand letters as a business model rather than truly protecting the rights of artists such as yourself. As business people we both know if you present an invoice to someone and they reasonably ask show me how you arrived at this figure in that I owe you this much we would never tell that person I will only show it to you when I sue you now pay me.
I see by your statements that you do not do this and you gladly provide information requested and try to settle the matter amicably. From what I have read if the image in question had been your image I'm sure we would have reached an agreement easily very quickly.
I am personally not aware of any of the regular participants here on this forum who think they should be able to take images and just use them for free. It is the fact that Getty treats nonwillful infringers so poorly and refuses to listen to anything they say yet continue to demand immediate payment or escalation.
I can also show you where Getty has sent out these letters over public domain images and one case settlement demand letters were sent to a Dan Evans over a picture of Henry David Thoreau taken in 1856. Once Mr. Evans pointed out this image was in public domain and he knew copyright law Getty immediately back down and dismissed the claim. Another case of this and an attorney general complaint was for a picture of an F-16 fighter jet taken from a number fighter jet. Since the picture was taken by a government employee and released it was public domain, again Getty immediately back down and dismissed the claim but how many people have fallen victim to this that do not know copyright law and paid Getty their average settlement demand claim of $1000 per image?
In conclusion I want to thank you again for coming here and sharing your story and I sincerely hope you will stick around and continue to participate. I want to reiterate again I firmly believe that artists intellectual property rights should be protected and they do deserve to be compensated for their work.
Here are links backing up statements I have made above:
Correspondence between Getty and myself
http://www.scribd.com/collections/3777294/Correspondence-with-GettyThread whereGetty Images try to claim rights to 1856 Henry David Thoreau picture:
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/don't-pay-getty-thank-you-eli/Attorney general complaint over Getty claiming rights to public domain image of an F-16:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104557917/Getty-Images-Attorney-General-Complaint-19Complaints I filed against Getty images with various agencies, Getty's responses in my replies to those responses
http://www.scribd.com/collections/3777301/Complaint-letters-filed-against-Getty-Images
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I'm mostly lost too.
