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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: Getty letter received - No clue what to do...

« on: May 15, 2013, 08:48:00 PM »

Thanks guys. 

Greg - I just dragged the image into Google image search, and there are over 25,000 instances of the image... a quick scan of which shows almost all of them (I only got through about 20 pages of results before stopping) on small sites, pet blogs, wallpaper sites, etc. 

Even $200 is a bit out of my ballpark... my business really makes little to nothing.  I've attempted reading to get an understanding, but either I'm not bright enough, not savvy enough to get the forum format, or not reading the right posts.  I'm getting that it doesn't matter that there are no watermarks, and that the copyright is potentially legitimate.  I guess I'm just not getting what my next best step is.  It seems a lot of people say to ignore it, and others say to write a letter... those seem to be my two best approaches other than paying.  I'm scared to ignore it... my business is all I have.  And, is there a form letter or something to assist with the letter approach?  Everything I read seems to say "write your own letter, each case is different".  Which is fine, but I'm no attorney.  Is there somewhere that tells me what I'm supposed to include in said letter?  Do I just send them a letter saying "please provide proof of your claim"? 

Any help is greatly appreciated...

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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?