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Getty Images Letter Forum / Re: College grad with Getty demand for an image used in a school project.

« on: September 19, 2013, 02:25:31 PM »

Some more details based on what I've heard so far.

I took the images down immediately and removed them from the server they were on.  I did this project years ago, but I didn't upload it to my website until this June or so.  I was taking an HTML class (after college, just for personal interest, I'm not a web developer) and I made a simple HTML website as practice and put my projects from school on it for content.  I paid for a domain name and hosting, partly to learn how to do it, and partly because I thought it would be a neat way to show off my design work.  There are some other websites that I don't own where I uploaded the same project.  These are sites designed to show off your portfolio, so I'm not sure if I'm responsible for those as well, but I took all of that down just to be safe.

I will follow your steps later today lucia and update you with answers.

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Getty Images Letter Forum / College grad with Getty demand for an image used in a school project.

« on: September 19, 2013, 01:03:48 PM »

Hello all, I'm a 25 year old designer in Illinois and I have just found this message board.

 I received a demand letter from Getty images last weekend stating that I used an image from their site without a license and demanding $875 within 14 days to prevent "further action".  I found the image somewhere else through Google image search a few years ago and used it for a school project while I was in college.  A couple of months ago, I put this project on my personal website (which is where they seem to have found it). 

I haven't profited form the use of this image in any way, and it appears in 214x206 size on the website (that gets almost no traffic), so $875 seems unreasonable.  Based on my research, it seems they do this less to protect their own interests and more for the sake of bullying small fish for profit. 

Much of the advice I have seen here (and elsewhere) suggests either sending a carefully crafted response, or outright ignoring them.  I am only a couple years into the beginning of my career and I don't have a lot of money saved up yet.  $875 wouldn't bankrupt me, but I am not one to simply fork over money when I am threatened. I don't have money to pay for a lawyer, so if they did decide to come after me, I feel like I would be pretty screwed.  It seems like the consensus here is that calling them would be a bad idea.

I called a lawyer in the area who supposedly specializes in copyright stuff, and he basically told me that the cost of hiring them would outweigh the $875 they are asking for.

Should if I were to ignore this, what risks would I be taking?

If I did want to respond to them, should I write the letter myself?  As I said, I don't really have any money for a lawyer.

How concrete is their 14 day ultimatum?  Their letter is dated 9/11/2013, I received it on 9/14/2013, so that deadline is 9/25/2013 (6 days from now).  I don't want to screw myself by fighting this and ending up in court when I could have forked over the money earlier on, but I also don't want to give in to extortionists.

How does a young designer of meager means protect themselves in this situation?