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UK Copyright infringement Letter using Getty but not Getty

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victim2:
I think a wise course of action would be to communicate with the claimant and tell then you have purchased a licence. You should tell them from who and when you obtained the licence.

There is every possibility that the claimant is muddled over who has and has not already purchased a licence. If you can show a valid licence their claim is stopped dead in its tracks.

The fact that they they have contacted 20 other users of the image is not relevant to your defence. Indeed if any of the claims are valid, the claimant may say this illustrates the extensive damage to their business and therefore additional dissuasive damages should awarded pursuant to the Directive  2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the council  of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Do be aware that because somebody sold you a licence they may not necessarily have had the rights to do so. The internet is full of websites offering to sell or give away the rights to works which they do not own. Wallpaper sites are particularity notorious for this. The legal principle of Nemo dat quod non habet applies and if you purchased a licence that was not valid, your use would be an infringement and you would be liable for damages. Relevant UK case law would be David Hoffman  vs Drug Abuse Resistance  Education (UK) Ltd  [2012] EWPCC 2
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWPCC/2012/2.html


If you have been sold an invalid licence then you can of course probably recover any damages you pay out from whoever sold you the licence. This underlines the importance of obtaining image rights from reputable sources as you would find it quite a challenge to receive damages from an anonymous  Ebay seller or  wallpaper website based in China or Panama etc.

If you are facing a genuine claim for infringement then my advice is the same for copyright infringement as for any other civil dispute, which is try to reach an out of court settlement. Ignoring a legitimate claim is a high risk strategy. If they are bluffing, you win and its cost you nothing. If they are not bluffing and they issue a claim in the High Court then you will be sitting on a whole load of costs which you could have avoided. If you ignore a case that is issued you could end up with a judgement by default and a very expensive visit from High Court Enforcement Officers. The best bet is to talk to the claimant, see if they have a valid claim or not or if you have a valid defence or not. If you have a valid licence then they have no claim.  If the claim is valid then negotiate a settlement. The earlier you do this the less legal work the claimant will have done and the more likely he or she is to accept a lower offer.  Jaw jaw is better than war war !

Disclaimer: I am not a Lawyer.

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