Getty Image Settlement Demand Letter: Scam or For Real?

I’ve been a client for years and have a very close relationship w/ Getty. I know for a fact that they contact their clients before their licenses expire in order to renew it when necessary.

I also know that they do have a very powerful tool and they do send letters out because if they didn’t, what would stop people from illegally using their images or from any other stock photography company? The photographers work hard to produce the content, and it’s only fair they get their royalties for every time their images are used.

I also know that Getty is VERY flexible and each case is treated differently. If a person gets a letter and is innocent because a designer did the site or something similar, all that person has to do is explain the situation to Getty and Getty will go after the designer. They are very flexible!

Bottom line is, if people respect the copyright law, they won’t have to get a letter. =)

Getty is scamming people. First, they must prove intent. In 99% of the cases, they cannot. So they are relying on a numbers game. If they send out 10,000 demand letters, asking for $2,000 each, and only 100 pay, that’s $200,000. They must also prove damages, which will be VERY VERY difficult to do in court. Getty could be in violation of the Fair Debt Practices Act, which stipulates that under no circumstances can a debt collector threaten a lawsuit when they have no intention of filing one. To date, no one single lawsuit has been filed by these retards. My advice is to tell them to take their demand letter and shove it up their ass.

I agree with Steve. We bought a template online, used it in good fath. Getty came after us two years later for a thumbnail sized image. They would NOT go after the designer and did not even care to know their name. They stated clearly US law specifically says if you were duped, sucks for you.

Getty “negotiated” the massive claim for a single image down by $80 providing I paid in full the remaining $1,000 in 48 hours.

“Janea” is rude, does not return calls and interrupts you constantly. I suspect Amber works for Getty or has never been on the wrong end of the stick with them.

Do….not….use….Getty.

My experience was similar. We purchased a license through another company. Getty did not care. They said they had the rights. When I demanded proof, they refused and just said we could pay now or end up in court.

We were hounded and threatened constantly for months. We were told it would be reported to a collection agency if we did not pay.

Not one single time did Getty care about our side of the story and the company we bought a license from is still in business. Why should they fear Getty when they are actually making money for Getty?

I cannot wait for the day Getty gets sued for their extortion practices — I hope they have to pay the same level of outrageous damages they think is fair to charge the innocent.

Demanding you pay 100% in “damages” plus whatever other amount they seem fit to charge is ridiculous. Someone needs to start a class action lawsuit!

For a $3.00 image we used on a blog page, we ended up paying over $900.

Yeah, right. We never got a renewal notice. Just a big fat bill offer to settle for “stealing” their images — but Getty allowed the license to “expire” just over a year so they could ask for two years in fees and damages.

I have never dealt with a ruder woman than the one at Getty.

I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the People. This is in regards to the outrageous “Getty Extortion Letter” received by many webmasters who unintentionally use a copyright protected image often found of free image sites or purchased as part of a template. Getty is demanding thousands of dollars in penalties for an unintentional act.
Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/gd8

I just received a letter today from Getty Images. I purchase a website template years ago (YES I PAID for the template) and they are now asking me for the money.

This is just not right.

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

John

I received one of these letters from Getty yesterday. It’s outrageous what they are doing to innocent people. I run a small pet sitting business and had a picture on my site they said was theirs. I had no idea it was a copyrighted photograph.

I’ve been pretty sick to my stomach over the letter, but it felt good to sign the petition you started, Robert. Thank you for posting that. I will send the link to friends and family.

Most people don’t steal photo’s. The web is made up of free and copy right photo’s. Just put a copy right logo next to it or use flash when you make your website. The flash option would allow nobody to grab your photo. Getty images are morons because they easily allow anyone to grab their photo. They are ( or at least it seems) a big enough company where they can use Flash and make it a little more obvious that when certain photo’s are used they have a copy right to them. It’s just a big dumb trap, that boosts part of their business. There is no secret here that they make money out of scaring innocent, unknowing people to pay them. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/boycott-getty-images/#sign_petition

How much of this money that Getty sues for ever goes to the Photographer?

My guess is very little as Getty demands and collects damages only for themselves and not on behalf of photographers.

We used a photo from a photo-sharing site where the contributor claims to own the picture and the terms of the site state that members have permission for free use. Getty now say its one of their images. We checked and no metadata or watermark…hmmm

Am now beginning to believe Getty may be deliberately planting its images onto free photosharing sites (or getting someone else to do this for them) to illicit copyright infringement and enable them to demand loads of money (very illegal but much easier way of generating cash than selling pictures).

Either way in the UK they are only allowed to claim a max of twice the original license cost (IF they win in court) which is still loads less than their demand and they HAVE to produce a copy of the exclusive license (which we’ve not seen yet) I’m definitely not paying – gotta fight this kind of extortion!!!

So sorry to hear another Getty horror story. I do know some companies that offer free screen shot savers — the fine print license says you can only use the images on your personal computer background. The pictures are nice so people share them on the web — and then get hit with copyright demands.

It would not surprise me at all if other (Getty?) companies engaged in similar practices. Gotten to the point where I cringe putting images on client’s websites and even though we only purchase through what we believe to be legitimate sources, hate having to advise them that someday they could get a letter from Getty, AP or someone else. I wish the trial lawyers would get on top of this one!

So add me to your list of small businesses that are being hounded by Getty Images (and now their attorney) for use of one of their supposed licensed images. The image in question has been Photo-shopped to remove the logos from the engines & boat (I’m a boat dealer) where my image HAS the logos intact and is the one that appeared on my website. It will be a cold day in hell before I pay Getty one cent! I find their conduct appalling especially when most small businesses are just trying to stay afloat in today’s economy.

I am dealing with Getty Images right now, i purchased 3 images and I missed the deadline about 2 months. Which is my fault I understand, I have never received an email saying that my license is expiring. Anyway, they sent me a letter for $4000 for 3, $39 images. I talked with them and lowered it to $2300 which is still outrageous, I am willing to pay the fee because of my mistake but this is a lot of money. So anyone has any idea what should be my next move?

Thanks

You might want to talk to an intellectual property rights attorney; most will give you a free initial consultation. Sounds like you could prove you purchased rights that simply lapsed. The burden on proof to show you were told about an expiring license is on Getty and one of the key components in getting damages in infringement lawsuits is proving willful infringement. If Getty did not send you proper notice, it is unlikely you would be seen as someone purposely “stealing” images.

Federal Law on Damages for Copyright Infringement – Although you could be required to pay a minimum of $750 if it went to court, you might be able to shoot Getty a copy of the law and offer them the minimum (saving you money) and Getty the hassle of suing you (they generally do not sue, but they will also not let this drop.)

I wish you the best of success in dealing with Getty. They are truly nasty.

Getty may not drop it, but I do, right in the garbage can!
Anybody that pays them a dime is an idiot.

Getty should be wiped from the face of the planet with the $%^@oles that came up with the planning and those that profit from it and those that enforce it.

What a horrible company … They are scamming you and should not ever get a cent from anyone !

I had a small business run out of my home for approx 1 year. This website was shut down and the business officially went under Sept of last year. Today I get a letter from Getty Images. What a scam!! They want 1750.00 from a company that made a grand total of 20.00 last year. ugghhh. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Add me to the list. We received a letter today on a website template we purchased through a realestate website company. I called the company and they assured me they had the permission and license. Contacted Getty as per their instructions to give them the information.

Their response: We don’t care if they have a license we are dealing with you and your company and you do not have a license.

I have never had someone be so rude and condesending. I hope they use up thousands sending me letters – will go right in the recycle bin. It is ridiculous to believe that you pay for a service and still cannot be secure that what you have paid for is not going to bring you harrassment.

Getty is a joke. I am a photographer and I was about to start licensing my photos through Getty. Good thing they went after a web client of mine and showed their true colors. I had used an image that I confirmed was part of a free images repository and it turns out that Getty Images planted the image there just so they could go after people.

I will not pay. I will not let my client pay. I will collect the letters and use them to complete my daily bathroom duties.

They are a scam.

Here is the great part. IF they had been anywhere near friendly or reasonable in their letter(s) or had accepted my offer of 4 times the asking price for the image, I would have settled but because they are so rude and their price is so outrageous, I will never deal with them again on any level and will spend the rest of my life preaching against them.

Getty is a joke. I am a photographer and I was about to start licensing my photos through Getty. Good thing they went after a web client of mine and showed their true colors. I had used an image that I confirmed was part of a free images repository and it turns out that Getty Images planted the image there just so they could go after people.

I will not pay. I will not let my client pay. I will collect the letters and use them to complete my daily bathroom duties.

They are a scam.

Here is the great part. IF they had been anywhere near friendly or reasonable in their letter(s) or had accepted my offer of 4 times the asking price for the image, I would have settled but because they are so rude and their price is so outrageous, I will never deal with them again on any level and will spend the rest of my life preaching against them.

Same story with me., They are harrasing one of my client for same., and that too for a small thumbnail. What a stupid company it is.

Regards
Abhishek

I got a letter the other day, and was astounded by the amount they wanted. I got my pictures from a free image directory. When items are posted on line, and they are copyrighted, you first need to purchase the photo to get a clear picture without a watermark or copyright name which makes the picture unusable. Let them take me to court, i’m not even calling them.

I got one almost three years ago. Went to the Getty Extortion Letter site and hired the attorney for $150 and never heard from Getty again. The statute of limitations runs out at three years, so soon it will be a moot point. The image in question was part of a template banner that a US website designer had paid for and incorporated in a site she designed for me. I had paid her for the site and had the receipt but I elected not to sic Getty on her. My solution was to take down the site and reshoot all my own photos for use on my site so I know where ownership lies. I think what is actually happening with Getty is not that they are “seeding” free sites with their photos, but instead that they are signing up photographers who license their entire portfolio including what they may have previously posted on free sites. Plus they have been buying other stock photo companies which again broadens their licensed photos. This is wrong and ultimately hurts the entire stock photo industry. I’ll never use stock photos again.

I just got a letter from Getty this week demanding money for an unlicensed image. I am referring the matter to my website provider in the hope they can straighten this out. I’m on disability with a spinal cord injury and hope I don’t have to somehow come up with the money.

I got a letter yesterday too demanding money. I am a small home run business I can’t afford to dish out money that they demand! I got the photo from a free website 2 years ago! Another headache to deal with!

It’s comforting to read these letters and comments and feel better about ignoring these greedy people. We used one picture briefly not realizing it was copyrighted and immediately took it down when notified. The website was to get an in-home healing practice going…we have no money to pay them and the business isn’t making any. Our home is on the line and we have more to worry about than Getty. Thanks to all of you!

I also received a Getty Letter. I hired the lawyer at ELI (extortionleterinfo.com) and a weight has been lifed off my shoulders. I refuse to pay them anything if they refuse to co-operate.

My client just got a letter. $950.00 Getty wants for 1 image. I have no idea where I got the image from, I think Google images . Really, really horrible thing Getty is doing. Where did they pull that price from? Yeah, I’ll pay what the image is worth but $950?? Come on?? Nope!

Getty Images is Spamming innocent people, terrible! Robbers who trying to cover yourself by law? Terrible experience!!

I received a demand letter from Getty Iames for an image that was included in a free website template from Intuit.com. I removed the image and contacted Intuit. Intuit claimed it was their problem and would handle the problem. Four months later I received another demand letter from Getty Images, I contacted Intuit again and was ignored, so I contacted the Washington Attorney General and filed a complaint. That ended my problem. I believe Getty is scamming people.

From a very good article about copyright by Timothy McCormack on the Seattle PI Blog http://blog.seattlepi.com/timothymccormack/2012/01/26/copyright-infringement-letter-for-images-on-your-website/

“You’re Liable Even if you Didn’t Know you Infringed a Copyright.
Copyright law prohibits both accidental and willful copyright infringement. As stated by one federal court recently, “there is no need to prove anything about a defendant’s mental state; [copyright infringement] is a strict liability tort.” A strict liability tort is a legal wrong that does not require a “mental intent.” In other words, a copyright owner does not need to prove a defendant intentionally infringed the copyright in order for the defendant to be liable because it is a “strict liability” tort. If you copy a picture from the Internet without permission, for example, you can be liable for damages even if you did not know the picture was copyrighted. Further if you hire someone, such as an employee, an independent contractor, or a web designer, you are also liable for using the pictures that third party posed to your website even if you were unaware of what they did.

Thus, the business displaying the copyrighted work without permission on their website is liable as the end user of that image. In short, the old adage, “ignorance of the law is never an excuse” applies to copyright law because even if you did not know, you might still be liable for copyright infringement. Most legitimate business want to do the right the thing and get these claims settled. If the same thing happened to them, they would feel the same way.”

Excellent point, which I also make in some of my own articles — ignorance will not get you off the hook.

I do wish companies like Getty would send a cease and desist first, or, at least only ask for the actual price of images rather than huge “damage” amounts that people simply cannot afford to pay. Lawyers sometimes have a bad rap for being “lawsuit happy.” But people do not understand that sometimes lawsuits really are necessary to resolve complicated issues or when there is a dispute over a wrongdoing. However, in Getty’s case, they bypass the legal system entirely and just threaten folks. Getty’s practices are not about upholding justice — they have simply become a massive (nasty) collection agency. At least with a collection agency they did not decide what you owe, another creditor did based on a tangible debt and attempts to collect were previously ignored. Getty simply makes up amounts as it goes along based on nothing at all — not even accepting the minimum allowed by law if an infringer is found guilty in court. Worse — they do not go after websites and template owners offering Getty images for free — they let those folks stay in business and then go after the folks who download them and use them. Getty will never force down illegal sites pushing their images when they can make huge sums of money off the ignorant.

Revenge – after now having been sent these letters for over a year and probably having to pay up eventually – I took great delight on doing a google search for ROYALTY FREE IMAGES and then clicking the getty images ad knowing it must be costing them £0.80/click – up to 700 so far – takes a while but enjoyed every minute.

LOL — Clever way to protest peacefully — if you keep it up anything they get from you will be lost in PPC!

This is what happened to a lawyer who tried a similar stunt in the UK. Despite this Getty and the other imaging companies continue to send out these demands.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16616803

Got my letter Friday. I took the image down instantly. I wish they had the nerve to call instead of sending a letter. Anyone in Canada dealing with this? I am not paying but I want to know what could happen. Also they say they will charge you interest in the letters but don’t give a amount and I think legally they should but I dont know. One photo $850. There goes the money for my new air conditioner. But like I said I am looking into some law advice and I don’t want to pay this. Help!

BamBam – could u pls let me know how to hire lawer from ELI (extortionleterinfo.com). do not find any contact for ELI.

thanks
raj

I received one several years ago, of course it freaked me out at the time, but then I did some searching around and found that it was nothing to worry about.

I know some people have spoken to them to try to reason with them, but I simply ignored it completely. After some follow-up letters and phone messages over a period of maybe 6-12 months, they seemed to give up and I have not heard anything for years.

So, based on my experience, that is what I would suggest doing, ignoring them.

Certainly, certainly, do not pay them anything. As some have said, if they have a genuine claim, they should provide proof of exclusive rights. They should also come with a reasonable claim once they have done so.

Remember, it seems that they have never, ever taken anyone to court over this. You are VERY unlikely to be the first (let’s face it, it is just not going to happen).

I am based in Malaysia and I started getting demand letters and emails from Getty. The designer used these photos in my website in 1996! We were told they were paid for and belonged to the web designer. After reading your comments, I am going to wait and see!

Hi just found your page and letters.

I received a threatening letter from Getty this morning about a tiny image a friend had sent me to use on my website. He knew nothing about it needing a licence and has used it himself (he has now removed it). He feels absolutely dreadful about all of this.

My business is about to go under and so to have a letter arrive on my door step asking for £1,000 was just about the last stroke.

Upoon receipt of the letter I immediately removed my website and cried – what is the point?

What a year this has been; my husband has a serious RTA last year and nearly died and last night asked for a divorce. I am the only one earning any money from my therapies. I am going to have to close my business and sign on the dole Monday. I am in a very bad financial state. My car has just failed its MOT. I can’t afford to even eat this week and now I receive this letter threatening hell and damn-nation.

I am on anti-depressants, suicidal and just about had enough.

This letter nearly was the last straw until I found you webpage.

I will not be paying them anything – I certainly don’t have anything to give them.

Monday I am going to see a solicitor, visit the Department of Fair Trading and if necessary the Police.

I will fight this – I am surprised that I have any fight left in me but after reading all your comments I feel stronger.

I really hope these B****DS get their comeuppence.

Perhaps God will settle this debt with them……..I would laugh to see GETTY go bust during these hard times —- I can dream!

We had a run-in with getty once about this same issue; not knowing what to do, we contacted a solicitor who specializes in it. It cost about £300, but the sorted it all out, never heard another word from Getty. They can be contacted throughhttp://www.gettyletter.co.uk,

I am having the same trouble as everyone else. One of my clients was contacted over an image that I thought I had acquired legally. It was from a free stock site (surprise – owned by Getty) which we used because we thought that it was legitimate.

Now that my client has a $900 demand in their hands I have no way of proving where the image came from.

Here is the kicker though: ANYONE can upload an image to this free stock site and claim that they own it. For all I know, someone else (or even someone representing Getty) uploaded this image to the free stock site where loads of people downloaded it in good faith. Now that I need to prove this is where I got it, the image has been taken down (probably by Getty) and I have no way to prove that it was ever there.

This could be malicious and it could just be an accident, but either way, it’s a scam and Getty is making a mint on it.

PS. The stock site was – http://www.sxc.hu/ – DO NOT use this site under any circumstances.

Follow up thought on my last post:

Has anyone here actually been taken to small claims court by Getty? I want to know.

Here’s the thing, as a small-business owner, I’ve hired debt collection agencies before. If all Getty is doing is turning your case over to a collection agency, GREAT! Debt collection agencies send threatening letters and that is about it. After that you have to sign the debt over to the collection agency and then they send it to a department that determines whether or not to invest real human resources in collecting the debt. Unless you are in flagrant violation of a very explicit binding contract, and the debt isn’t worth at least five figures, they aren’t going to put any money into hunting it down.

So the only thing that remains is for them to submit it to a credit agency (which also costs money). Since it costs, the client has to pay the agency to do it, and so they normally don’t pay. Even then, it’s just a note on your record that says there was a dispute. Since it has never been arbitrated, that’s all it is. If it was anything more, I could send anyone I want an outrageous bill (a bill is just a claim that someone owes you money – it isn’t necessarily legitimate in any way), turn it over to a collection agency, and ruin your credit.

Please leave feedback! How many of you have paid Getty? How many people held out? Was anyone ever actually taken to small claims court?

I received a letter today for a pic that was on a ‘free’ site. I have NO idea where I got it, when I got it… they want like $800 for it. I do remember them stating that it was a ‘free’ image. If I respond it would seem like I am guilty, if I pay them i have set a president and stated culpability.. no way.

I am not going to respond, they can take me to small claims if they like

I consider it a strong arm scam though and would not pay them. They can come to my office if they like, I will NOT talk to them on the phone, I will NOT respond to letters… I will NOT respond to emails. They must do this one in PERSON if they want any money from me.

Now there is even a ‘cottage industry’ of attorneys making money from people defending themselves from this crap. What a racket!

@ Toby K
Flash websites aren’t impervious to those wishing to copy / steal an image. A simple screenshot and crop is all that is required to obtain any images from websites designed in flash. Just thought I would be an arse and point that out!

I run a small website development business in the UK, and have purchased various images from sites and always do religiously making sure there is no copyright infringement.

In the past few years 2 of my clients have had letters from these Bully’s, In the first case my client had taken the images from sxc.hu which is part of the istockphoto group – which Getty images purchased a short while after my clients, this is a free image sharing site that cross sells with it’s paid counterpart. we worked out that Getty on buying the sxc.hu had all the best ‘free’ images in to there paid section and this resulted in our lovely letter.

I told my client to ignore the letters after reading sites like this, and after about 6 months the demand letters stopped….

on the 2nd occasion I have instructed my clients to do the same, and would advise anyone reading this to ignore the morons

like was said above if they actually intend to take you to court, they would not be sending you photocopied threat letters, and would need to prove that you were using the image for financial gain – like reselling it on an image site, also under UK law they can only ask for double the value of the original image

over the past 8 years my companies have spent over a million dollars with Getty images through our magazines and graphic design companies, and a $800 dollar demand letter has cost them dearly, as I have made it a company policy that we never spend another penny with them again, and we actively tell our clients and colleagues to avoid them like the plague.

I too received my first letter from Getty in June 2011 for displaying a scanned copy of a greeting card I had purchased from Posty Cards online retailer.
It did not matter to Getty that I had a box of greeting cards in my possession and I chose to upload the image to my website for decorations.
When I contacted Posty Cards, they offered no help and continue to sell these images without any disclosure of copyright warnings. I no longer purchase from Posty Cards.
The intitial demand paymen from Gettyt was for $900. I offered to pay $100.
I recieved another letter reducing the demand to $700. I did not reply to this letter.
Recently I received a 6 page document from an attorney representing Getty, demanding I pay $2,300!
I’m not responding to anything else from Getty or it’s blood sucking attorney. This is extortion in the first degree.
Maybe someone will file a class action lawsuit against Getty! This needs to be addressed in a court of law.

Oh people, people listen to me. This is a scam I know as “speculative invoicing”. Getty are sending demands knowing a fair percentage will be paid whilst the other more enlightened amongst us will refuse to pay. Of course they will not take anyone to court because they know the business model will be revealed for what it is i.e. a scam. Do some research and find out how often they have followed through on their threats. I can tell you we received one such demand and totally ignored them. Getty or more precisely it agents went away in no time at all and simply moved onto the next mug.
Now be very careful who you believe on this blog. I can see a number of Getty trolls contributing to it and doing their utmost to scare you without actually revealing themselves.
This post will be followed by anecdotal evidence telling you that Getty can and will hang, draw and quarter you if you don’t pay but as I said earlier, just do some research!

Received the letter today. We had no idea this was going on and had a prelim website for employees to check with filler photos. Looking forward to your anecdotal evidence Johnson.
Thanks to you all for contributing to this blog!
J

I am a website designer in the UK and one of my clients received the Getty demand in 2009. They are a Travel Agent and I had used a couple of small illustrative images that I had found on Google Images.
They promptly passed the letter to me and I was aghast at the sum which was over £2,000.

Even if I wanted to pay I did not have the resources so I scoured the web and put together a reasonable letter. I heard no more until 2 years later when my clients received a demand letter from a UK based solicitor.

This time when I scoured the web I found copyrightinfringement.org.uk and contacted them as a solicitor was involved. I then went to meet them and got involved with the fight by working on their website and we have now produced a short video by the solicitor Liz Ward who is a specialist in the field.

The link is http://youtu.be/er2MkBu3q1g

My thoughts on the whole business are as follows;
1, The photographers who post -whether Getty clones or not – should realise that in this digital age their services are not worth the money they once received and I and my wife (Who is a graphic designer) do not get anything like these sort of payments for our work.

2, If the images are out there then presumably the photographers have been paid once and should be prepared to receive a nominal fee of say £100 to £200 for the infringement and have the images removed from the offending website. If they are on an image library then presumably the photographers were prepared to have much smaller ongoing amounts for their work in which case the same penalty should apply.

I, like many others, made a genuine mistake and whilst I would not mind paying a reasonable penalty for this, like the figures mentioned above, it seems that many photographers have no pity and equate the whole business to stealing with intent!

I am also a photographer and, in the event that one of my photos had been misused I would just ask them to take the photo down. If they refused then I would pursue them.

So I’ve been trading emails with a representative from Getty for a few months… I told the rep off and how I thought this was ridiculous and didn’t hear from her for a month. Then out of the blue today I get a couple of emails from her… one of which was my “Bill” $675 for one month of use! All of the information on the invoice, except for my name, is wrong.

After reading this page I’m going to pretty much ignore it and see what happens.

Here’s a question for everyone… all of you talked about a “letter”… was this a hard copy snail mail letter or an email like in my case?

Has anyone ever tried to get the news or any consumer groups involved?

Dennis, I received a snail mail letter (after emails were ignored.) I say what have you got to lose by ignoring them?

OK..SOOO, I got mine today..letter that is! DAMN, I thought I was special or something! LOL This could really be fun…How can we F with them?? I will CERTAINLY not be giving them a red cent of the $1560 dollars they are demanding ($780 per photo). Simply by adding school information on my real estate website, to help out families with children when purchasing a home, I have become indebted to Getty Images! NOT!!!

You do the crime you pay the price. Just a bunch of thieves you steel peoples work and then don’t want to pay up. Bunch of loosers I think you should all just stop crying and pay up. Nothing is free, if you use an image you need to pay for it. Long live Getty images.

If getty was acting fair by collecting extortion amount for a thumbnail photo or from most people whom deem to be unaware that they are using a licensed image, they should be shameful. Making use something rightous to extort money, that’s not trying to fight value for photographers and real work. They should be question of their ethical means of the way their business is run. Whoever that thinks getty is helping to prevent crime of stealing images by extorting money must be an idiot.

I received an actual letter in the mail from Getty on Feb 9th 2012 demanding money for a photo I downloaded from photobucket. There were several representations of it on photobucket from different posters, one with words embedded. I immediately removed it from my website, and requested they furnish me with the registration certificate for this “copywrite” so my attorney could pursue the matter. I received an email from them a couple of days ago refusing to give me any information, and that I had to ‘pay up’ by March 23rd. Nope. Won’t happen. I’m going to lodge a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and Attorney General.

We paid $329 about 10 years ago for a file containing many images that we use in our home-based web business. One of our customers got the letter 2 years ago, and her attorney-friend advised her to do nothing and see what happens. The image in question was removed. They sent a few letters but then stopped. The thing to remember is that they can only threaten you with letters – the letters mean nothing unless they file a lawsuit and get a judgement against you. There are many scams out there like this, MasterFile is a big one and they do sue people in Federal court. “I” is a joke – we are just regular folks who have these images in innocence – in our case we PAID for them as did many others here.

Today I received claim letter from Washington lawyer on behalf of Getty images. I called the law firm and tried to ask why they did not send talk to me before sending the letter. I am going to complain to AG of Washington… I tried to call them again, but they never picked up the phone.
Here is my 1 cent…
1. Brave Heart : Ignore the letter
2. Thoughtful: Their is remote possiblity that they will sue you, but it’s better to lawyer than the getty people….
Cheers….

I’ve never heard of a more ridiculous thing in my life. Right now Getty is sending us threatening letters, demanding we pay them $3,000 for three images that appeared on our site. They were not marked in any way. We did not know anything about Getty Images when we received the first letter. Now they’re really threatening us! we have enough problems without having to deal with this too! Either way, we don’t have the money to pay them. It’s making me sick to me stomach just thinking about this! How can they get away with this??? I don’t know what to do! Our business is barely stay afloat as it is… Why?!?

I just received a letter from Getty demanding $780.00 for an image that I cannot recall using. Its a picture for a different part of the county and I would never have used it anyway. Its not on my website and the screen capture they sent is not legible. Anyone know anything about how to deal with this. Can they randomly just do this and harass people?
I would think they would have to prove that I used the image. Anyone experience this..?

I received a demand letter from Getty for a thumbnail photo that we used briefly on our website. We get all our images from the tourist boards of each country that we sell, (we are a travel wholesaler), or we use hotel photos or our own photos. The photo in question has no watermarks or copyright images on it. Getty is demanding $780 for the use of this thumbnail. Just doing a brief search on the internet I found this photo on the tourism websites and on “free” image libraries. It’s a common photo of a tourism icon. I am not paying them anything. I will report them to the Washington State Attorny Generals office.

I received a letter from Getty with a copy of an image I have never seen before, they say I am using it on my web site. I wont be contacting them but just wonder if this has happened to anyone else, from the posts it looks like most have stated they used an image but I have never seen the image they are stating I am using. Any advice? Just ignore the letter?

Hi Joyce, sorry to hear you have become another recipient of a Getty letter.

If you purchased a template that came with images, or hired a web designer, it is possible that there is an image that was swapped out in the final version so does not show on your site, but is still somewhere on your server in a file

Getty’s policy seems to be if you have it in your possession on a server — even if you are not displaying it — you are guilty of copyright infringement. Be sure to ask them exactly where the found the image — they should have to provide you with a URL from where they took their screen shot.

I wish you good success in resolving your problems with them!

I got the getty letter today saying I am using one of their images on my website, which I got it from the opensource templates. The image that I have is the mirror image of theirs & the size is chopped. How can they claim that the image is their’s when it is not an exact size & image?. This is ridiculous & I am not paying a dime. I changed the image now but they have the screenshot. But I will sent to US government including washington if they come after me. What a scam, we all should sue them.

To: Getty’s Copyright Compliance Specialists:
Do not justify what you do because it pays well. Try to do something positive which contributes to society. Then hope that a company like Getty does not try to prey on you.

This is a Scam…let’s fight back!

Washington State Attorny Generals office – Complaint Form

https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/ComplaintForm.aspx