The Getty Images Demand Letter
During our SEO Coaching Session last week a member revealed that they had received “the letter” from Getty Images notifying him that their e-commerce site was infringing on their copyrights, demanding that they produce a valid license for the image(s) within the next 14 days or remove the image along with paying Getty $700 for using the image without permission.
Our member was shocked to say the least since he had outsourced development of the website to a US based web developer who he paid several thousands of dollars to.
When he followed up with them after receiving “the letter” the developer’s response was “yeah, we been getting a lot of calls about this” and basically related that our member was on his own in negotiating with Getty as the developer never obtained the proper licensing for any of the images on the website.
We have heard from several others that have also received “the letter” which in some cases demanding up to $6000 in payment for license fees!
In one case a company download a free WordPress theme for their website that contained several images that Getty claimed owning the licensing for.
What Should I Do if I Get “The Letter”
First off let me cover my bases by making it clear that I am not an attorney therefore I am unable to provide you with any legal council at all.
However, both Sitepoint and WebProWorld have very comprehensive, but somewhat dated, threads from other site owners who have all received “the letter”. Both discuss some of the strategies that have been used.
Here is what they both recommend:
- Immediately remove the images from your website
- Block archive.org bot in your robots.txt file from accessing your website (and thus remove your site from the archive.org index)
- Dispute the invoice & send them a letter
- Ignore all future phone calls and letters (do not respond) [unless they are from the courts]
- If anyone does call you, it is recommended that you “Strongly dispute the invoice and want all further communication in writing”
- Do not worry; they are trying to scare you into paying.
How to Avoid Getting “The Letter”
The best way to avoid getting “The Letter” is to avoid using any images from Getty on your website, however if you outsource your web development or have purchased a theme for your website, it is often difficult to know where the designer is obtaining the images and if they are properly licensed.
Therefore when subcontracting with web developers I would recommend that you make it clear to the designer that they can recommend the images for your site, however that you will be responsible for purchasing any and all stock photography and that you will be supplying the final images.
And when you do obtain images for your site consider using other stock photo sites such as iStockPhoto where you would pay as little as a dollar for each image or DepositPhotos who have a vast library of royalty free stock images.
Did You Get “The Letter”?
Have you gotten one of Getty’s demand letters?
If so would love if you comment in the area below as to what steps you have taken.
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20 Responses to The Getty Images Demand Letter
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sweet spot.
One of my clients got one of these 2 years ago from Getty for a site I had done 8 years ago. He ignored it and it went away.
They wanted a receipt for the purchase of the image from 8 years ago. No chance.
I did remove the achieve or wayback machine info and what I thought was the image they were referring to.
The problem with not buying things from Getty in the future is that their images are everywhere and being marketed by other companies like istock photo who may even be owned by Getty.
If you google this subject you’ll also find plenty of lawyers that are willing to handle the matter for a small fee.
Great article Roy. Thank you for the post.
I received a Getty letter recently and paid the fee to make it go away. Thankfully it was for a single violation. Perhaps I should have tried your method and removed the images and ignore it.
Glad to know I’m not the only one that had to learn the hard way about making sure images used on my site are licensed.
Just remember the burden of proof is on them, I can not read the letter, it is too small. Never pay or submit to any demand without proof that you are indeed breaking the law. It is required that the person(s) making the demand show proof of any violation.
I receive on of these letters demanding $1,600 for a small image we had on our site. The image came from a web designer who created a template for us about 5 years ago. I contacted the designer, but even he could not produce proof that the image had been purchased. I went to http://www.iStockPhoto.com and purchased a similar image for less than $10 and replaced the image Getty was complaining about. I sent an email and called Getty to tell them how we got the image and told them the image had been replaced. That was the end of the ordeal.
If you go to iStockPhoto please mention that homepagestore sent you. They have reasonable prices for good quality images.
.I had the letter 4 years ago here in the UK, I debated the issue with a representative for 3 weeks or so and then gave up. Told them sue me for the money if you feel the need but I am not paying. Never heard another word.
I have heard of this happening to people before, but its usually when they outsource to India or somewhere like that. I personally use fotolia.com but istockphoto.com is pretty good too. Thanks for the advice.
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 too purchased a website template 6-7 years ago for my real estate business. I have not used that website or updated it for the last 4-5 yrs.
Today I received the famous Getty Images letter because there is one clip art on the template.
It’s just wrong when they are coming after you when you have not done anything wrong.
@John lots of folks have called or emailed us about this post and I appreciate your comment. Hopefully you now have some information on how you can fight back and win!
Getty is not the only company sending out these letters, there is plenty of info and an active forum on this subject at extortionletterinfo.com.
FYI : Istockphoto.com is owned by Getty, and Getty sends out letter for Istock.
Also removing from archive.org is a good first step, but picscout ( owned by getty) is the software being used to spider sites, ignore robots.txt, and actually disguises itself.. visit the site for more info!
Hi, my name is Travis and I own a web company in Portland, Oregon.
Not sure that this is really useful information for anyone, but I thought I would share my outrageous experience with Getty on the phone this afternoon, 11/22/2011 at about 12:41 PM.
I’m a web developer and was recently sent one of these infamous Getty demand letters, actually 3 of them all for the same image that was used on 3 different websites my company had built. As with many other companies, we immediately replaced the image with a copyrighted image in all cases and called Getty expressing our apology and agreed that we definitely owed someone some money, but wanted to talk about the amount.
They were completely unwilling to discuss anything to that regard. The three demand letters were all for the same image, but for 3 different dollar amounts ($825 to $995)! I asked them to please explain how they came to those numbers and why it was different on all 3 claims and that we would be happy to pay whatever was reasonable following that breakdown. The woman on the other end of the phone flat refused to provide those details and said that by law they didn’t have to provide me with that information until the claim went to litigation.
Needless to say, I became very firm, but remained calm, and said that it was unethical to send someone a bill for something without explaining to them how you got to that number, especially when their were 3 different dollar amounts for the same image. She then told me not to use that kind of language or she was going to hang up. I ask what she was talking about? “Unethical” is not a “bad word” that I’m aware of.
And I assure those of you reading this that I was not loud or aggressive with my tone. I’m a very calm person, I’m 40 years old and have never been in a fight in my life. And I guarantee you, anyone who knows me will say that they’ve never even heard me raise my voice before.
Anyway, back to the discussion.
I then told her I would like to talk to her supervisor. She then said she would be glad to take down my number and would have someone call me back when they had a moment.
I sat there in silence, stunned at how they had me backed into a corner with no options. I wasn’t asking to not pay I just wanted some details. As a matter of fact, I settled and paid an $11,000 claim filed by MasterFile over a year ago for $4,000 on an image that an ex-employee had posted on a customers website when they were building it. I didn’t have an argument because the employee was not available so I couldn’t argue where the image came from and I was also very unaware of how this all worked.
“Many of the targets of [undisclosed company] suits appear to be individuals and non-profit organizations who lack the economic resources to defend themselves against [undisclosed company's] claims…. ”
The above quote, from the LA Times, is exactly how I feel about Getty’s approach. They know I can’t afford to take this to litigation and therefore will be forced to just pay whatever amount they tell me I have to pay.
Needless to say I’m very disappointed in the laws around this process and the power that has been given to the accuser to just pull a dollar figure out of a hat and slap it on a demand settlement letter. Knowing that the cost to take it to court and hire an attorney out weight the expense of just paying them to go away.
What is most disappointing is that I am finding myself afraid to buy any images online now, in fear that I might have the wrong license type or the image might not really be legal. So I’ve asked my staff to remove all images from our library of images that we thought we had the right to use and we have purchased a $1500 camera so we can shoot everything ourselves from this point forward.
So, in the end, the copyright owners/photographers that we were buying images from just lost a customer. And we’ve built over 3000 websites in the past 10 years. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the end goal when they signed over the rights to their photos to Getty in the first place.
Additionally, I’d love to talk to the photographer of the image that we are obviously going to suck it up and pay for, and find out how much of the $2700 they will actually receive from this claim.
I’m fairly confident this is not how George Washington intended the copyright laws to be enforced when he signed the first federal copyright act in 1790.
@ Travis – Thank you for your comment and experience in dealing with Getty and would be interested in finding out the final outcome if you would be willing to share.
Hey all. I just got “the letter” as well. I just wanted to see if anyone has ended up being sued in this process.
If so, how did it all turn out?
Thanks.
Don’t know of anyone yet
As a web designer, I too have had web clients that have and are receiving “the letter” and invoice from Getty. May I recommend the following:
1. remove images in question from the site.
2. block external linking and or browsing to and of the images in question and the folder in which your images reside.
3. kindly demand proof of Getty’s ownership if the images including all purchase date and fees paid.
4. require them to provide their “unbroken chain of custody” for the image from their creation to current date.
5. tell Getty, and any other collection agency, that their invoice is “under dispute” so that you are then legally protected from further harassment and calls until all the facts are established, proven and verified.
6. remind Getty that you are not liable for any damages or fees related to the good faith use of said images if they were acquired BEFORE Getty purchased the rights or management of the images in question.
7. Inform Getty that they cannot control the past, present, or even future use of an image that was legally acquired BEFORE Getty’s acquisition of said image. They cannot “revoke” the original terms and conditions under which the images were originally acquired.
8. Demand that Getty establish that the images and display page in question were on a page that was “for profit” and on a page that was “navigable and part of the site’s architecture” and for “public use or consumption”, and not for “private use or private display purposes only”.
9. Send Getty a Invoiced “bill” for any additional unauthorized bandwidth caused by their Picscout robot on your server as this was an unauthorized invasion of privacy, without a court ordered warrant.
10. Require Getty to prove that the images in question were NEVER previously sold or distributed by another owner or library as Royalty Free of otherwise.
11. Turn the tables! 1000′s of letters and invoices should be sent, under separate cover, to Getty demanding high dollar amounts from them for Getty’s use of said images and require Getty to prove their ownership or management rights, and “clean chain of custody” of said images including purchase or contract dates, purchase amounts, author’s and creator’s information, etc..
12. Be sure to locate any receipts, CD’s, dates, etc. for libraries for the images in question.
13. If doing all this on behalf of a web client or yourself, demand that all further communications from Getty be in writing only, be directed to you or your attorney’s only – no telephone calls please.
14. File a formal written complaint with your State’s Attorney General, your local department of consumer affairs, and the local BBB.
This has helped me and my clients. Hope this helps you.
Thanks Kent, some great advice!
Yup, I got my letter in the New -year completely unaware that a picture I had used had any copywrite on it. However, I removed the picture, it had only been on my site for 1-week and sent them an apology, they still demanded £1000. It’s just a numbers game to them, out of the thousands they ensnare, a lot of people through sheer fright will pay. In a recent email, they even cited information about a case that was won in the UK last week…it wasn’t even their case and had paraded another solicitors article in a threatening email. If they sue people, why show someone else’s case and not their own???? And the case was far removed and much more serious from the usual accidental Getty slips everyone seems to have made.
One theory is that Getty deliberately does not protect their pictures for the very reason to entrap unsuspecting people such as us. As a journalist, I often find a fair few of my articles plagiarized but it would cost me a fortune to take anyone to court, it just isn’t worth it.
So ignore them, my advice, don’t even respond to these letters. For peace of mind check out http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/97
Hi, we received the letter too, last November, got really frightened to be honest as our business started not even a year ago and we made absolutely no profit so far. Anyway, we removed the pic immediately, run a search and found plenty of website about getty extorsion letter. We emailed them with an apology, stating that a cease and desist letter should have been sent in the first place etc, asked for proof of ownership and how did they come up with the sum that they claimed, (we were happy to pay a ‘reasonable’ amount). We got an email 2 weeks later, there was no answer to our 2 requests but they dropped the demanding price from 1200 to 750 if i remember well. It sounded too much like a scam. Just few days ago another threatening letter arrived reminding us of case still not solved, without any reference to previous correspondence..we decided to leave it aside.
Thank You Kent for the outstanding information, only one thing do you have any sample letter you can share with us that will say everything you said thanks a lot any body else like legal attorneys that will want to share this letter will be really thankfully.
Thanks for putting this post up, Roy Reyer. I received the Getty Demand Letter as well and as the images on my site were for a site I was developing for a third party and provided by that third party, I was able to argue that I was covered under DMCA and they actually went away in my case.
While dealing with my issue, I came across an entire site dedicated to fighting the stock industry practice of issuing unreasonable demand letters or copyright trolling. That site is http://www.extortionletterinfo.com (I hope it is okay to post a link here, it is truly for informational reasons.)
Also, as already pointed out, if you want to stop doing business with companies that sue their customers, turning to iStockPhoto isn’t going to cut it. That company is owned by Getty Images. Also be aware that Masterfile, Hawaiian Art Network and Corbis have all issued letters and all filed suit in a tiny number of instances in the U.S.
If you’d like to purchase images for your web site I have found a couple that aren’t associated with the copyright trolls: Pond5 and Deposit Photos. To my knowledge have not sent out demand letters. Nor are they listed as a client of PicScout. There are also sources for creative commons, royalty free images that you can explore. However I would recommend you carefully document these sources of images and realize that they do not offer any “license” or warranty. But that list can be found on the site I mentioned too… http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/list-of-public-domain-stock-footage-companies/
Finally, I would like to share Kent’s tips on that site. Can I have your permission to share those tips and offer a link back here? The more we share information, the more likely it is that we can change the copyright trolls’ business practices.