Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Politeness Pays
by admin - 16:35 on 19 March 2015
I've always been careful to use royalty-free or press release pictures when adding images to my blog (and elsewhere) that aren't my own. I wasn't careful enough.
The first hint of trouble was a letter forwarded to me by the firm which hosts this website – Calico in Cromarty. It purported to come from Getty Images and demanded £600 for use of one of its snaps (the front door of No 10 Downing Street) on this blog in May 2010. I was dubious because the letter didn't seem to know if it came from Dublin or London, the quality of the print was shoddy, the emails and website links looked suspicious and it was sent by the "Copyright Compliance Team" with no name. On top of that, I was directed to send my £600 by mail to a Bank of America box number in Sheffield or by transfer to BoA in London. At least it wasn't Nigeria.
It was so long since I'd used the picture that I can't remember where I found it; Google Images would be a good guess, and with no copyright warning attached. I ignored the letter and crossed my fingers, although as a back-up I emailed Getty a scam warning through its definitely real website.
A few days later (March 3 to be precise) I received an email from a Getty "Copyright Compliance Specialist" who told me the European HQ was in Dublin, its licence compliance office was in London, and as they'd not heard back from me the case (No 368129091) had been assigned to "our outside legal department". So it wasn't a scam.
Except, after searching Google, I found that it was – organised and carried out by Getty itself, which is notorious for its aggressive pursuit of copyright breaches, aided by some whizzy software that identifies Getty images and (presumably) generates follow-up letters without human assistance.
The demand has become known on the internet as the Getty Extortion Letter, which aims to extract cash from the unwary through stern correspondence and hints of legal proceedings. Enough people will panic and pay to make the effort worthwhile.
Fortunately, the advice offered on the internet coincided with my own instinct: take the picture off the blog (and any others where there is a hint of a possibility of a similar problem arising), apologise, say it was an error, and do so in a formal (Dear Sir, Yours Sincerely), measured manner.
In reply, Getty reduced its demand to £119+VAT which it was obliged to pursue because of its contract with the photographer. The "outside legal department" was forgotten.
There's no defence to breach of copyright. If you've done it you've done it. However, I replied (politely) that an identical image could be found on iStock for £20, that the image was used as a thumbnail, was seen by only a handful of people (I've no illusions about the size of my readership), and brought me no financial gain. All of this would be taken into account if the fair market value of the image had to be estimated.
Getty replied this morning. The "outside legal department" was now limbering up as I'd chosen not to accept the offer. I'd be liable for any additional legal fees. I was also told to "cease all communications with our contributing photographer forthwith" because I'd found his website and asked his opinion of the stooshie. (He didn't reply.)
Matchgirl, bless her, was outraged on my behalf and went along with my plan to wait and see what happened next. I didn't reply to the email because there was nothing to say.
But silence is golden. Three-and-a-half hours after its email, Getty sent another to say that following a further review of the case it was willing to dismiss the unauthorised use claim. I'd not been panicked by fears of m'learned friends and Getty obviously had no intention of starting legal proceedings. I'd faced down the bully.
The daftest part of this whole saga is that I could have embedded the offending image on my (non-commercial) blog through the Getty website at no charge. I was tempted to do so here, so you could see the snap that caused all the trouble, but that might be tempting fate.
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© Russell Turner 2008-2024
You should feel proud for standing up to the bullies, well done.