Anyone offer a "good faith" settlement?

[Brad]

Small business owner here...Getty is demanding $750 for use of one thumbnail-sized photo.  I'm pondering offering $50 as a good faith settlement.  Anyone gone this route?  Have any opinions - good idea? Bad idea?

[Matthew Chan]

They are not going to take you seriously. You may be better off standing your ground and making an argument to pay nothing if you feel your circumstances are worth arguing.

MatthewC

[Lettered]

My thoughts:

Personally I think its a good idea to offer them what it would have cost to license it.  When I checked on the image they complained about on our site the license fee was $49 for 3 months use in low resolution on a web page. Personally, I think its a good idea to offer at least that or even double.

1) They probably won't accept it.
2) In the unlikely event they take you to court over 1 image you can say you made a good faith effort to settle.

#1 is the belt and #2 is the suspenders.

I'd get Oscar to review your circumstances and write the offer letter.  Thats pretty much the way we handled our situation.

All this is just my personal opinion (obviously Im not a lawyer).

[Oscar Michelen]

Generally, it is better to  make some offer so that if it ever gets to court you can at least state that you tried to resolve it, but both Matthew and Lettered are correct that Getty will not accept it. They will likely send your claim to NCS Recovery, their collection agency. So your idea is not a bad one, but it will not make the issue go away.