Received copyright claim letter from Getty Images

[edward1203]

Getty sent me a letter saying that I'm using one of their images on my business website. I remember getting the image from a royalty-free website.

In any case, they are demanding $260. I want to negotiate it down to $50.

What's my best arguments to negotiate this down? I want to get this resolved ASAP.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

So when you got this image from the royalty free site, did you purchase it? "Royalty Free" does not mean "Free", it means you a time fee to use the image in different ways... $260.00 is a fairly reasonable amount considering Getty used to demand upwards of 1k for infringements concerning royalty free images... You can offer to pay them 50.00, they likely won't accept it, they may counter or outright refuse that amount. They are not going to sue you, it would cost them double that amount just to file papers.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

Robert is correct, royalty free does not mean free.  When you say you "remember getting the image from a royalty-free website" do you mean you purchased it there?  If so you should be able to go back to the site and get a copy of your purchase to provide proof and there is no need to try and negotiate Getty down.