Getty Images Letter from a Web Designer's Perspective - Any Advice?

[kevin.odom]

Hello all,

So glad I found this website. What a wonderful community and an incredible wealth of helpful information.

Just like the rest of you, this post is about a copyright infringement notice from the sunny folks at Getty. However, the letter wasn't sent to me. It was sent to a client of mine. I run a small website design and development company. Our target demo is small mom and pop shops and small business owners. All of our websites are custom built, we don't charge our customers anything for the design, we just charge a small hosting and maintenance fee every month and that's how we make our money.

Unfortunately today I was contacted by one of our customers about a letter he received from Getty Images regarding the copyright infringement of one photo on his website. We actually have a subscription to Ingimage and use Photoz Mania for all of our photo needs. But every now and then, something is bound to slip through the cracks. The website in question was a redesign for an older existing website. I'm sure we reused some of the photos from the previous site. Or maybe an intern downloaded a photo off the internet. We really don't know how it happened. And the truth of the matter, is that I'm positive there are more photos on other websites we manage that we don't have the license to use. Such is the nature of the beast.

I know that my client is technically the end user in this case, and so he is ultimately responsible. But I certainly feel 100% responsible for this. Getty is asking for $1175.00 within 14 days. That's half of what I make in a month. I really don't know what the next step to take is. I've already told my client that there's no way he's going to pay for my oversight. I told him I would handle all matters on his behalf. I am wondering, would I be able sign up for the Extortion Letter Program on behalf of my client? Any and all advice is warmly accepted. I appreciate your time and dedication to this issue and I look forward to learning more and spreading the word about this awful company and their horrible business practices.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

I think you signing up for the letter program is the best move in this case. I've heard it said that technically your client has to hire Oscar and then you can credit back what they paid. Not exactly sure if that is the case.

I also think that it is in your best interest to do an audit of the sites you host. You should get familiar with http://tineye.com/ and see if the images are turning up as represented by Getty, Masterfile, or another stock agency. Sure it's a pain, but probably cheaper in the long run. 

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I believe Oscar will work with you on behalf of your client.  Oscar has handled over 850 of these letters from various photo companies and should be able to work out something much more reasonable and realistic.

Welcome to the forums and I hope you will stick around and join in!

[kevin.odom]

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the info. I appreciate your response. My partner and I plan on spending the rest of the week auditing the images on our managed sites. I am wondering how tinyeyecom.com works. I uploaded a few images to it, including the one that we got flagged for, to see how it works. It generated some results for me, but how can I know if an image is represented by one of those agencies?

I think you signing up for the letter program is the best move in this case. I've heard it said that technically your client has to hire Oscar and then you can credit back what they paid. Not exactly sure if that is the case.

I also think that it is in your best interest to do an audit of the sites you host. You should get familiar with http://tineye.com/ and see if the images are turning up as represented by Getty, Masterfile, or another stock agency. Sure it's a pain, but probably cheaper in the long run.

[Oscar Michelen]

Many web developers hire us for the letter program because it stops their clients receiving further communication from Getty.

[kevin.odom]

Hi Greg,

I fully intend to. I have read a lot of your postings and your passion for this issue is quite obvious. You have inspired me to touch base with the community and seek advice (rather than fork out the cash and hope they go away). I'd like to contribute wherever and whenever possible.

I believe Oscar will work with you on behalf of your client.  Oscar has handled over 850 of these letters from various photo companies and should be able to work out something much more reasonable and realistic.

Welcome to the forums and I hope you will stick around and join in!

[kevin.odom]

Oscar,

Thank you for your response. That's great news to hear and I appreciate you taking a moment to touch base with me on my issue.

Many web developers hire us for the letter program because it stops their clients receiving further communication from Getty.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

In my experience, if the image is in Getty's catalog it turns up on a Tineye search. Is the image in question not showing up on TinEye with a getty domain?

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Perhaps an easier way to audit, would be to reference all images you have license and reciepts for, those that you don't could become an issue down the road..I guess it all depends on how many sites and images you're looking at.

[kevin.odom]

The image did not show up on TinyEye with a Getty domain.

In my experience, if the image is in Getty's catalog it turns up on a Tineye search. Is the image in question not showing up on TinEye with a getty domain?

No matter how you slice it, it's going to be a pain in the $$$. We manage about 100 sites. Luckily the majority of our sites are very small and contain only about 10 or 15 images each. At this point, it appears that this is simply something that needs to be done and we will have to cut out time to address it.

Perhaps an easier way to audit, would be to reference all images you have license and reciepts for, those that you don't could become an issue down the road..I guess it all depends on how many sites and images you're looking at.

[SoylentGreen]

You can also search via google images, which is usually better than TinEye these days.
Enter "Getty" as a keyword to focus the results.

S.G.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

Good tip SG. I thought all their stuff was indexed through Tineye, but I guess that's not the case.

There is probably no 100% foolproof way to assure all the images are cleared. I think Getty adds and removes images from their various categories all the time. But I think going through the images, especially with an eye toward the ones that are not licensed, is going to save a lot of truble down the road.

[kevin.odom]

I appreciate all the help and advice. Thank you guys.

[Greg Troy (KeepFighting)]

I think Lucia at one time even ran the Pic-Scout app on a page from the Getty images catalog and it didn't even recognize all the images as Getty images.  Nothing is fool proof.

[lucia]

I'm not sure if I did that. The app may not work on Getty pages!  Back when I was playing around, I found it's easy to block the browser extension. Just block all image requests with blank user agents. (I think everyone should block everything with a blank user agent. But that's just me.)

You can block requests for blank user agents in .htaccess quite easily.