A few weeks ago my fiance and I received a pixsy letter. They're demanding $500+ on the behalf of a photographer. The image is a protein powder scoop, unremarkable to say the least. We found the image using Google's free use tool, but didn't know there were stipulations involved, so we gave no attribution.
The photographer lives in Europe but HAS sued two companies in the US over copyright infringement this year and last year. We are in the US.
The thing is, our blog site hardly makes any money, we are not an LLC or anything like that. Similar protein powder images are all over the internet and are available for free with no license or attribution.
I have offered to settle for $10.00 as a "fair market value" for the picture but Pixsy isn't budging at all on their ridiculous $500+ license fee (FOR A PICTURE OF A SCOOP OF PROTEIN POWDER). They also can't provide me any history of that photo being purchased for that price.
What do you guys think? Should I just start ignoring these letters at this point and risk actually being sued by someone with a history of suing for copyright?
The photographer lives in Europe but HAS sued two companies in the US over copyright infringement this year and last year. We are in the US.
The thing is, our blog site hardly makes any money, we are not an LLC or anything like that. Similar protein powder images are all over the internet and are available for free with no license or attribution.
I have offered to settle for $10.00 as a "fair market value" for the picture but Pixsy isn't budging at all on their ridiculous $500+ license fee (FOR A PICTURE OF A SCOOP OF PROTEIN POWDER). They also can't provide me any history of that photo being purchased for that price.
What do you guys think? Should I just start ignoring these letters at this point and risk actually being sued by someone with a history of suing for copyright?