Settle Directly With Photographer

[The_Phage]

I've searched around for opinions/answers to this, but haven't found anything.

Obviously I've received one of those Getty letters and I'm following the suggestions on this site (I actually started to do that before finding the site, and it's reassuring that I seem to be doing 'the right thing').

Anyway, Getty are just bullying me into a payment. The thing is, I'm a photographer myself, and I honestly want to do right by the photographer. What are people's thoughts on me simply contacting the photographer and making a settlement offer directly, bypassing Getty. At the end of the day, he is the copyright owner. It's him I've done wrong by and him I should make it right with.

To be honest, I think he'd be glad to receive some income from this particular image. There are 1000s like it for less than 100th of the Getty price, so I assume that no one has bought it..?

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

it's worth a shot , however if he is under contract with getty, he/she  most likely has granted permission to Getty to enforce his copyright.. I have seen firsthand where Getty tried to collect and the artist in question had previously severed all ties/ relationships with Getty images, so that tels you right there, that that artist was not going to be paid for anything. It would also be in your best interest to research the image in question and see if it is properly registered with the US Copyright office as well.

[The_Phage]

Hi,

I'm not sure how to see if the copyright is registered. I'll look into that in a minute. One thing that I have found is that this particular photographer has several images with Getty under a Rights Managed licence, that are also available on another stock site, also under a Rights Managed model. Unfortunately, the image I'm having problems with isn't one of them.

However, it does somewhat weaken this statement on one of the letters I got from Getty: "Rights Managed images, such as the ones at issue, are exclusive to Getty Images and available for license only through our website.”

Back on the subject of settling with the photographer directly. If I were to do that, does that cut Getty out or do they still have the right to come after me? (assuming the photographer hasn't signed his right away to deal with me directly)?

Oh, and whilst I'm editing this. I have looked at the US Copyright Office and can find that the photographer has registered a few images, but seemed to have stopped doing it in the late 90s. There are only a few and most don't have a description.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

If you can find the image in question on multiple sites, then Getty clearly does not have "exclusive rights" OR the artist is in breach of contract..either way this would weaken gettys case, Most of Getty's catalog is not registered, and they know this which also greatly reduces the amount they would be awarded IF they were to sue AND win. If it were me I would create a list of all sites this image is on, as well as the info from the copyright office, just to keep handy.