Got an extortion letter from Masterfile

[lapreuett]

Hi! A couple of weeks ago I received a registered letter from Masterfile saying I had used a copyrighted image on my blog. The image was viewed by about 60 people over the course of a few days. My blog did not contain any type of advertisements at that time. The letter stated that I owe them $1170 for the use of their image. When I did a search for the image, another person's website came up and the image had nothing to indicate it was copyrighted. After getting the letter from Masterfile, I looked up the said image on their site. To use the image for the amount of time I had it on my blog, it would come to around $300. I had no idea the image was copyrighted and I am reading online how Masterfile goes after people just to get money. I have not responded to them and am wondering what my next step should be? I am seeing multiple cases on here from years ago and wondering what the outcome of those cases were. Please help!!

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

MF does file suit, and they generally have their ducks in a row...that being said, they also know you got the letter if it was registered. Claiming you did not know it was copyrighted won't work with them, and claiming the site had only 60 views with no ads, won't much matter either... My guess is they will hound you..only you can decide to engage them, and maybe get them to lower the price, or totally ignore it and roll the dice as it were.