Today was the day. When my partner called me after picking up the mail, I knew something was upsetting him. He told me there was a letter addressed to the "Legal Department" of my small company from Getty Images. Being a designer of small woodworking (scroll sawing) projects and painting patterns, I wondered what they would want with me. I had never used images from Getty.
I do, however write a daily blog on my website. It talks of the daily process of running a small company and designing craft patterns. I talk about the drawing, computer skills, woodworking and painting skills and products, photography, marketing and all the other things that a small business owner experiences. I wanted my customers to see what it entailed on a daily basis. Oh - and cats. I love cats. Lots of my blogs had fun pictures of silly cats.
In speaking with my partner, he sounded really concerned. As he read the threatening letter, he noted that Getty accused me of infringing on a picture of a cat in a gift box that I posted on one of my blogs. He gave me the number of the image in question and I had to do a Google search to find it. After all, I have over 1100 blog posts over the past three years or so, and I didn't remember even seeing it.
I found that I used it on Boxing day (the day after Christmas - a holiday here in Canada) and I looked for a reference as to where I obtained it. I found that it was from Flickr, as I recalled. A "free use" page which invited users to download and use the image freely. I had seen no harm in that since I wasn't making money from my blog. After all - I wasn't in the business of selling cat food or pet supplies or anything else to do with cats. I just wanted a cute picture to close my blog post with. (Boxing Day-Cat in Box) Now they wanted over $900 from me for infringement. I felt physically ill.
My business is small and I am just getting on my feet. People don't buy patterns in this troubled economy, but we do OK - enough to hang on. I worry because even though I live here in Canada, I am from Chicago and my business is registered in the States. The letter came from Canada though so I am not sure if they did try to sue me which country they would try to sue me in.
I am happy that I found this forum and site because it has alleviated much of my initial panic. I immediately took that picture down, as well as all the pictures that I didn't take myself from my site. I dumped over 1000 blog posts just to be sure. While I didn't believe that any of the images that I used violated copyrights, I had no confidence that any picture that I didn't take myself was one of "theirs" or put on a 'free site' just to trap people like me into using them. Better safe than sorry.
I want to thank all the people and volunteers for this site. I hope to receive help and perhaps one day help others get through this crap of a scam. We have an appointment with a local lawyer tomorrow for a short consultation. I am not sure they will be much help though. I will let you know if you are interested. I just hope it gets better.
Thanks for reading. Any thoughts are appreciated.
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