Letter from CopyTrack

[max99x]

Got a letter demanding 400 euros for us of an image on a site of mine which was actually made by someone else and owned by someone else now and they seemed to have used an image that wasn't freely available to use.

Anyone else got letters like this before?

How did you respond, did you pay or ?

 

[Adam H]

I posted a similar situation in the exclusive member section a couple of weeks ago, wasnt Copy Track though, was a UK based solicitor whom didnt bother researching before slapping a bill on the clients desk. Quick phone call from me with some choice words ended up solving it.

Alot of this going about at the moment it seems and rightfully so in a situation like i had a couple of months ago, I had a local photographer pull me up about using one of his images on a site of mine, tried getting £500 but ended up paying £170 for the image usage rights, rather than the backward compensation fee since it was only online for a week before being caught. Stupidly I believed one of my PSD designers when he said he used "free to use" or had paid for the usage of the images used in the PSD...........which of course, he hadnt so I paid up.

 

[boxfish]

Stupidly I believed one of my PSD designers when he said he used "free to use" or had paid for the usage of the images used in the PSD...........which of course, he hadnt so I paid up.

was actually made by someone else and owned by someone else now and they seemed to have used an image that wasn't freely available to use.

Why wouldn't you refer the solicitor/company to the person you paid for the image?

 

[ian]

I guess the moral of the story is to always ask for proof that images used are 'free licensed' but in reality, who does!

 

[Adam H]

Why wouldn't you refer the solicitor/company to the person you paid for the image?

Because my client took the image on his camera/phone, and I was the one who went around to the clients house and took said image off of the camera lol. The solicitor just didnt check the image was identical before sending the claim, either that or they were trying to pull a fast one hoping no one would notice. ( which my client didnt notice ).


EDIT, sorry think I crossed wires there. My post was two separate instances separated by the new paragraph, sorry for the confusion..

 

[alex]

As some of you are aware, I'm involved with an image library (www.imagesource.com) and this is a problem we face regularly.

There is a common misconception that ‘Royalty Free’ means free. Royalty Free is in fact a licensing model adopted by most image libraries, it simply means that the image is licensed in perpetuity to the licensee, as opposed to ‘Right Managed’ or ‘Royalty Managed’ which refers to on-going royalty payments for explicit usage.

In either case, the copyright does not transfer. Therefore, people either buy an image believing they now own it, and thus distribute it to others, or ‘steal’ royalty free images believing them to be free. They are therefore inadvertently breaching copyright which is enforceable.

Significant investment goes into a photo shoot and individual images can generate £10,000+ in lifetime revenue, which is why content creators actively enforce their copyright. Whatever your personal views on image usage, people do get caught out and are pursued, as is the right of the copyright holder. It’s a bit like people cloning your website – you put in the investment, graft and time, then someone copies it.

Anyway, for those who are interested, I’d be happy to offer AD members 50% discounts on Image Source Images and would be happy to provide more info about image theft if you have any questions.

Regarding the OP, some agencies threaten action with no follow-up, but some go the whole way for even the smallest amount. Personally, I’d try to negotiate, but please bear in mind that this is not legal advice.

 

[zomgmike]

I am not a lawyer, but typically it is sufficient to remove the offending content. I'd be surprised if you ever had to actually pay that. Point them to who actually stole it in the first place (the designer.)