https://www.vetsurgeon.org/f/non-clinical-questions/24215/warning-images-on-website-scam We used an image of a puppy derived from google images on our website. We have received a letter from a company called &quot;License Compliance Services&quot; acting on behalf of &quot;Getty Images&quot; telling us that we must take the image down immediately and instructingen-USTelligent Community 10https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157449?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:42:56 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:3bebbd81-3261-40e6-b703-e9268f962216Martin Atkinson<p>[quote user=&quot;Bob Russell&quot;]It is a scam when the company uses images with the sole purpose to catch people out!&nbsp;[/quote]Now you&#39;re getting paranoid. One man&#39;s extortionate is another&#39;s fair return on their work - sound familiar from our line of work? They employ people to catch out unauthorised users of their images. I&#39;m pretty sure they&#39;re not setting traps. Ignorance of the law is no defence, the owners of the pictures are entitled to a return on their work. You can argue and take them to court but I suspect the might of the Getty organisation may trump you and you&#39;ll end up paying a lot more. Once you&#39;ve determined the request is genuine I would try and negotiate it down a bit but if no dice pay up and put it down to experience.&nbsp;I got knobbled and it was a fair cop.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157447?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:31:31 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:e3886db2-cfe1-407d-b899-970ed7e6490dSarah Keir<p>[quote user=&quot;Bob Russell&quot;]</p> <p></p> <p>It is a scam when the company uses images with the sole purpose to catch people out!&nbsp;</p> <p></p> <p>[/quote]</p> <p>Like the police hiding around a corner with speed cameras?&nbsp;<img src="/emoticons/v2/Oh_my_God_smiley.png" alt="Surprised" /></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157439?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 29 Apr 2016 11:58:35 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:c7866159-469e-4e92-92a8-658f0942bba1Bob Russell<p>The scam is not relating to the copyright. They are entitled to a reasonable return for use of their images.</p> <p>Getty images have teams of &#39;paralegals&#39;, law students using technology to hunt for the images with the simple purpose of extorting unreasonable amounts from the unwary.&nbsp;</p> <p>I consider it a scam where penalties massively outweigh the benefit to those using the image and the loss suffered by the copyright owner.</p> <p>It is a scam when the company uses images with the sole purpose to catch people out!&nbsp;</p> <p></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157436?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 29 Apr 2016 10:31:54 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:dc66dbe0-a024-45ba-8a6b-4413b0bb6ef2Sarah Keir<p>I sell stock photos on Alamy. I don&#39;t sell very many because I tend to take pictures of things I like or I happen to be travelling so not commercial ones like piles of pills etc. However there are loads of stock photo sellers out there now so the price that I get for each photo has plummeted from about $30 a photo to just a few dollars. If it sounds like a scam, smells like a scam, it probably is a scam - go directly to Getty to check first.</p> <p>Sarah</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157429?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 29 Apr 2016 08:44:05 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:dd5b0c66-f389-4ebd-9c53-0e868856416dMartin Atkinson<p>[quote user=&quot;Dave Cumber&quot;]If they had asked for &pound;50.00 I probably would have just paid it. It was the size of the demand that made me question the validity of the letter.&nbsp;[/quote]The problem is that the amount is impossible to quantify, you could have made thousands from attracting people to your practice from the image or nothing. The amount they asked you for is more than they demanded me so I presume this is just a random starting base. As said I negotiated it down by a couple of hundred pounds. Its a practice expense so knock your top rate of tax off it and its not so bad.&nbsp;</p> <p>However I&#39;m not paying PPL one penny.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157398?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 21:07:30 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:56ea0ed9-8fc9-48db-9d75-c2f24c3f79ceDave Cumber<p>Many thanks for all the replies.</p> <p>Niall wrote &nbsp;&quot;If someone makes their living from taking photographs they have a right to protect their intellectual property.&quot; &nbsp;I absolutely agree.&nbsp;I am not disputing that we have unintentionally used an image illegally. &nbsp;We have learnt our lesson. We have taken the image off our website. We will now follow the advice of offering a &quot;reasonable amount&quot; as per the letter on the link in Arlo Guthrie&#39;s post.</p> <p>&nbsp;<a target='_blank' href="http://artlawjournal.com/respond-getty-images-demand-letter/">http://artlawjournal.com/respond-getty-images-demand-letter/</a><a href="http://artlawjournal.com/respond-getty-images-demand-letter/" target="_blank"></a></p> <p></p> <p>If they had asked for &pound;50.00 I probably would have just paid it. It was the size of the demand that made me question the validity of the letter.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://artlawjournal.com/respond-getty-images-demand-letter/" target="_blank"></a></p> <p>Thanks, Arlo.</p> <p></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157379?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 16:08:42 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:721dc9e6-d06f-4ba0-9529-938a05e1b480Martin Atkinson<p>[quote user=&quot;Bob Russell&quot;]It is a scam but based on a degree of right.[/quote]It can&#39;t be both a scam is by definition a dishonest scheme. If someone has used an image illegally the holder of the image&#39;s rights have a right to compensation. As I found they are open to negotiation but in the end I was guilty and it would have cost me far more to try and fight the might of Getty.</p> <p>What is a scam is the PPL licence fee I have bee threatened with being sued for when we don&#39;t even play music in the practice. I will defend that one.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157369?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 11:08:03 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:cd3d6637-ceea-4eff-87ae-e237452bc475Bob Russell<p>It is a scam but based on a degree of right. If you make an offer (much less than the demand) and follow the general pattern of the legal advice then I bet they will jump at it.&nbsp;</p> <p>They are demanding far more than the image is worth therefore should it get to court it is very doubtful that they would receive this amount.&nbsp;</p> <p>They are counting on people just paying up for a quiet life, having received a threatening letter!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157367?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 10:12:38 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:3f2e9873-1804-4b6c-bda6-6510b7f8672cMartin Atkinson<p>[quote user=&quot;Arlo Guthrie&quot;]To clarify, you&#39;re talking about sharing something already posted on facebook by the copyright holder, which is fine. Copying an image and then posting it on facebook and sharing is not![/quote]But the crux is still whether you used the image with the intention of gaining from it. If you use it in your website you are clearly attracting people to that site for gain even if it was in my case ostensibly for client information. If you post it on social media or even use it just as an illustration as I have with my avatar then you are not liable for compensation albeit you may be treading a thin line. That is my take on it anyway. So should my tortoise stay or should it go?</p> <p>PS I&#39;ve change it anyway I was bored with having one foot in the grave!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157362?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 09:31:44 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:d6fcf964-3209-4bda-8d89-8cc89d804eedBraden Collins<p>It&#39;s very easy to search for people using your images on line. Just head to&nbsp;<a target='_blank' href="https://images.google.com/">https://images.google.com/</a>&nbsp;and upload a photo you want to search for. The bots do the rest. That&#39;s why they can find images you&#39;ve used in obscure places. It&#39;s worth singing up to Adobe Stock or similar to get images you can use, and getting a photographer in for a day to give you a huge back of images for your site and facebook (which are better than stock images anyway).</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157361?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 09:25:41 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:bf97d2fc-b167-49e0-88b6-0768fa79b2dbWren<p>[quote user=&quot;Arlo Guthrie&quot;]</p> <p>[quote user=&quot;Wren&quot;]And for what it&#39;s worth, &#39;sharing&#39; on FB is a totally different kettle of fish - you are sharing an image along with all the original information belonging to the original posting, so the origin and credit for the picture don&#39;t get removed.[/quote]</p> <p>To clarify, you&#39;re talking about sharing something already posted on facebook by the copyright holder, which is fine. Copying an image and then posting it on facebook and sharing is not!</p> <p>[/quote]</p> <p></p> <p>Exactly.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157360?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 09:23:12 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:f127e617-37f6-42b4-afb0-368e8d44d26bArlo Guthrie<p>[quote user=&quot;Wren&quot;]And for what it&#39;s worth, &#39;sharing&#39; on FB is a totally different kettle of fish - you are sharing an image along with all the original information belonging to the original posting, so the origin and credit for the picture don&#39;t get removed.[/quote]</p> <p>To clarify, you&#39;re talking about sharing something already posted on facebook by the copyright holder, which is fine. Copying an image and then posting it on facebook and sharing is not!</p> <p>[quote user=&quot;Martin Atkinson&quot;] I tried to plead ignorance but that is no excuse. I figured Getty&#39;s financial muscle was bit greater than mine so didn&#39;t contest it but managed to negotiate the fee down a couple of hundred &pound;s for prompt payment and because I was nice and contrite so you might like to try that.[/quote]</p> <p>Having ascertained that the letter was bona-fide (see: <a href="https://blogs.which.co.uk/technology/security-software/digital-scam-watch-2015/" target="_blank">https://blogs.which.co.uk/technology/security-software/digital-scam-watch-2015/</a>), that&#39;s probably the approach I would take. But I googled &#39;License Compliance Services&#39; and found this, which was interesting:</p> <p><a href="http://artlawjournal.com/respond-getty-images-demand-letter/" target="_blank">http://artlawjournal.com/respond-getty-images-demand-letter/</a>&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157354?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 08:55:05 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:f3ccfb73-5583-4334-a028-fc0428c59080Martin Atkinson<p>I had the same issue some time ago with a picture of a passport in my page on pet travel scheme. I checked with Getty images and it was genuine. It seems, as I did, you&#39;ve found out that stuff on the interweb is not free for all and much is copywrited. These companies have people trawling websites just for the purpose of finding illicit use of their images. I tried to plead ignorance but that is no excuse. I figured Getty&#39;s financial muscle was bit greater than mine so didn&#39;t contest it but managed to negotiate the fee down a couple of hundred &pound;s for prompt payment and because I was nice and contrite so you might like to try that.</p> <p>I am very careful now but something like the image I have of the tortoise as my avatar is IMO OK same as on Facebook etc because I&#39;m not using it for advertising/commercial gain and it would be virtually impossible for them to police it anyway.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157353?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 08:47:12 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:5418f418-9d9a-4966-9a92-7c9f378ed477Wren<p>And for what it&#39;s worth, &#39;sharing&#39; on FB is a totally different kettle of fish - you are sharing an image along with all the original information belonging to the original posting, so the origin and credit for the picture don&#39;t get removed. If, however, you copied the image into a post of your own, rather than sharing the original, that would not be acceptable.&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157352?ContentTypeID=1Thu, 28 Apr 2016 08:42:17 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:eb06c512-48f6-4766-bf49-b22a1456886aWren<p>Google images is not a free picture library (these resources do exist though). It is literally just a google search that returns pictures rather than words. I run a website and employ a photographer to acquire our images. If we find these images being used elsewhere we start by politely requesting they they either be purchased or removed, and if we get no response we may resort to tactics as above.&nbsp;</p> <p>And don&#39;t think that because you&#39;ve used it in an obscure location that the copyright owner will never find out - photographers regularly run image searches of their own to see where their pictures are being used!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157340?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 27 Apr 2016 22:53:47 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:088758fc-c00d-46d6-9ca5-55e5e81426b0Neil Wheadon<p>We&#39;ve been here before.</p> <p>This one was bought by CyclingUK this year for &pound;50. (I retain the rights) I&#39;m happy to do this or &#39;give&#39; them to people who ask nicely, but if they are ripped of from the website for commercial gain</p> <p>&nbsp;<a target='_blank' href="http://www.cyclingukholidays.com/Long-Haul-Tours/Oregon-2015">http://www.cyclingukholidays.com/Long-Haul-Tours/Oregon-2015</a></p> <p>I wouldn&#39;t be amused</p> <p>&nbsp; &nbsp;Neil</p> <p></p> <p><a href="/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/6/Oregon.jpg"><img src="/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/6/Oregon.jpg" border="0" alt=" " /></a></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/157332?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:17:16 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:7be0dd57-3363-4ed1-a8ba-4771c7d13ecdNiall Taylor<p>[quote user=&quot;Dave Cumber&quot;]Images get &quot;shared&quot; all the time!&nbsp;[/quote]</p> <p>True, but it&#39;s not always done legally. If an image is subject to copyright then you need permission before you &quot;share&quot; it, and there are ways of tracking images once they&#39;ve been put up on websites. If someone makes their living from taking photographs they have a right to protect their intellectual property.</p> <p>We got caught like this once and decided to pay and look on it as &#39;lesson learned&#39;. I&#39;m a darn sight more careful before I &quot;share&quot; anything now <img src="/emoticons/v2/Happy_smiley.png" alt="Happy" /></p> <p>Niall</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>