getty images?

[stevelibby]

Has anyone here had contact with getty images? I had a letter the other day saying i was in breach of a copyright image. I have tried to phone and the telephone numbers on the corresponding emails are uncontactable?
My plight is simple enough, i purcahsed some psd templates quite a few years back of ebay, i never used them as in the actual graphic just used the gradient bars, however 6 months ago i was a playing around and created an image using bits and pieces and published the image to my website, i have recieved a letter from these people, what do i do? as i dont earn money from the site with the image on? i have promptly removed the image to avoid any friction.
Can anyone help me here?

[tangor]

Can't answer as to the Getty contact issues, but I don't use any images where I don't know where they came from, or created myself, or have permission to use. As to the PSD templates from eBay, wish you good luck in contacting those folks for redress...

[engine]

Getty are particulary active in protecting their copyright for some time now.

Getty Image copyright issue [webmasterworld.com]

$2000.00 Invoice from Getty [webmasterworld.com]

Getty Images spider [webmasterworld.com]

[stevelibby]

Yeah unfortunaley im up a creak with a paddle as they say and dont know what to do about it. Its been a sharp learning curve and one that i cant afford to pay for. It would not suprise me if the person that copyrighted the photo was the person i bought the template images from.

[Snowfox]

I create ghraphics for a living and even though I am super careful to purchase from well known companies, I ended up getting a demand letter. I can share with you how I handled this in pvt message.

[jaffstar]

We had a similar experience, we asked for proof of copyright and we would gladly pay.

It was like a tennis game, back and forth, each time they dropped the amount we should pay, we responded with request for proof... eventually they backed off.

Bottom line, they are collectors making money off these claims and are commission based..

[jimes123]

Hi,
New to the forum and also looking for advice or previous experience with getty images. I have a small web design and pc repair company that has been running a while, it is a side business and so far have not made much money.
I have just come back from holiday to one of these "Getty demand letters" they are saying that I need to pay them £1000 for use of an image that is used on a template that i got from a web site years ago, there is no way that i can remember which site i got it from but I certainly do remember that it was advertised as free to use. The template was being used in my porfolio section for clients that might want something built similar to it. I have never used it to create a client site or profited from it, or indeed, intended to as I am not a great lover of templates anyway. I have since found the exact template on boxedart.com but using a different image to the image that getty say that I have infringed copyright with.Naturally I have taken the image down and I have also removed anything realting to templates on the site. I now feel the need to take massive review of my site and any other site that I have built in a effort to change all images that I cant remember where I got them or prove licensing for. I always thought that I observed copyright laws as best I could, but obviusly not!.
I realise that there are a lot of people out there in the same boat and wondered if anyone would share you experiences and how you dealt with getty ( if at all)
Thanks