Infringement claim for image supplied in affiliate feed

Getty letter for using image supplied by hotel booking co.

[surfgatinho]

As a photographer myself I am pretty meticulous about sourcing photos and I'm also pretty up on copyright law, but this is a little more complicated.

One website I run has hotel listings. The info and photos are supplied by one of the big hotel booking companies. It turns out that one of the photos for one of the hotels is a Getty Image.
Now, I realise there is such a thing as secondary infringement, and that in some cases the publisher is still responsible for such content. As for some naive reason I didn't imagine there would be any copyright issues with these images I didn't create an effective safe harbor policy.

Another point, whether relevant or not is the image was not hosted on my servers, just pulled from the hotel affiliate site.

Any help with this would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris

[Leosghost]

Not hosted on your site, not your problem, ignore Getty ( they have form for shake downs* ) or tell them to take a hike..

*gazillions of examples of their attempts at shake downs for non hosted images that Getty have tried..even some "form letter" replies to send to Getty posted in some places, by actual lawyers..

a few starters..
[artlawjournal.com...]

[hackerfactor.com...]

[hackerfactor.com...]

a quote from the comments on the 1st link..giving a specific case..

First I have to ask this question, are the images hosted on your server/site, or just hot-linked to another site? If they are just hot-linked than you have basically no worries there are two cases the most quoted Perfect 10 v Google basically says that if the image is hot-linked than you are not hosting it and therefor you have no liability, if it is on your server/site though you have an issue.

HTH :) I too create images and photos, designs etc..and am in favour of stringent copyright protections..but Getty are "shake down" artists..

[edited by: Leosghost at 11:07 am (utc) on Oct 16, 2015]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

This has been going on for years and AFAIK it is just empty threats. It became known as "speculative invoicing". I had a similar situation to yourself a few years ago with Corbis. I got a letter from a large law firm they had hired with an invoice for over £2000 pounds for the use of a small shopping cart icon. After taking advice I forgot all about and did not respond. Nothing happened.

AFAIK no one like yourself has ever been taken to court for this.

[tangor]

When I got one of these "demands" I merely asked for their Provenance for copyright. (prove you, Getty, own the image). Never heard back from them. Over the years we have (as webmasters) learned they claim all images on the web until somebody slaps 'em in the face with a "no you don't!".

But it does remain a pretty lucrative racket. Wish I had thought of it back in the early days and built a biz around it. Sigh. Lost opportunities of get rich. Sigh.

Getty probably started out legit, but these days they are all over reach.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Here's the website that was set up to help.
[extortionletterinfo.com...]

[surfgatinho]

Thanks for the replies.

At present they have handed the case over to an agency as all their letters went to the wrong address.

Whilst I don't have any intention of paying the amount asked for I am interested in the legal position regarding copyright infringing material in affiliate feeds. If all else fails do I have a case against the affiliate company?

[Leosghost]

Why would else else fail.. ?..Getty has no case against you the images are not on your server..