I am an Internet Consultant and have owned my business for 7 years. One of my clients received a letter from Getty Images demanded $2,500 for 3 images that they claim are exclusive to them ONLY. We have never been accused of this and are very deligent about avoiding copyright infringement since we know the consequences involved.
This afternoon I spoke with Janeah Davis and Dave from the Copyright Compliance Department and all I received was a run around. They were very rude and kept insisting that the burden of proof is o myself and the client. I told Dave that I know for a fact that we purchased these photos from iStock and he insisted that this was impossible. However, he later revealed that iStockphoto is a subsidiary of Getty Images. They were unable to prove to us that they were the only ones who owned rights to these photos, but stated they are confident since the "photographers" signed an exclusivity contract with them.
In addition, when I asked Janeah when these photos were introduced to Getty Images, she stated in 2000; however when I asked Dave the same question, he stated they were "uploaded" to Getty Images in and respectively. I asked him what the company's postion would be if I prove the site was built before and of course he stated that would be impossible because the images did not exist during that time. I kept probing with more questions that he refused to answer and stated he would speak to me when I got my facts straight, but even if I was able to prove that I purchased these from a legitimate source - if the source was not them my client would still be held responsible.
Not sure how I should proceed with this, but this company is definitely a SCAM and needs to be investigated ASAP!!!
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