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Are you a website designer affected by
the Getty problem?
Has one of your clients been sent a
threatening letter by Getty or their solicitors?
I am a website designer who
has joined PTC in their fight against Getty.
My story is that in May 2009 one of my clients was sent the
usual threatening letter from Getty. They obviously contacted me
straight away and after the shock had worn off a bit I started
searching the web for more information.
Principally, my websites are for bed and
breakfasts and self catering properties. I was accustomed to
designing an 'area page' to provide local information about
tourist attractions. I used to go to 'google images', right
click and download small photos of some of these attractions. I
did not think that I was doing anything wrong, in fact, I
thought I was helping to promote them.
A travel agency was referred to me and I
designed a site for them using small images (from google images)
to illustrate the countries that they specialised in. I also
used a shaking hands image as an icon under their business link.
I know now that if you click on a google image
then there is a statement about the copyright issue but I never
did this as I was only interested in the small low quality
image.
Anyway, for the two images mentioned they were
asking nearly £2,000 which seemed an awful lot and my web search
revealed that there were a lot of people in the same boat! I
immediately removed the images.
Am I guilty of copyright infringement - yes. Did
I do it deliberately - no! I know that ignorance of the law is
no excuse but there has to be an area of common sense. I do not
have £2,000 and if Getty had asked for a reasonable sum like
£200 I would have accepted it and deserved my punishment.
I joined istockphoto and replaced the images at about £1 each
- a bit less that Gettys valuation! What is even more annoying
is that I was only paid £600 for the website which included a
logo design, photography and took me three weeks to design.
I wrote back to Getty taking full responsibility
for my 'crime' and stating that if they answered some questions
I had that I would be prepared to pay them a reasonable amount
back.
I received no reply and thought that I had heard
the end of it. In June 2011 my clients received a letter from
Mason Pincents Solicitors and it all started again.
Taking Responsibility.
When my clients informed me that
the 'Getty' situation had flared up again I immediately wrote to
Masons taking responsibility and asking them why they had not
referred to my previous correspondence?
They replied saying that they were not prepared to deal with me
and that they would be pursuing my clients.
In desperation I returned to searching the web and saw many of
the old blogs with people thinking, as they had not heard
anything for several months, that everything would be ok. Not
true as my particular case demonstrates.
My first priority was to protect my clients from Getty and their
solicitors. I searched the web again and eventually found
Copyrightinfringement.org.uk.
I spoke to Liz Ward at the solicitors and to Paul who runs the
company. I was immediately impressed and fully prepared to pay
the money if it would help. I had spoken to one or two
specialist solicitors who told me that it would cost between
£500 to £1,500 to get Getty off my back and no guarantees!
As part of the letter that Paul wrote for me he addressed the
point about indemnifying the client. In other words forcing
Getty to come after me instead of the client.
I have since sent the letter in but obviously it is too early to
see what might happen although I am prepared to go all the way
with this issue as Getty have frightened and bullied people who
have often been of the opinion that they did have licence to use
the relevant images.
Gettys Attitude
Getty claim that they are only protecting their
photographers and their rights but this does not really add up.
They are currently owned by a private equity firm who are only
interested in the bottom line profits. Likewise, Getty have, for
the last few years been acquiring image companies by the
handful.
It is a well known fact that Getty's traditional
market which is media publishing has been hit by the recession
so has really gone downhill.
Contact
If you would like to know more about what we can
do for you then please don't hesitate to contact me on
01273 78 28 20
for an informal chat.
Nick
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