Email wants £400 for unauthorised image use

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Mynight, what happened to your post count? Pretty sure it was 10k or 11k last time I checked. It wasn't to do with that thread started by "Upgrade" who got renamed to Downgrade and had his post count reset?
 
Those 400 clams are just going to go in some fat cats pocket to spend on his next bottle of champagne, Personally I'd find where their offices are and speak to them face to face.
 
All the photo agencies have technology to search similar images to their stock portfolio and try and do some intelligent matching of licensing to the domain in question. They then pass this information on to 3rd parties who investigate further and take on a legal action.

I've sen people on stock forums get nice fat checks automatically because someone stole their image and a company like LCS sues the perpetrator. the fine is then shard between LCS, the stock agency and the photographer.

They probably have a low sucess rate though and will be following thousands of cases.
 
But as far as I am aware the first contact from a lawyer, in cases like this, would be with a cease and desist order as its intellectual property, not a demand for money for the use.
 
mid_gen said:
Don't do anything until they provide their "valid license, purchase records, documentation of authorisation" for the image.
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I would guess they send 1000's of these out and anyone that responds they "go after"

they cannot even be sure a person got the email, or read it... responding in any way proves you are there and reading email and willing to respond to them...

id say ignore... my experience in this matter is 0 however
 
sounds like the porn download cases. which iirc the general advice was. ignore as they wont go to court. as there's no punitive charges in the uk, and trying to prove anything. means it's essentially a scam of getting a few people to pay.

yep I wouldn't respond. just shows you are at least concerned.
if you are concerned seek legal help.
 
Glaucus said:
sounds like the porn download cases. which iirc the general advice was. ignore as they wont go to court. as there's no punitive charges in the uk, and trying to prove anything. means it's essentially a scam of getting a few people to pay.

yep I wouldn't respond. just shows you are at least concerned.
if you are concerned seek legal help.
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£400 is unlikely to be punitive charges. Commercial use of photos can cost this much, especially with enforcement fees.
 
Halfmad said:
Remove the image, ignore the e-mail, see what happens.

^^ not legal council :D
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That is pretty much where it's at currently ;)

I've made the people aware that I think should decide on legal action/paying the bill (if it comes to that) and will not be responding to the original email unless they tell me to.

This thread (as much as anything) is about the general issue here. You can receive an official press release, use the content (as clearly intended and in good faith) and forget about it. Then 7 years later get a demand for money because you (allegedly) are not licensed to use an image - how many other old newsletters, blogs etc. are out there on the internet that could fall foul of this?
 
Amp34 said:
B is irrelevant. They don't have to show loss. They are charging you for a licence to use the image. They can charge what they want. If it's legit you can pay them and continue to use the image, or they can take you court and try and get the money that way. It doesn't seem a particularly high a cost for an image, and if legit all they would probably have to show is its just the standard price they charge for an image to other clients.

That said this just sounds like a scam.
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So I could take a picture, stick it on my own website stating that I'm licencing it for £1,000,000 and if anyone uses it I could then sue them for that much? (Plus my £50,000/hour for pursuing unauthorised use)
 
I think you'd have trouble with that fee, but yes, the premise is correct. It happens every day and £400 is a reasonable sum for it.

There's a simple solution to this. Don't take he photo from the website in the first place. The question in the OP is a valid one though, on the other hand the solution to that is to keep a trail of all the content you don't use. Print it out and put it in a folder or save it to a specific location, like you would with other contracts.
 
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Tell them you thought they'd appreciate the free exposure. And also that their camera takes really nice pictures.
 
For more info OP this is the other side of the "battle"

http://www.epuk.org/opinion/stolen-photographs-what-to-do?pg=7

Stolen photographs: what to do?

A relevant excerpt

First, turning to that idea that photographers are only entitled to claim what they would have charged if they had been asked to issue a licence in the first place. There is an element of truth in it, it is indeed the starting point for calculating damages – but it is only a starting point. The first purpose of damages is, so far as possible, to put the photographer as closely as possible in the position as if the breach had not happened. Of course that is not possible. The breach did happen, so the law instead first of all tries to evaluate the amount of financial loss suffered, and compensates accordingly, putting the photographer financially in the same position as if the breach had not happened. The usual way to do this is to work out how much you would have charged for such a licence. But the law often goes beyond this purely compensatory approach, and awards additional, or even punitive, damages.
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And "to put the photographer as closely as possible in the position as if the breach had not happened" would generally be what the photographer generally charged for that kind of photo, or what other photographers generally charged.
 
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