HELP ME PLEASE (Getty Images)

spacey2012

The legal side :
Publication
Who is responsible for the publication and hosting of the website.
Do you host it yourself or do you pay a web designer to host it.

When purchasing any material for publication you should have a signed disclaimer that the source code and any electronic images are not infringing copyright of any third party.

I would contact them demanding "proof of claim", this is a legal challenge at an early stage that you require them to substantiate the claim in more substance than just a vague letter.
Can they provide, the name of the photographer, can they provide an actual contract that the image is sole rights copyrighted to Getty or are they attempting to assert an image they have acquired "rights managed" from a third party website is there copyright.
The copyright remains the photographers and if they have no idea of the photographer they have no copyright to pursue.
They have acquired many old stock image libraries such as Flikr where they sell peoples pictures and give them nothing.
The contracts people entered with these social networking sites where never signed with this agency and a contract can not be retrospectively applied.

I would take it seriously and I would put the web designer on notice they will be joint defendant in any claim.
Ignorance is little defence and the best attack is to demand proof of claim as early as possible.
Failure to provide this information when requested usually means they don't have it.
They may have commissioned the work, they may not have and only have a rights managed clause to which the actual copyright holder has no idea.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

torturerforfun wrote: »

Your question has no relevance to my original post?

This is a consumer website. Your query is business related. Expect others to query your business ethics. You engaged rogue people to create a website, using copyright material.