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Posted on 03/12/08 8:26:51 PM |
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Paul 2007 thru 2010
Lego Legend Posts: 361 Reply |
Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
A lot of people use Google images when they want a photo. It might seem very innocent just to "borrow" a little image and use it on your website for a button or something. One of the directors at work designed one of our sites a last year. He used a few images here and there. One of a container ship, one of a man holding a box, one of a man with a trolley. Some of these images had been heavily cropped and cut out from the background. In total he used 10 images that were no larger that an inch square on the screen. Yesterday we had a large letter from Getty Images demanding £800 per image plus VAT for their use. They use a company called PicScout to trawl the internet looking for images. I am not 100% sure how they make a match, but PicScout apparently get 50% of anything they helped recover. The letter we got showed the full uncropped image with the ownership details and a screen shot of where each one was used on our site. We have 21 days to pay up and remove the images from our website. I have had to spend today going through our other sites removing other unknown origin images (just in case) and replacing them with ones I downloaded properly from stock photo sites. So, if you do not know where an image has come from, remove it now before you too get a bill from Getty or whoever. I believe Getty have bought out istock so that might make things even worse. I used to think £1 for a small image was expensive. Not as expensive as £800 
Not sure how this works for use of images here in the Friday Challenge. Who is liable? |
Posted on 04/12/08 10:31:54 AM |
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tooquilos
Wizard of Oz Posts: 2904 Reply  |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
Thats very interesting Paul. Thank you for posting that. |
Posted on 04/12/08 11:55:17 AM |
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The Mad Lep
Four-Leafed Fantasist Posts: 323 Reply  |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
That is something worth thinking about alright. This whole image royalty thing is getting to be a tad ridiculous. |
Posted on 04/12/08 2:22:10 PM |
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David Asch
Tech Support Posts: 1913 Reply  |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
Blimey, that's steep! Certainly worth paying heed to. _________________ If you hold on to the past, sooner or later you'll lose your grip. |
Posted on 04/12/08 2:33:06 PM |
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dave.cox
Marquee Master Posts: 518 Reply  |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
I think that that the digimark copyright protection thing embeds some sort of hidden data in the images that can't be seen, but can be recognized by digimark. I wonder if maybe that is what they are finding? |
Posted on 04/12/08 2:54:04 PM |
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The Mad Lep
Four-Leafed Fantasist Posts: 323 Reply |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
Must be. I know there's a program that rips out digimarks from images (something 'black' if I recall correctly.. was a long time ago that I was studying this though, so I can't be sure anymore) but I doubt that it's something a lot of folk would know about. And from what I read about it, it appears to be a fiddly kind of process anyway. 
Am I correct in assuming that the only way of discovering an image actually has an embedded digimark is by opening it in a program like Photoshop, and using the digimark command to see the contents? I know when I open a digimarked image in mine, the title bar has a (c)opyright symbol in it and I'm able to view the digimark data. Edit: But thinking about it again.. how many images in an average google image search actually have digimarks? In all my years using it I've never turned up even one. The only time I've come across images with copyright issues is in browsing some celebrity fansites, and on the fan galleries there. Several images I saved had digimarks, and so were obviously professionally taken. But on an average search in google, I've never come across it. Has anyone else? |
Posted on 05/12/08 08:18:39 AM |
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Nick Curtain
Model Master Posts: 1768 Reply  |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
Hi Paul and thanks for the tip. I think your last point is very important. I can understand images being used for commercial purposes / own sites, being out of bounds, but what about those we use for our challenges on here, which are used harmlessly and just for a bit of fun? Nick |
Posted on 05/12/08 09:19:38 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7047 Reply  |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
The truth is I don't know what the legal position is here. I can see Getty complaining when images are used for commercial purposes, as part of the body of the site, but they'd be hard pressed to make a case when bits of their work pop up in, say, a Friday Challenge. Paul, did your company just pay up? I'm sure Getty would have been open to negotiation on this one. A salutory lesson, for sure! |
Posted on 05/12/08 10:13:04 AM |
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Paul 2007 thru 2010
Lego Legend Posts: 361 Reply |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
It's still early days yet. Nothing has been paid so far. I think it's certainly worth haggling with them. it's not as if we have sold posters of their images and made profit from them. I will post back when it's sorted out. |
Posted on 05/12/08 10:37:12 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7047 Reply |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
Paul, Yes, please let us know what happens - I'd be most interested to know how this turns out. I think this could make the basis of an article for MacUser magazine. Would you have any objection to me using this as a test case? Would I be able to speak to the director concerned about what happened? I don't have to mention the name of the company, of course. Steve |
Posted on 05/12/08 8:43:41 PM |
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Paul 2007 thru 2010
Lego Legend Posts: 361 Reply |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
I can't see any problem with that. Check your PM Steve. |
Posted on 09/08/09 8:23:57 PM |
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Paul 2007 thru 2010
Lego Legend Posts: 361 Reply |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
UPDATE: Because the images in question were included in our website by a previous company director that has delayed things somewhat. We knew it wouldn't go away and on Friday we had a phone call from a company pursuing this on Getty's behalf. I know this is not a Legal website here but I am wondering how Getty can justify this amount of money (£800 per image). What is it they are claiming for. They're are not in a position to make us pay punitive damages. That is not their place, that is what courts are for. Surely they can only claim for compensatory damages. It's not as if we have download large images from them and printed and sold many thousands of copies making £1000s. These images are the smallest possible <300 pixels and even then cropped down to about 100x100 pixels and placed on a page of our site that gets almost no traffic. Looking on the Getty site, they currently sell images like this at £39 each. (Which is quite expensive compared to other stock photo sites). So logically they have lost out on £390 (for the 10 images) of revenue because our web designer didn't purchase the images. That is the only damage they have incurred. Double that for goodwill and they are still asking 10 times too much. As soon as we were notified by them, the images were removed within minutes. Obviously it would be stupid to just send them a cheque. I wonder what would happen in court. |
Posted on 09/08/09 9:06:35 PM |
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GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 4033 Reply  |
Re: Word of warning regarding images on your websites.
Hi Paul, I reckon that they are trying this on. If they were serious about getting money (£8,000??) out of you they would have written and not phoned .......... and the letter would almost certainly have been from their lawyer. I'm definitely NOT a legal expert but common sense tells me that a court would probably see that you had removed the images immediately on being told that there was a possible problem. They would also look at whether there was anything on the web page that said that there was a charge for their use and, if not they may well find for you on the basis that you acted responsibly by removing the images without question. I would also hope that a court would look askance at the exorbitant claim that they are making of £800.00 per image instead of their standard fee of £39.00 and wonder just how much of a loss Getty had actually suffered. It's also quite possible that they might consider this to be intimidation by phoning you rather than writing a letter. Perhaps keep a log of the phone calls and get them to put their request in writing? It sounds to me like they are trying to scare you by demanding an enormous sum so that you will settle out of court for a smaller amount because it is not worth their while chasing it in any other way. Whichever way this goes just make your steps carefully and consider all the implications. I thought that Dick Turpin was hanged in 1739. Obviously he is alive and well and working for Getty (and probably also for the local council's parking department in his spare time!) Hope it all works out ok. _________________ The meek shall inherit the Earth if that's ok with the rest of you. |