Unlawful use of Getty Images
Getty Images have developed a new web image crawler that now recognises images from their visual look as well as checking their digital signatures. Getty will, and are pursuing website owners for royalties for these images.
If you do NOT have
- proof of purchase
- sure that the image is not subject to royalties,
- not sure where your images have originated
- you have dabbled in a little right click image "borrowing"
Our advice is to get rid of these images from your site immediately. You need to delete the files from the web servers completely. Ceasing to display is not enough. The files have to be deleted.
Average claims are in the €600 per image range, so if you multiply this by maybe 100 images over a website that have been "borrowed" a large legal bill may drop through your letterbox some morning.
Always check with your web company as to the source of their images and get it in writing and file it away just in case. However you need to remember as the owner of a website you are the end game publisher and are responsible for all images on your site.
