Getty Images Getty Images trying to scam small internet business. Seattle, Washington

16th of Nov, 2011 by User224667

I own a small internet business. I sell several different item, some I keep in stock and some I drop ship. When I was building my website I was told by my coaches that I had to make sure I got permission from other site to suse their images when I sold their products. I did that with all of my images.One of the product I sell had given me permission to use any of their images. I had one of the images on a secondary page of my site. To my shock I got a legal looking letter in the mail informing me that the image was one of theirs and I had infringed on the copyrite and owed them close to $1000.00 I was in shock. I immediately took the image off my site and called to explain that I was given permission from the Company to use their image. They did not care they said I had to pay. This amount of money will destroy my business. After checking around on the internet It seemed like the suggested thing to do was repond with a registered letter explaining an assuring them I had taken the image down immediately. After calming down and examineing the image next to the one they said I copied they were not the same. There were several noticible differences which I pointed out to them in the letter. I did not hear from them again for 2 months. Today I got another letter demanding that I pay the same amount or they will take further action. I don't think they even read my letter. I do not have this kind of money and I did nothing wrong knowingly and I do not beleive the picture is the same. There are too many differences. I also found almost the same picture on another image site for around $5.00. I don't know what I should do next but I will not pay. The picture was not on the site that long and I never made any money from it. I have found out they have done this many many times before. Is there not some way to stop them.

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