If you are a fellow blogger I have a scary situation to share with you.
On Saturday I received a large envelope from Getty Images stating that I have used an image from their catalog and they could not find a purchase order for this image so I have 14 days to pay for the image. The price? $780.00
$780.00?!?
They included a screen shot of the image on my blog, a picture of a Mai Tai, but they didn't include the post title or date of post. I scrolled through my blog posts and finally found the image used on a Virtual Girls Night Out from 5/21/12. Of course I deleted the image. I'm so confused though. Whenever I include an image on my blog I research "free on-line images" and that's what I use. How could this be happening?
I sent my panicky circumstance out to my Twitterverse pals and to my friends at Mom Bloggers Club and received two links to the same article on About.com, "Getty Image Settlement Demand Letter: Scam or For Real?" by Lahle Wolfe. (I'm giving credit! I also give credit! :-> ) My Twitter pal guided me to comment #85, very useful. In fact just about all of the comments were useful and I'm grateful for all of the help.
After reading the letter, and removing the image from my blog, I put in a call to Getty Images. It was a Saturday and the offices were closed so I left a message. Since I haven't received a response this is on going and I'll let you know what happens.
If you are going through a similar circumstance, I hope this information helps. If you've received a letter from Getty Images how did you handle it?