There is no way a court is going to award <a stock image provider> the amount of punitive damages they are asking for

[edited by: engine at 2:02 pm (utc) on Aug. 13, 2007]

Several years ago, the person's (we will call him John) web designer designed a site for John and used (Stock Image Provider) images without permission.

I don't think we have any resident lawyers running about so the most you'll get is a little bit of advice and a lot of hire an attorney.

(Stock Image Provider) has very strict copyright infringement policies. It would be best for you to review the terms and conditions of use from (Stock Image Provider) before ignoring what may be happening right now.

It sounds like John used what are referred to as Rights Managed (RM) as opposed to Royalty Free (RF) images.

Rights-Managed images are images that must be licensed for a specific use. The fee for these images is calculated from several factors including size, placement, duration, and geographic location.

John had no idea and now (Stock Image Provider) wants John to pay an inordinate amount of money for these images.

John would probably be best advised to seek legal counsel at this juncture. (Stock Image Provider) has very deep pockets and I'm sure John violated their RM policies.

John has chosen to ignore (Stock Image Provider) and now their lawyers are calling him. I personally don't think this is going to go away, but I am curious to know opinions and personal experiences with (Stock Image Provider).

You might want to do a few searches in your favorite search engine for (Stock Image Provider) Rights-Managed lawsuits or something similar.

There is no way a court is going to award (Stock Image Provider) the amount of punitive damages they are asking for.

Ummm, bad Karma. There is a chance the award could be higher by the time it makes it to court.

But I am wondering if these (Stock Image Provider) lawyers are all bluff, or if they consistently take people to court.

You're referring to probably one of the top five (05) stock image providers online. I doubt very seriously that they are bluffing. And, if their attorneys have called and John has ignored, whew, those punitive damages could escalate exponentially.

Thoughts?

Is BK an option?

What I am finding, however, is that I can't find one instance where some Joe Blow was taken to court by CB. I would think that if CB was litigating left and right, they would want this known loud and clear to send a message...

If you knew how much they were asking, I highly doubt any judge would award those kind of damages when the person didn't even know that the pictures had been copied and the pics were taken down immediately.

I'm not a lawyer. I wouldn't doubt anything when it comes to the US Legal System. And yes, a judge would easily award those kinds of damages. Collecting on them is another affair.

What I am finding, however, is that I can't find one instance where some Joe Blow was taken to court by Stock Image Provider. I would think that if Stock Image Provider was litigating left and right, they would want this known loud and clear to send a message.

I just did a search for Stock Image Provider lawsuits for infringement. There are quite a few results. Here is one from 2006 November...

A federal judge has awarded Stock Image Provider over $20 million in damages in its lawsuit against several Internet companies accused of infringing and reselling stock images.

$20 million. Pocket change for Stock Image Provider.

This is why our advice is for John to seek legal counsel. If John was not aware that the images were RM and the designer delivered the product not making the client aware of that issue, then I do believe John has a course of action and that is to put the onus on the designer. John would be best advised to hire an attorney at this point, he waited too long. John should have abided by the request the very first time and not ignored anything.

Though the industry has a "standard" settlement rate of between four to ten times the amount of the license fee, the legal basis for damages for an unregistered image is limited to actual damages (and no attorneys fees), making it difficult for an agency to establish amounts that are higher than the actual license fee. Penalties may be available, but they are only awarded at the discretion of the court and only if the images were registered prior to infringement.

Apparently the RM image that was used is a Registered Image. If it were not, it would have been difficult for them to find it. I'd say John has his hands full for the next few months. If John hasn't filed for BK, now might be a good time to put it on the table as a consideration.

The very first request that came in should have been honored immediately with a follow up email and/or phone call to the law firm. I found out the hard way that you do not want to take any of this for granted, none, nada, nothing!

Over the years, I've seen multiple instances of designs being delivered that used a stock image that was swiped from one of the online image providers. Its a common practice with designers outside the US as it is very difficult to do anything about it after the fact.

If your design has stock imagery within it, I would have the designer(s) provide a written and signed agreement stating that the images were RM (Royalty Free) and to provide a direct link to where the images were obtained, the exact catalog pages.

If you do not protect yourself in this instance, you may end up in the same situation as John above.

If the image was RM (Rights Managed), you will have signed away your life by the time the design was delivered to you. ;)

And he did talk to CB initially and he told them that he knew nothing about it--that his web designer would be calling them. They were offered the cost of what the pictures are worth which is fair. But they refused. So don't get the impression that they have totally ignored CB. They have not. I am looking for documented cases that this particular image provider has filed, not against big-time companies (of course they are going to go after them) but small-bit operations. Does anyone know of any?

I'm not talking about lawsuits against big companies. I am talking about lawsuits against ordinary people, 1 man operations etc. Haven't found any as of yet.

It doesn't matter. The one's you are usually going to find press on are the big ones. The little one's rarely make it mainstream.

Also, since we don't allow specifics, I don't think anyone is going to be able to give you any legal advice on the issues at hand other than John hiring an attorney and/or some form of legal counsel.