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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]Thanks again for the replies folks. I'm
sure the company that I did the website for will just end up paying
the fee as they are really concerned about the additional legal
fees and such that Getty Images could rack up pursuing this matter.
The cost of hiring a local copyright attorney would not be cost
effective as that would most likely cost more then the penalty fee.
The party rental companies lawyer already mentioned in a previous
email to us that he knows nothing about copyright matters and that we
would need to seek specialized help in this matter. On the other hand
If Getty Images would have contacted me directly as my name and
freelance business is directly on the party rental home page, Id
handle it differently. They would have to do many things to prove to
me that they have the rights to this image. They would have to show
written proof when this mystery photographer's image became property
of their company, If the image matches the one that we had listed on
the website, when the image was copyrighted if that was done, show
me the image for sale on their website, fees they charge on their
website for using this image. Id also have them break down the 600
dollar fee they are charging and explain this in greater detail.
Again, the image I downloaded that Getty's is claiming they
own/represent was 180 pixels by 70 pixels. Its so small that if you
where to blow it up to a 4 x 6 print it would be unrecognizable.