I admin blog, users submit photos to post on there, whether they are celeb/athlete/music whatever. I received a copyright claim on one of the images posted last year sometime. It has no tags on it, no copyrights/watermarked or anything...
None of that is relevant. Copyright does not require notice.
The person that sent me the copyright claim is sending and invoice expecting payment for the time it was used...
How would anyone best determine I respond?
It's not the image was intentionally stolen... it was user submitted and I posted it. Once I got the report I removed it..?
How you might respond depends in part on what you want out of this, and how aggressive you might want to be. You could simply ignore them, in which case if they are really incensed by your behavior they could sue you. You could simply remove the offending photo(s), and then see what happens -- they still could sue you if they wanted to, but maybe this is less confrontational than just ignoring them outright. Finally, you could engage them -- first thing to ask for is some evidence that they own the copyright, or that they have the authority to negotiate a license or settlement. If they can show that they do have the right to come after you, then you can try and negotiate a settlement that makes sense in exchange for a release of all liability.
Absent settlement with a release of liability, there is always the risk that they could get mad and sue you -- so you need to weigh the risks of that happening against what you might be willing to pay out in settlement, if anything.
Probably your best bet is to remove the offending pictures, let them know that you have removed the pictures, and leave it at that, and see what they come back with.
