This morning I received a recorded signed for letter informing me of a copyright infringement on one of my websites. The website is a portal for people to post their campsites and other camping related items for sale / hire.
On one of the campsites there is an image that apparently belongs to another website. They sent me an email on 2nd Aug notifying me of this that I was unaware of due to server issues (web host can confirm numerous issues including email problems) and then another on the 9th informing me that for this single image and due to me not taking it down they would be sueing for £7500 (roughly). They have offered to settle out of court for £3000.
It is now the 27th of Aug and I have just received this letter in the post. Is it realistic that they could sue for this amount? I cannot see how a website that hasn't earned 3k in the time they are sueing for could pay this amount for a single image that was uploaded by a user of the website.
What are my rights here? Should I tell them to go away or should I consider getting lawyered up? I hope somebody can help me here, I don't feel like I have broken the law and had no idea about this until just now and I removed the image right away. I cannot afford this fine at all.
Thanks in advance guys.
@@EDIT@@
I have just re-read the notification of damages and examined the damages figure. The used the following website for figuring out costs:
http://www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/index.php?
language=en&country=UK§ion=Photography&subsect=Online+use+of+photos
They are claiming for both the thumbnail and the image itself so figuring £580 per year
They claim image has been up for 4.3years though my website is just over 3 yrs old and that image was uploaded only 2 years ago
They claim the courts will add 50% on top of this figure as no credit was given to the origin by the uploader.
For some reason they say the courts will double the figure as no permission was given in the first place.
If what they say is correct this brings the figure to almost £7500 for a single image uploaded by a user. I can get this down by proving that the image was only uploaded 2 years ago but I dont feel like I did anything wrong. I often get requests to take down certain images or information regarding sites or equiment for sale and would have done the same here had I noticed earlier.
As a side note, this letter is from the website owner herself and not from a solicitor.
On one of the campsites there is an image that apparently belongs to another website. They sent me an email on 2nd Aug notifying me of this that I was unaware of due to server issues (web host can confirm numerous issues including email problems) and then another on the 9th informing me that for this single image and due to me not taking it down they would be sueing for £7500 (roughly). They have offered to settle out of court for £3000.
It is now the 27th of Aug and I have just received this letter in the post. Is it realistic that they could sue for this amount? I cannot see how a website that hasn't earned 3k in the time they are sueing for could pay this amount for a single image that was uploaded by a user of the website.
What are my rights here? Should I tell them to go away or should I consider getting lawyered up? I hope somebody can help me here, I don't feel like I have broken the law and had no idea about this until just now and I removed the image right away. I cannot afford this fine at all.
Thanks in advance guys.
@@EDIT@@
I have just re-read the notification of damages and examined the damages figure. The used the following website for figuring out costs:
http://www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/index.php?
language=en&country=UK§ion=Photography&subsect=Online+use+of+photos
They are claiming for both the thumbnail and the image itself so figuring £580 per year
They claim image has been up for 4.3years though my website is just over 3 yrs old and that image was uploaded only 2 years ago
They claim the courts will add 50% on top of this figure as no credit was given to the origin by the uploader.
For some reason they say the courts will double the figure as no permission was given in the first place.
If what they say is correct this brings the figure to almost £7500 for a single image uploaded by a user. I can get this down by proving that the image was only uploaded 2 years ago but I dont feel like I did anything wrong. I often get requests to take down certain images or information regarding sites or equiment for sale and would have done the same here had I noticed earlier.
As a side note, this letter is from the website owner herself and not from a solicitor.
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