A company I designed a site for 5 years ago received one of what now know to be the infamous demand letters from Getty Images demanding $875 US for copyright infringement for the use of one small image. I have researched the issue and see that I'm far from the only one targeted in this way. It goes without saying that copyright infringement is wrong and I can't document or clearly recall where the image came from but I don't knowingly misappropriate copyrighted material. I've chosen to take responsibility for the issue since I designed the site but it infuriates me that this company can get away with what one affected party, a lawyer, has called extortion (http://extortionletterinfo.com).

For my part I've now learned that the photo site I've used most recently, IStockPhoto, has been acquired by Getty so I'll back away from them posthaste. I've also learned a bit about how some companies have decided to make money in a down economy.

This sort of thing happens frequently. I'm afraid that it's not just Getty Images. A company I did business with ended up settling out of court, at a cost of about $2000, for posting a picture that a magazine had exclusive rights to.

As designers and content editors, we must be very discerning with what gets posted on our sites.

It's a very good idea to keep your documentation available. We purchased an image from Getty back in 2005 for use on our Web site - perpetual license - paid a nice sum for it, but it was just the right image (can't put a price on the perfect image!). We kept the receipt and license information just in case, even though we haven't been using the image for almost two years now. You never know when someone's going to pull it out of an archive and ask about it.

Keeping records of ANY stuck photo purchase is a good idea. iStockPhoto gives you a record of purchases with stock numbers. Might be a good idea to copy/paste that list for your own records, if you decide to use their images in the future.

Lastly, we have a clause (the very first one actually) in our contract TOS stating our clients are responsible for obtaining and maintaining licenses for any imagery used on their sites, and we make sure they understand what this means before any site goes live!