UPDATEd – 4 August: this in from Getty Images
We are reviewing the complaint. We believe it is based on a number of misconceptions, which we hope to rectify with the plaintiff as soon as possible. If that is not possible, we will defend ourselves vigorously.
The content in question has been part of the public domain for many years. It is standard practice for image libraries to distribute and provide access to public domain content, and it is important to note that distributing and providing access to public domain content is different to asserting copyright ownership of it.
LCS works on behalf of content creators and distributors to protect them against the unauthorized use of their work. In this instance, LCS pursued an infringement on behalf of its customer, Alamy. Any enquiries regarding that matter should be directed to Alamy; however, as soon as the plaintiff contacted LCS, LCS acted swiftly to cease its pursuit with respect to the image provided by Alamy and notified Alamy it would not pursue this content.
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Additional statement 1 August 2016:
Image libraries, archives and other businesses have long collected and aggregated content in the public domain, investing significant sums of money, time and resources in indexing, archiving, digitizing and making that content searchable and easily available to people to make productive use of it.
Some of the services Getty Images provides its users in addition to the above are image search tools and research support to assist them in locating the right image for their needs. We provide a variety of delivery services for users, with images being delivered by API or RSS feed or other mechanisms that suit their specific workflow and requirements. Getty Images also provides customers with legal indemnities for the use of images.
Image libraries are legally permitted to charge fees for use of images in the public domain.
ENDS-
In the US it seems Getty Images’ photo trawling software has landed them with a copyright lawsuit after it picked up a photographer using her own photo on her own site …she then received a copyright infringement notice. The photographers images are available at the Library of Congress for public use …at no charge.
The situation was reported on Law 360 and discussed on Hyperallergic (make sure you read the comments section, says a lot about what people think of our industry at the moment)
As with all these ‘huge $$’ lawsuits PhotoArchiveNews.com always goes straight to those agencies named – a Getty Images spokesperson told us:
“We can confirm that Carol Highsmith has raised concerns in the complaint about the licensing of her public domain imagery by Getty Images and that the filing of the complaint on Monday July 25, 2016 was the first time Getty Images was made aware of the matter. We are currently looking into these allegations with the aim of addressing these concerns as soon as possible.
We can confirm that the content in question was supplied to Getty Images by one of our contributors, who has worked with the plaintiff in the past on licensing her content.
Regarding the pursuit of unauthorized usages of this content by LCS, please note that LCS and Getty Images are separate entities and have no operational relationship. LCS provides valuable services to and on behalf of image creators and providers in identifying potentially infringing uses of their content, including Alamy, on whose behalf LCS initiated contact with Ms. Highsmith. We have confirmed with LCS that, as soon as the matter was brought to their attention, they notified Alamy, closed the case and discontinued any further activity in relation to the image.”
UPDATE: The Getty Images statement has just been updated here:
We are reviewing the complaint. We believe it is based on a number of misconceptions, which we hope to rectify with the plaintiff as soon as possible. If that is not possible, we will defend ourselves vigorously.
The content in question has been part of the public domain for many years. It is standard practice for image libraries to distribute and provide access to public domain content, and it is important to note that distributing and providing access to public domain content is different to asserting copyright ownership of it.
LCS works on behalf of content creators and distributors to protect them against the unauthorized use of their work. In this instance, LCS pursued an infringement on behalf of its customer, Alamy. Any enquiries regarding that matter should be directed to Alamy; however, as soon as the plaintiff contacted LCS, LCS acted swiftly to cease its pursuit with respect to the image provided by Alamy and notified Alamy it would not pursue this content.”
Alamy HQ in the UK appear not to have seen the details telling us when we asked if they would be making a statement “We are unable to comment because we haven’t received anything here concerning this.”
• Here are the filed court papers
Be interesting to see how this one ends up – hoping it’s all wind and misunderstanding – More as we get it…