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Violated Copyright Law — Now What?
An anonymous reader asks: "I am US-based and have recently been doing part-time subcontracting work for a friend in the UK who runs her own small marketing firm. She sells a complete branding/identity plan and if that includes a web site refresh, she calls me. The clients do not know who or where I am, or even that the work is being subbed. Like many designers, I often use Corbis and other photo merchants to mock up layouts for review. It is legal to download images (comps) from Corbis to use offline for the this purpose. If the client likes the design/images, I get a quote from the photo vendor and the client has the option to purchase. If the price is too high, which it often is with Corbis, I turn to less expensive or free alternatives." The problem comes when the site goes live and images from Corbis (or others of its ilk) aren't replaced, which is an honest mistake as long as it doesn't happen excessively. How does one handle isolating the customer, fixing the problem, and paying the proper fees (professional legal consultation here goes without saying) without everything getting blown out of proportion?
One of her clients, for whom I recently designed a site, just received a $25,000 invoice from a law firm in London representing Corbis, who claimed their content was on the client's site. The client of course was frantic when they received the bill and called my marketing friend, who called me. I investigated and sure enough, there were images on the site that were rightfully the property of Corbis, which I put there. In this instance I neglected to swap out the comps with legal images I purchased for the client from another online source before I made the site live. As a designer I respect content rights and did not, would not, maliciously steal images. The client and my friend had no idea.
I moved quickly to correct the situation — scrubbed the site and looked through other clients' sites to make sure nothing else had gotten through. I called Corbis and told their legal department what happened and they told me I would have to deal with the law firm, who handles "all our overseas affairs." I then sent a certified letter to the law firm telling them what happened in an attempt to exonerate the client, and by default, my friend. That was today.
I quoted the images in question on the Corbis site and the total would have been about $800. I did my due-googling and in the spectrum of copyright infringement, I want to believe I'm closer to the speeder than I am the serial-killer. Other photo houses (Getty) send out cease and desist letter and it's done. There is mention of similar situations on some forums, especially in the UK, but I can't seem to find any precedent as to what my fate might be. Does anyone have any idea? I made about $1,000 for the site about a year ago, and as much as it would pain me, would be willing to give that up to make this go away. However, something tells me this is going to get ugly."
One of her clients, for whom I recently designed a site, just received a $25,000 invoice from a law firm in London representing Corbis, who claimed their content was on the client's site. The client of course was frantic when they received the bill and called my marketing friend, who called me. I investigated and sure enough, there were images on the site that were rightfully the property of Corbis, which I put there. In this instance I neglected to swap out the comps with legal images I purchased for the client from another online source before I made the site live. As a designer I respect content rights and did not, would not, maliciously steal images. The client and my friend had no idea.
I moved quickly to correct the situation — scrubbed the site and looked through other clients' sites to make sure nothing else had gotten through. I called Corbis and told their legal department what happened and they told me I would have to deal with the law firm, who handles "all our overseas affairs." I then sent a certified letter to the law firm telling them what happened in an attempt to exonerate the client, and by default, my friend. That was today.
I quoted the images in question on the Corbis site and the total would have been about $800. I did my due-googling and in the spectrum of copyright infringement, I want to believe I'm closer to the speeder than I am the serial-killer. Other photo houses (Getty) send out cease and desist letter and it's done. There is mention of similar situations on some forums, especially in the UK, but I can't seem to find any precedent as to what my fate might be. Does anyone have any idea? I made about $1,000 for the site about a year ago, and as much as it would pain me, would be willing to give that up to make this go away. However, something tells me this is going to get ugly."
The little () about consultation is your answer. You need to talk to a lawyer.
In the future you might want to place the text "FRO" (for review only) or something like that over all the images that aren't licensed. That way it's clear that the images in the mockup are not the ones to be used for the final site. I picked this up from some colleagues when I worked in print. The text was placed over all mockup images and was faint enough that it wouldn't interfere with the idea, but clear enough that anyone could read it and notice it.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Apparently /. is low on pageviews for the month so the editors are looking for a thousand IANAL (half of whome will give legal advice anyhow, a further half of whom are unable to comprehend that US law isn't universal (not for wont of trying.))
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
You need to read closer.
It is not the site designer's site but his design work. Not only that its work he/she sub-contracted for the friend. The designer can't ignore it or it just becomes a bigger financial and reputational headache. They can end up with not only one judgement to pay for but the cost of three judgements and accompanying law fees, not to mention gaining the bad reputation of not standing behind their work.
The right way is to get a lawyer and arrange a settlement suitable to all parties concerned. This will protect their and their friend's reputation. Of course, if they can't afford the settlement it brings up another problem. IANAL and designer in question needs to see a real one. IMO as part of the settlement they should request that Corbis send notice to the company the site was created for that the matter has been handled to their satisfaction by the marketing firm that contracted the job. Of course the lawyer they hire will probably need approval to negotiate a settlement from the website owners.
No, your problem was not managing your art resources properly. The simplest things could be done to avoid it happening again --- for instance, any photo for which you would eventually need to pay, you can rename it to include some unique tidbit (say ".."), and then all you'd need to do is search your resource folder for that tidbit. Found anything? Then it's not cleared for deployment.
"Good news, everyone!"
This may be good advice in a US context - I don't know. It's really, really bad advice in a UK context. Most UK lawyers are reasonable; and, furthermore, UK courts cannot be bought and are always reasonable. But one thing they won't tolerate is unreasonableness.
If you go to a UK law firm and say, 'look, I messed up, it was an honest mistake, I won't do it again, I'll happily pay your reasonable costs for sending that letter', you'll probably end up with a bill for under US$100. If they refuse and take the matter to court, then the judge will certainly look positively at that sort of approach. But if you attempt to do anything 'tough' or 'clever' you are going to be in such deep trouble.
Be humble. Be contrite. Be apologetic. Grovel. It will save a whole heap of trouble and money.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.