Copyright infringement claim from Rights Control - Science photo library

[Pemlee]

Hi can you update us how this was resolved ? I’m
in exact this situation. Thanks

[Yino74]

Hi,

I am facing the same issue. wondering if you will be able to share the general wording that you wrote back to them with the offer?

Many thanks
I.G

[Krendler]

Firstly THANK YOU to everyone who has given advice.

I had the same letter for a single photo from science images, the letter (demand) said its market value was £175, total bill was £3000+ (a clear scare tactic) I removed the image immediately.

I registered with the site, located the photo and called my new 'account manager' for a price. The quote was actually more expensive than the demand, £173 for a year or £240 to use forever. I used the above advice, offered them 175 for the image and 75 for admin goodwill etc... Within 5 minutes it has been accepted and new invoice sent. Yes it's not cheap but it's over now. £250 wasted... But lesson learned

Thank you to all, without this advice I would have ignored the letter and likely had a larger bill after summary judgement. This company isn't stupid, they have the evidence to win the civil judgement but the scare tactics are immoral.

Thanks again

[johnny38373]

Our company received a similar letter from Rights Control about a photo used on our website.

For anyone reading this post DO NOT rush to make the payment and don't fall for Right Control's pressure tactics of offering a lower settlement figure if paid within 14 days. Seek legal advice if you have access to a legal team as we did.

The information we found on this forum was incredibly helpful. By following the guidance we were able to settle at a far lower settlement figure than originally demanded.

Similar to the other posts the original amount was over £2,500 dropping to £1,000 if paid within 14 days.
We were able to locate the image for £30 and offered £75 to which we received a counter offer of £400.
We responded with our final offer of £100+VAT which was eventually agreed to.

Points to make when making the counter-offer
- Start your response with the line "Without Prejudice"
- Provide the cost of image
- Make an offer to cover the cost of the image (with a bit extra) plus an amount for admin fees
- Mention that the counter offer has been based on the damages a court would find appropriate if the claim is taken to court

Thank you to everyone who posted on this topic!

[Beverley]

Hi all

I just wanted to say a big Thank You to everyone who posted about Rights Control (aka Science Photo Library).
I'm self employed and have a website - just about every image I have on it has permission through the manufacturers or distributors, however, I copied 1 image of a bottle of Methylated Spirits from the internet and low and behold it was a licensed image by SPL (something I didn't know was a thing until I received their scary email).

After the initial horror of owing them £3.5k (on top of what was already a bad day), I finally calmed down and went home and did some research on Science Photo Library.

I found this really useful forum, along with reading their annual returns and checking on their registered address in London (which is under offer to a new lease holder). Anyway to cut a long story short, the whole thing appears to be a legal 'scam'. Yes, using a licensed image without consent/payment is an issue, but not as they bad as it appears in their emails with large red fonts and intimidating words.

So, with an initial charge of £3.5k, I was offered the chance to pay £1.7k in 14 days. I contacted them on the 13th day and offered £100 + VAT. I was unable to find out a license fee charge after contacting them and I even tried to contact the photographer of the image without success. By the way, every email to me was addressed as 'Dear Sir'. They never bothered to actually find out my name (it's on my website where they found my address and email), so I never gave it to them - I'm female btw!

Their reply was that the photographer needs to be paid the rightful amount and they need to pay the 'infringement detection provider' - I'm going to guess that that is fancy talk for a member of staff on minimum wage trawling Google. During our communication the license fee also changed 3 times. Anyway, they were now asking for £600. So basically, the amount keeps reducing by half. Needless to say red flags and alarm bells were ringing all over the place.

Still not providing my name out of principle, I replied again highlighting the lack of consistency in licence fee and that scaremongering and intimidation was unethical (I was prepared to see them in court at this stage). I repeated my offer of £100+ VAT.

I then received an apologetic email and that they would consider my offer and get back to me. Several days later the £100 was accepted and an invoice followed. I have paid the £100 + VAT and the case is now closed.

So, thanks to this chat forum, I realised that I was not alone and it gave me the determination to pursue their background and challenge them. It worked! They definitely thrive on scaremongering and intimidation - so if you are in this position DO NOT let them win. The fact that they are so unbelievably quick to reduce their costs every time is a red flag in itself. It's my opinion that they know that their exorbitant fees would not hold up in court if it ever went that far and they hope to instil fear into those of us who have innocently made a mistake.

I do feel sorry for anyone who pays them out of panic without doing any research. Let's hope others find this chat forum and make a stand.

[AndyJ]

Hi Beverley and welcome to the forum.

And thanks for telling us your story, I'm sure it will encourage others to resist paying the initial demand these companies send out, and be prepared to haggle.

[lucyh2025]

Hello everyone,
Unfortunately we have been caught by Science Library.
My wife posted an image to a facebook post without realising she was taking a copyrighted image, and it was used in 3 posts.

They have sent us an invoice for £155 License Fee, £155 Surcharge, £129.17 Infringement Detection Fee, £77.50 Case Management and then £103.33 VAT. I find this all a bit hard to swallow, this fee is half over half our weekly turnover at the moment in our little cafe.

I have found the image now on a website so I have tried to ask for a price for the image usage.

Can anyone tell me what I should do next please, and the correct steps.
With thanks in advance
A very worried Lucy

[AndyJ]

Hi lucy and welcome,

There are several threads on here which explain how to deal with demands like this. In addition to Science Library, look for ones which feature Pixsy and PicRights as they operate in the same way. Once you have discovered the true cost of a licence for the image, that becomes the basis for your counter-offer. There is no question of surcharges or other nonsense forming part of any legitimate damages. Don't be intimidated. They rely on you panicking and paying up without finding out what your actual legal rights are in a situation like this.

[Kajaja]

Received a demand from Rights Control for using a photo in 2018 on my business FB page. Demanding payment of £1,240 within 14 days.
I have checked its legitimacy.
Is this a correct amount to pay ?

[AndyJ]

Hi kajaja and welcome to the forum,

'Correct' is not the word I would use.

If you read through this and some of the other threads here involving companies like PicRights and Pixsy (to name but two) you will see that the amount being demanded from you is totally disproportionate and will be many times the level of damages which a court might be expected to award. You would normally only be liable in damages for the actual financial loss to the copyright owner because the correct licence was not bought at the appropriate time. Generally, for stock images the normal licence fee is in the tens of pounds. You haven't told us anything about the image in your case, so it's hard to say if this might apply here. You should do a reverse image search to try and find the same image being offered by a picture agency and make a note of the cost of the appropriate licence fee which they are charging. This figure can then form the basis of a counter-offer to settle the issue. For example you might choose to add 10-15% to cover any admin costs.

However if you can't be bothered with the hassle and don't like the prospect of a tedious haggle with Rights Control, then you may decide that paying way over the odds is 'correct' for you, just in order to make the issue go away. If you do that then the copyright owner will almost certainly get exactly what he would have done if you had bought a licence at the correct time (say £20-30), and Rights Control will have made a very handsome profit which will encourage them to go on sending out such inflated demands to others in a similar position to you.