Pixsy email me demand almost £700 for London Eye photo from Wikipedia

[Axcord]

Hi Everyone,

I want to tell you about something that happened on January 15, 2024.

My website is all about travelling to the UK, especially London. It covers places to visit, how to use the underground, getting from Heathrow to London, trying English food and beer, and exploring Christianity.

Unfortunately, I got an email from Pixsy, sent by someone named Marketa. I didn't check things properly, and it turns out they were upset about a photo on my site. The photo is of the London Eye, taken by Mr. David Iliff. I don't know him, but he's a great photographer with cool pictures from around the world.

Pixsy, on Mr Iliff's behalf, wanted almost £700 for using the photo on my site. My site doesn't sell anything; it's just for people from Thailand who want to know about the UK, England, Scotland, culture, and food.

I emailed back to Marketa back and said that the photo is free to use (under CC BY 2.5), but I forgot to mention Mr. David Iliff and I'm so sorry. Pixsy still insisted on £700, which I think is unfair.

So, I've decided to close down my website and the company. It wasn't doing much anyway. I'm not mad at Mr. David Iliff; I'm just upset with myself for not giving him credit. Now I have to delete all my articles.

Life can be tough sometimes.

Thanks for reading.

Sine Axcord

[AndyJ]

Hi Sine Axcord,

Welcome to the forum. Sadly you are not alone in facing this problem. If you take a look at some of the other recent threads you will many similarities with your plight. Claims which involve non-compliance with Creative Commons licences are tricky because they involve contract law rather than straight forward copyright infringement, and there has been very little caselaw on this specific topic.
Any way I hope that the advice we have provided in those other threads helps you to understand the issue a little better.