$1000 for one image infringement

[sstouk]

I am not a professional Web-designer and created a web site for my wife to explain about her self-employment business and used an image which now claimed to be copyrited by a legal company asking $1000 in infringement demand. There is no notice of a copyrited material on the image no was it at the source of acquiring it.
This amount is more than a month income my wife gets from her business and there has been no actual gain from the website itself. The image was in a "free advice" secondary page section.
I am seeking a legal advice if there is a way to minimize the damage this infringement can cause.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

You should assume any image on the net is copyrighted. I would request they provide the copyright holder info. If they can verify, pay or negotiate.

 

[cyjeff]

I am not a professional Web-designer and created a web site for my wife to explain about her self-employment business and used an image which now claimed to be copyrited by a legal company asking $1000 in infringement demand. There is no notice of a copyrited material on the image no was it at the source of acquiring it.
This amount is more than a month income my wife gets from her business and there has been no actual gain from the website itself. The image was in a "free advice" secondary page section.
I am seeking a legal advice if there is a way to minimize the damage this infringement can cause.

Take down the picture and beg for mercy.

 

[FlyingRon]

To reiterate what was said. There is NO REQUIREMENT to mark materials as copyright to assert rights to them. As pointed out, you must assume anything you didn't create has copyright ownership by someone else (small exceptions are those which you know were generated by the government, or those so old (i.e., pre 1923) to be in the public domain).

In fact all the posts on this forum are copyright. The admins just when after a site that was repackaging the messages from this site.

As pointed out, you should remove the infringing (and other infringing) material from your site. You can try ignoring them or sending back a letter stating that the inadvertent use of their material has be terminated. It's easy to send out letters demanding payment, slightly more involved to actually pursue an action in civil court.

One thing for sure, it's also just as easy as sending the civil demand to send a DMCA takedown notice to whoever is hosting your site and cause your site to go poof.