Getty Images

I am a broke student who used Creative Commons on the advice of my teacher to learn how to search for images and create a website using CMS WordPress. On Creative Commons I found an image that apparently belonged to Getty Images. The site was up for a total of 3 months, and maybe had the image for 2 of those months. As soon as I received the email from Getty that I was using their image, I immediately took it down the image and the entire site. This is a class assignment, I had not intended to make any money off the site, or do anything with it other than learn how to use WordPress. Getty however does not care, they have demanded $ 740 for the image, or have ‘kindly offered’ to allow me an annual subscribtion for somewhere around $ 1K! Is this a joke? I can’t believe this company is getting away with this BS!!! How unprofessional, who would want to do business with a company like this. I also see they suck at Social Media. They have not responded or attempted to respond to any of these complaints!
I would not be surprised if Getty is planting images on CC just to see if anyone downloads them so they can demand ridiculous amounts of money!

Much like the other reviewers, our small business was targeted and has received tons of emails and letters demanding over $ 500 for an image that was used on our website blog.
We did not obtain the image illegally, it was a free image we downloaded.
Either way, Getty says they own the image and would take us to court if we didn’t pay.
This is an extortion scam — but if you are a small business like ours… it is tough to fight a big company that literally pays an entire department of people to surf small business blogs, search their images, and send out threatening demand letters.
The process is exhausting and overwhelming. I hope they go after some BIG companies that will sue them and put them out of business for robbing us small business owners blind!

Getty Images sends extortion letters to thousands of small businesses and individuals who unintentionally use an image. They target those who can’t afford lawyers. Google «Getty Images extortion letters» for examples. Sadly extorting money is their business.
Wondering if an image is really free to use? Upload it to
and find out if it is part of an image collection owned by a company.

There is a very dark side to Getty images. We are a small company selling restaurant equipment such as espresso machines, gelato machines, etc. Our web guy put a small picture of a bowl of ice cream, along with other pictures, on our website.
Several months later we receive a threatening letter from Getty Images stating the ice cream picture was their copyrighted material, and demanded $ 780 for «copyright infringement». This was just a bowl of ice cream! Nothing special or especially creative. Similar pictures on the web are free, or range in price of $ 5 — $ 35. The letter said even if we take it off our site we still owe them $ 780. And if we don’t pay up they will take us to court.
This is bullying and extortion. The picture didn’t have a watermark, or anything else identifying the picture as Getty Images property. The picture came up in a simple google search along with free pictures.
This is a scam. It appears Getty Images WANTS their pictures to be accidently used so they can hunt down anyone using them and extort them for large amounts of money. What a way to do business! I’m surprised they can get away with this. I’d love to hear of a class action lawsuit against this bully predator.

If you have ever Googled an image and placed it on your blog or website, beware of Getty Images. They will come after you and extort you for hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
They’ve gone after thousands of people with this method. Here is a post in detail on their extortion strategy.

Review from former employee.
I was hired a couple years back as contract to hire. The business had recently moved from somewhere in North Seattle to its current location. A recruiter called me from another company and helped get me the interview. I was told that Getty was having a very hard time finding a NOC technician with specific experience, which I had. After interviewing with 3 people from there, including the hiring manager, I was hired within a few hours.
During my *one month* at this company, I saw dozens and dozens of people quitting, some people the company had moved and they hated the commute, and I heard others quit just because they hated the company. Who knows.
In my short time there, every few days I would ask my coworkers about my performance. How am I working out? Any concerns? Problems? Improvements? Each and every time, 4 of them would say there is nothing wrong, I was doing fine, don’t worry about it. This went on all month. If there is a problem, I want to know so I can fix it before it becomes a problem.
Twice I had personal reviews with my manager Leonard. He was fine overall. I explained that I know from working with other companies that many will not even tell an employee if there is a problem, just fire that person. He said no no, Getty Images is different, they will absolutely let me know ahead of time and work with me. Both reviews with the same way.
On my 30^th day, a Friday, I asked my lead Scott about what time I should be in on Monday. He didn’t say anything. I asked, so am I terminated? He said don’t worry about it, we will talk Monday. BIG red flag.
As I was driving home at 6:30 I had a call from the recruiter. Getty fired me. I was told performance was not good enough, I asked a few repeat questions, and some other things. I said, that is interesting, because I had NUMEROUS talks with coworkers and Leonard, my manager, and they never once said anything, even when confronted.
Another recruiter told me she had seen that exact same job open at least 3 times in recent months, and after I was fired, I saw it open twice more.
Depending on the manager, they hire just to get some work done, then fire the person. I’m glad I don’t work at this horrible company anymore.

One word… EXTORTIONISTS! This is an outrage what Getty is doing. Using the law to take advantage and extort small businesses should be a crime, but Getty has discovered a way to do exactly that. It doesn’t matter whether you knew the image was owned by them or not. Out of nowhere my business receives a letter from Getty stating we have to pay over $ 400 for a photo we put on our blog that we downloaded from Google images (had no idea that it was copyrighted) or Getty would take us to court. We get about 10 people a month if we are lucky that visit our blog… it’s not a money maker… it never was and yet Getty is acting as though we willful stole this image and made thousands of dollars as a result and they want their cut. It’s absolutely RIDICULOUS! These kinds of tactics need to stop… the media keeps talking about bullying in our schools… well what about bullying by corporations like Getty, because that is exactly what is going on here… bullying. I’m plan on fighting this to the very end!!!

I hope someone finds a way to stick it to this company! Using the law to take advantage of small businesses is wrong. I agree with earlier post that it’s a shame. I will never use anything related to Getty Images and avoid companies that support these type of tactics to generate income. I am now paying $ 750 for a Low Res Thumbnail image (180×150 pixels) that came with a template that we used for three months. Offered to pay the amount on the site to cover the cost but they would not even talk to me. Then offered $ 100 more than what they sell on the site, would not budge. I understand there are people stealing images and that photographers deserve to be paid for their work. But with the billions of images on the web, sometimes mistakes happen. I believe I was fair in my offer but I guess this is how they make their money. Remember that Istockphoto is part of all this too. Their are better sources who pay photographers better and cost less. PLEASE DON’T USE GETTY IMAGES!!.

Absolutely and totally awful to work with. A company without a heart.

Be very careful when dealing with Getty Images. First of all, their photos are overpriced. But more important, if you accidentally and knowingly, use one of their images by mistake, they will hunt you down and make you pay an unreasonable copyright violation fee with absolutely no ability to negotiate the amount. I just wrote them a check for $ 1065.00 on a picture I had no idea belonged to them which they found after 18 months on one of my blog posts. The fact that there was zero tolerance or willingness to settle for a fairer fee, I’d highly recommend you stay as far away from this company as possible.
Barbara S

Very difficult to work with-​very disappointing!!!