Hey Guys,
I shared this issue with Andrew and he wanted me to share it with you. This past June I had the pleasure of working Consumer Electronics Week here in NYC. One of the big vendors at the event was Sharp who was unveiling their amazing 90 inch LED TV. The night after I saw the presentation I recieved a press kit from the Sharp PR rep to use in our write up. I wrote up the event and used the assets Sharp sent me including hi res images of the TV which had a swimmer on the screen.

Let's fast forward to this past Saturday when I got home to find a lovely packet from..... Getty Images. Getty Images stated in their letter that I used a photograph with owning the rights to its use. I went to the back of the packet and lo and behold it was the image of the TV with the swimmer on it. The first response from me was anger since this picture was on a TV stream and it was given to me by Sharp. The second was concern since they wanted me to pay $875 for using the "image". I calmed down and looked through my emails and got the email from Sharp PR and reviewed the assets. Sure enough the photo in question was give to me and probably countless other members of the press. I contacted the Sharp PR rep yesterday who requested the packet so that they could resolve the matter. I am now waiting to hear back from the Sharp PR rep which if I don't hear back from Friday will hear from me before I call Getty.

Now here is the lesson:
1- Source your photos as much as possible
2-Make sure the person you get photos from has the right to distribute
3- Save emails
4-If at all possible use your own photos to avoid any hassles.
5- Don't let a company strong arm you if they are in the wrong. Fight back with facts and proof whenever possible.


I will post an update to the thread as soon as things are resolved.

Rich