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Happy days, beers on Barney? 

You're very welcome and glad to see you back  It's been quiet without you!

It's interesting isn't, years ago the prospect of a coalition would fill us with dread, with lots of infighting and arguing. But I agree the current govt hasn't done too bad, with the Liberals maybe providing a bit of a moral compass.

Not sure I'd want to see UKIP in a coalition, or even Tory/Labour, but would be happy with the current coalition continuing. At least the Tories have said there will be a referendum on Europe, so a bit like Scotland, get it over and done with and move on, come what may.

Feel your pain, having been in your situation 

First thing, as above makes sure it's genuine. A real Getty letter will include details of the image in question, dates, URL, and also a link to their compliance page:

company.gettyimages.com/license-compliance/

All the info you need is on there as there is an FAQ page.

What you actually do though is completely up to you 

I took a lot of advice, the majority from arm chair self proclaimed legal experts who kept banging on about Getty have no jurisdiction, never actually take anyone to court, it's all a big money making scam etc etc blah blah.

But when you're in the hot seat and the legal letter is addressed to you, it can be quite a stressful time.

Question is have you done anything wrong?

Yes. You took images from Google without asking the copyright owners permission. Just because you can right click an image in Google, doesn't mean you can save it and then load it up on your website.

Getty have a specialised bot that trawls the internet examining images. Not sure how they are tracked, header payload or some sort of pixel, but they are tracked.

Options

1. Do nothing and wait it out. 

Maybe they will ignore you, maybe they will drag you through the courts. Just because you don't hear anything in 12 months, doesn't mean you have got away with it. Any follow up demand will include a higher payment demand. So if you are a worrier, then this isn't a good option. If you're made of stronger stuff, wait for the next demand and decide what to do then.

2. Pay up

You are technically in the wrong. Getty make make big money from chasing up copyright violations, but you can argue they provide a service (regardless how little private photographers end up with), so they are in their rights to chase you. 

Payment (and contact) details will be on the above getty link in case you are still worried it's a scam.

3. Negotiate (beg)

This is a little known tactic and few will advise you of it. 

Getty will come up with some kind of formula of how long you have been displaying an image, and the loss of revenue for the copyright owner, unlicensed time etc etc.

If you're site gets little traffic, tell them  Little traffic means no one has seen it. Or if the image is tiny hidden below the fold on an inner page, tell them. Apologise, you didn't realise the image was copyrighted, and due to the nature of the location of the image, you think $xyz would be a realistic counter offer. Go for half, or be ballsy and try a third.

They can only say no, so you haven't lost anything, plus you have made contact, so are not ignoring it.

Our situation was part naivety, part technical cock up on our part. An SEO bod had taken out a full listing with us, and uploaded a Getty image. Being an SEO bod, his email was throw away, so 12 months later when we couldn't contact him for renewal, we deleted his listing. But unknown to us the image cache was still live to the world.

So I negotiated, told them what happened, thanked them for bringing it to our attention, told them we had tightened our procedures (which we have), and reduced the bill by 50%.

Problem solved, done over the phone, no stress and a quick answer. Other people say I was mad and should have just ignored it, but time is money and this was a quick and easy fix.

Does that help? Let us know how you got on.

So the Tories will keep and replace our Trident nuclear deterrent, SNP will scrap it and now Labour are making noises about downsizing the number of submarines.

Labour seem adamant they won't form a coalition with the SNP, Tories seem convinced they will get a majority this time, and is it me, or has the SNP taken over as the 3rd party in UK politics? Where are the Libs?

UKIP don't seem to be as vocal as I was expecting, and the BBC seems to be obsessed with his coat! - The story of Nigel Farage's coat

With a business owner head on, are you voting as planned, or have you been swayed by any propaganda?

Who said Oil was running out?

According to the beeb:

There could be up to 100 billion barrels of oil onshore beneath the South of England, says exploration firm UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG).

Last year, the firm drilled a well at Horse Hill, near Gatwick airport, and analysis of that well suggests the local area could hold 158 million barrels of oil per square mile.

But only a fraction of the 100 billion total would be recovered, UKOG admits.

The North Sea has produced about 45 billion barrels in 40 years.

BBC News - Oil discovery near Gatwick airport 

Time to shove a bore hole in the back garden 

perrrleaase.....   

I'll confess to being a fan of Seth Godin. He has a great blog which is worth subscribing to, as it's normally nice short soundbites of really useful information.

Here's his most recent example:

There are two kinds of purchases: Either you are replenishing (you know precisely what you're about to get) or you are exploring.

Books and movies are almost always purchased before they are consumed. A bottle of Coke, or a return visit to a massage therapist, on the other hand, are replenishments of a known quantity. You might buy something for the satisfaction of owning it, or of owning one more, but that's different than buying out to find out what it does.

Neither is better or worse, but they are very much not the same.

If you sell an exploration, your customer is taking a chance..."

Try before you buy (or buy, then try) - Seth Godin

Food for thought, and by getting in to the mindset of your customers you should have a better idea of how to market your products or services. 

Well we haven't had a Tesco's post for a while and I happened to catch this story on the Beeb. Straight away I thought of our man Clive

"Supermarket giant Tesco has won £1.50 compensation from a customer who spilt a bottle of milk in one of its stores...

The customer "was told to pay £1.50 compensation to Tesco, fined £75, ordered to pay £20 victim surcharge and £85 costs. The money will be deducted from his benefits at £10 a fortnight."

BBC News

If ever a final line set the scene of the story, that one did

Be interesting to know what the back story was, ie why was he having  a row in the first place.

I see on the news that Fedex is set to buy out TNT Express for 4.4 bn Euros. That'd going to create a huge player. Wonder how that stacks up against UPS size wise?

With the demise of City Link, tales of woe from Yodel and Royal Mail bouncing back, it looks like the parcel delivery market is having a bit of purge and a spring clean.

Wonder how the likes of some of the other franchise style courier firms are holding up such as APC, Tuffnells and Interlink Express. Must be a lot of owner drivers floating around out there.