If you've received a demand letter from Getty Images, Shutterstock or a law firm acting for a photographer, don't ignore it, and don't pay straight away either. First check who sent it, whether they own the image and whether you already hold a license. Then decide whether to pay, negotiate or get legal advice.

This happens more often than you'd think, and you have options. Let's walk through it. (This is general information, not legal advice.)

What's Actually Going On

Stock agencies, photographers, and the enforcement firms that act for them track down unlicensed use of images on the web. When they spot one on your site, they send a demand letter asking for a retroactive license fee, sometimes with extra charges on top.

There's no standard price. The amount depends on who sent the letter, the image, and how and for how long it was used. Keep in mind that a demand letter is a settlement request, not a court judgment. If you want to know what a US court could actually award, read how statutory damages work.

These amounts are often negotiable. But ignoring them? That's not a great strategy.

How Did They Find You?

Agencies and enforcement firms use some pretty sophisticated tech to find unlicensed images:

Web crawlers that systematically scan websites looking for image matches
Perceptual hashing and other visual fingerprints that can often identify images even after they've been resized, recompressed, or lightly edited
Watermarks, mostly the visible kind on preview images. Some images also carry invisible marks, but enforcement mainly relies on visual fingerprinting
EXIF metadata that identifies the source and the copyright holder
AI powered detection that understands the actual content of images

So if someone on your team downloaded a "free" image from a shady website, or if a contractor used a stock preview without buying the license, those are exactly the images these systems are built to find.

What You Can Do About It

Pay the Amount They're Asking

The simplest path. Pay it, remove the image, and move on with your life.

This makes sense when the amount is relatively small, you clearly used the image without a license, and you don't want the headache of going back and forth.

Negotiate

That first number in the demand letter? It's an opening offer, not a final verdict. You can absolutely push back:

Respond professionally and acknowledge the situation
Explain how it happened (a freelancer uploaded it, you didn't realize, etc.)
Offer to buy a retroactive license at the normal licensing rate
Propose a settlement number that feels more reasonable

One important thing: be careful what you put in writing. Describe how the image got onto your site factually, and don't describe the use as deliberate. In the US, a court can reduce statutory damages for an infringer who wasn't aware, and had no reason to believe, that the use was infringing (17 U.S.C. 504(c)(2)), but not knowing doesn't remove liability. For bigger claims, get a lawyer involved before you respond.

Verify the Claim First

Not every demand letter is legit. Before you pay anything:

Is the sender real? Confirm it's actually coming from Getty/Shutterstock and not a scam
Do they own it? Make sure they actually hold the copyright on the specific image
Check your own records. Did someone on your team actually buy a license that covers this use?
Look at the timing. Some claims get sent after the copyright has expired or been transferred

Get a Lawyer

For larger claims, or anything that comes from an actual law firm, it's worth talking to an IP attorney. They can tell you whether the claim holds water, negotiate a better deal, spot potential defenses (in the US, fair use is one), and keep you from accidentally saying something that makes things worse.

How to Make Sure This Doesn't Happen Again

Audit What You've Got

Go through your website and check the source and license for each image. Yes, it's tedious. That's why automated tools exist.

PixGuard can help with the first pass. You can run a free check on one page: enter a page URL and we check the 3 largest images on that page, up to 3 times a day. Uploads and 30 image scans need a free account. With an account, a website scan follows links across up to 50 pages and flags images with copyright risk signals, such as copyright fields in the metadata, visible stock-agency watermarks, and matches against a database of reference image fingerprints.

Set Up an Image Policy

Make it crystal clear for everyone who touches your website:

All images must be properly licensed. No exceptions.
Keep every receipt. Save license confirmations and match them to file names.
Use a shared asset library. Know exactly what's licensed and what it's licensed for.
Never just grab something from Google without checking the license first.

Use Sources You Can Trust

Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay offer free images with permissive licenses (but always double check individual image terms)
Creative Commons is free with attribution requirements
Getty, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock cost money, and the license covers you as long as you stay within its terms
Your own photos are usually the safest bet

Scan on a Regular Schedule

Your website isn't static. Team members add new images. Seasonal campaigns bring fresh content. CMS plugins pull in images from who knows where. A scan that found nothing worth investigating six months ago might tell a different story today.

Set a monthly or quarterly scan so new images get checked too.

The Real Cost of "Free" Images

Where You Got It	Upfront Cost	Risk Level
Licensed stock photo	License fee	Low, if you stay within the license terms
Creative Commons (with proper credit)	Free	Very low
Your own photography	Time and equipment	Very low
"Free download" site	Free	High
Google Images (no license check)	Free	Very high
Preview image with watermark removed	Free	Extremely high

If a claim does go to court, the numbers can get large. In the US, statutory damages under 17 U.S.C. 504(c) range from $750 to $30,000 per work, up to $150,000 for willful infringement, and are available only for works registered in time (17 U.S.C. 412). Intentionally removing a watermark that identifies the owner can add separate liability under 17 U.S.C. 1202, if it's done knowing it will help hide an infringement.

A stock photo license usually costs far less than settling a demand letter. The math really isn't complicated.

Quick Summary

Don't panic. A demand letter is a business process, not a lawsuit (at least not yet).
Don't ignore it. Pretending it doesn't exist usually makes things escalate.
Take the image down immediately. It shows good faith.
Verify before you pay. Make sure the claim is actually legit.
Prevent future problems. Audit your site, create clear policies, and scan regularly.
Get legal help for big claims. Large claims, or any letter from a law firm, deserve professional advice.

Be proactive about it. Start a website image audit with a free account to find images with copyright risk signals: 30 image scans, valid for 30 days, no credit card required.