Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Copyright infringment ''Demand to Pay''

Yes. Based on what you have said their claim seems quite strong. How far they will be willing to pursue it is impossible to say, but based solely upon facts you have provided the law seems to be squarely on their side.

Cease and desist letters are not legally required in most situations, and the fact that you did cease and desist after hearing from the owner doesn't change the fact that you had already made unauthorized use of their image. You are responsible for all of the unauthorized use, not just the part that occurs after the copyright holder complains.

The fact that you didn't know the image was copyrighted really isn't the point. It's your web site, and you don't get off the hook just because you outsourced the task of building it. If the copyright holder actually sues you can cross-claim against the web designer, but the modest size of the claim and the fact that the designer is in another country probably mean this option isn't worth pursuing.

All of this assumes that the demand letter is from the actual copyright holder and that they can prove this to be the case. It is also possible that some language in your agreement with the Web designer would affect my analysis, but this is not likely.

Re: Copyright infringment ''Demand to Pay''

I will concur with Mr. Hoffman's comments. My first question would be what proof does the letter writer have that he or she owns the copyright to the image.