I took the image down straight away. I have no problem with that. It's the charging of £350 that bothers me.

Thanks. That's reassuring.The image on his site is watermarked, and has his data in the metatext. The version I got had been orphaned by The Mail. My plan is to ignore him, yes. Saturday is the end of his 'agree to pay me in 7 days or else I go to court' period. I'm waiting to see what he does when i don't agree.In retrospect, your advice about not responding and just taking it down is excellent. We live and learn.TB

Thanks guys. The pic is definitely his - I went and had a search. I also discovered that the place I got it from was The Daily Mail, who were using it in an article without crediting him. I suggested he go after them insted. He was most outraged at this, telling me it was none of my business.

Hello everyone. I'm new here. A fine fellow over at Gallifrey Base pointed me this way, for I have a problem, and he thought some of the good people here might be able to help. I run a blog which is a just-for-fun, non-profit thing. I ramble on and say things that may or may not be amusing. In among the writing I include the odd picture, gleaned from google image searches to reflect the subject matter. A few days ago a photgrapher got in touch. I had inadvertantly used one of his images, and he was displeased. Fair enough, I thought, should have asked. I apologised and instantly took the image down. Not good enough, apparently. He wanted paying for my use of the image. I suggested that this was unnecessary - I make no money from the blog, and he was uncredited on the page I got the image from. He would not budge on the issue. I had a look on a site which hosts his images, which gives prices for the use of his images. The one I had used would cost about £38. I offered to pay £50, to cover this and make some kind of apology. He wants £350. I've asked why this is the case, but he has not been forthcoming, and is threatening legal action. I'm not sure what to do. Part of me thinks, fair enough, I should have tried to get in touch with him, and copyright is essentially a good thing that protects artists, so I should just pay up and chalk it up to experience. Another part of me think that, once I've apologised, taken the image down and offered to pay him the standard amount, he should be satisfied. It looks a lot like he's trying to wring as much out of this as he can. I should say that I did not copy and paste the image. Rather, I hotlinked from within the HTML of the blog. As things stand, he has given me seven days to agree to pay the £350. The last communication was from me, asking him to justify the large fee. He has not yet done so. Any help or advice gratefully accepted. Thanks in advance TB