Even doing the right thing — getting images from a variety of stock photo sites — I occasionally get slapped with these copyright violation notices. Most of the time, I can dig through my records, find the image, locate the service from which I’ve downloaded (I’ve used many over the years), and then locate an actual license. Provide the license, and the trolls go away.
Heaven forbid you not be able to provide an actual license for something you legitimately downloaded from a stock photo site. The image above represents the first step of my $400 capitulation, just to make the problem go away.
The catch is that, technically, they’re right. I still consider them trolls, but they’re right. I can’t prove that over a decade ago, I got a license for this image. My inability to do so is what costs me, not my lack of following the rules.
AI images have no such problem. They’re public domain from the start. Steal what I generate, I don’t care.
But this constant trolling to force me to prove that I’m one of the good guys and punishing me when I can’t is just wearing and a very strong disincentive to ever using any stock photography again.