This is pretty scary,

As people in our office are aware coz we’ve been shouting about it, certain stock image libraries are suing left right and centre about images on websites, particularly from sxc. So if you aren’t sure you have the rights for any images on your websites, best make sure you have or remove them before the bots hunt you down and charge you £1500 for a teensy thumbnail. It seems to be a big part of their business model, they buy up image gallerys after people have already used them as well and sue them afterwards.

Here are some forum posts about it.

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=390902

Apparently this one is too.

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=445041&highlight=getty

So be aware.

Apparently its not illegal and they are totally within their rights.