Getty has also been a major pain in the ass for photographer's selling their work thru their service.
For example, there was a photographer who shot such and such image. A magazine pays for this image for use in their publications.
The photographer being proud that he was yet again published in another magazine decides to scan the page out of the magazine (ie: traditionally known as a 'tear' as we would literally tear the sheet out of the magazine and paste it into our book, or frame it) and post it online as part of his online portfolio.
Well Getty (keeping in mind this is this guy's own image, but sold thru getty to the magazine for their use), sends a letter demanding a takedown and payment from the photographer for unauthorized use of the image because the magazine had not paid for web-use and as such his usage of the scan on the web was copyright infrindgement and so forth. they didn't even bother to talk to the magazine just went straight after their supplier, ie: the photographer, that owned the image.
While it is completely legal to get a magazine, tear the sheet out and put it into a book. The act of scanning and posting online in itself puts a tricky twist to the whole copyright issue especially when it comes to Getty.
Getty also owns istockphoto.com so the same image could appear on both services, so what happens when you purchase the image from istockphoto.com for 5$ but getty claims its the image from the getty account as part of a 500$ CD package. Seems like they're so out-of-sync, and most of the time I don't think they can actually enforce their own claims. And feel they can scare people into settling (Remember the RIAA people, not a single conviction/suit was won in their favor, cuz everyone either ignored their threats or settled).
They don't even pay as good anymore since the surge of microstock sites shot up (great for designers though... provided you don't get accused of infringement, or try to go unique on an ad campaign, like how Met Life and Viagra ended up using the same ad cover one month

cuz they went cheap and paid 5$ for an image on istock).