Jim's advice is sound. FlickR and PBase are just raping grounds for unscrupulous lowlife designers and marketing agencies. The ones just above amoeba level may even email you and ask if they can use your work for a "credit" which as we all know is worth "jack".

People, if you have anything of any worth on either of these sites you need them prominently watermarked!

If this had happened to me I would do this:

Use the wayback machine to see how long the internet images had been used for:

http://www.archive.org/index.php

Check out the lifestlyle mag back issues and see how many times your image had been used and at what size.

Then.............

Use the Alamy pricing calculator (just register on www.alamy.com then pick any Right-Managed image - marked as "L" and input the details) to price up EACH usage. Thats per image. So for instance, if they ripped and used 5 images for 6 months price up each one as an individual sale.

Next go to http://www.abc.org.uk and find the circulation figures for the particular magazine. Then back to Alamy and price up the usage again as a Rights-Managed image for consumer travel magazines inputting the full-page or half-page usage for Advertising use.

Add it all up but itemise each usage. You'll have one large invoice for them. Need an example invoice?

http://www.ir35calc.co.uk/how_to_prepare_an_invoice.aspx

And make sure you make out a licence for your image uses too:

http://www.the-aop.org/pdfs/forms/licence.pdf

Invoice the company for the total amount with a note that this invoice is for a licence to cover the usage of X images as noted. Make your payment terms 7 days.

UK contract law states that in the event that there is no prior written terms of business 30 days net is the default period. So, if they have not paid after 30 days then you need to start off a small claim.

This is EASY in the UK. Really easy. I've done this so many times its like water off a duck's back. For guidance see here:

http://www.payontime.co.uk/

Remember: you are not "suing for copyright breach" at this stage. That becomes costly because it involves lawyers. You are simply billing for unpaid usage of your coyrighted images.

The way to start is on day 31 to send a Letter Before Action "LBA". This notifies them that they have 7 further days to pay or they face a small claim in the small claims court (UK).

Example LBAs and more good advice can be found at:

http://www.justclaim.co.uk/

or, if you feel like handing this off to a debt collection agency then the best online UK lawyers are:

http://www.thomashiggins.com/

£2.00 for an LBA. 80% success rate. I can vouch for that - I have 100% success with LBAs sent via them.

They handle everything for you and keep you informed. This is not "Crown Court" (if you're old enough to remember that TV show!) this is a really simple process. It was introduced because so many small businesses are shafted regularly by large corporates. This is how we get our revenge.

Finally, $500 is WAY too low for ad use AND internet use. Internet use is surprisingly high - why? because its worldwide!

So.....do something about it. Don't let these thieves (for that's what they are) get away with it. If you do what I've suggested you'll get paid.

Good luck and keep us posted!

PP