Copyright Aid

Hello everyone,
We contracted a web-studio to design our web-site. We have accepted their work and paid them money few months ago. Yesterday, we received a claim, that two of the images on our web-site are copyright protected and we have to pay money to the copyright owner.
We had no idea that those images were copyright protected. Web-studio said it was royalty-free images, but now it is obvious that they were not.
We have removed the images in question from our site, but what should we do with copyright owner’s invoice: shall we pay it or address it to the web-studio who put it on our website?
Many thanks in advance

If you have not made any money directly from the images and have removed the images there is probably little point to the copyright owner coming after you further given that you are also a victim of the web studio's actions, though they may still try to pursue you for the invoice amount.

I have assumed for the rest of this reply that you have NOT made money directly from the images (i.e. you haven't been selling copies/prints of the images).

Firstly, if you have not already done so, contact the copyright owner and explain the situation. State that you were told the images were royalty free by the web-studio and that you acted in good faith, and that you have now removed the images.

I think it is important for you to have a dialog with the copyright owner as soon as possible and make sure that they are clear that you were an innocent party in all this and that you remedied the situation a soon as you were notified.

If it was me, I would give the copyright owner the name and contact details of the web-studio, and also forward the invoice (keep a copy yourself though) to the web-studio with a letter of complaint.

Keep a copy of all correspondence, (both with the copyright owner and with the web studio), and if you speak to anyone by phone, follow it up with a letter/email confirming what was discussed so there is a record of the conversation taking place.
Also see if you have anything in writing from the web studio that states that all the images they provided are royalty free.