Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia

I helped design a website for a company that has now been approached by Masterfile claiming copyright infringement for three instances of an image reachable by 3 separate domain names -- though they all point to the same image at the same site. The domain names they site for each instance are not owned by us or the company, and are in fact registered by some person in another state and were pointed for a time to this company site without our knowledge. Masterfile has not presented a claim of copyright infringement for use of the image on their actual domain name, only on the three listed domain names owned by someone else who pointed to the site.

Masterfile stated that the company was contacted with the bill for image use because their name and contact info was located on the same site as the image, but no attempt to contact the actual owner of the domains has been made by them. It is my understanding that the owner of the domain should be responsible, and that the company should not pay these copyright infrigement bills as they are, because even then they have no protection should Masterfile later present them with a bill for usage on their actual domain. I have suggested to the company that a) they urge Masterfile to contact the domain owner regarding those 3 bills or to b) offer Masterfile a settlement for image usage, provided they get documentation that the payment is for the single usage on their actual domain.

Although the Masterfile collection agency has sent specific notices to the company that they will not hold any 3rd party responsible for the image use violation, such as the designer of the website, making clear that the business owner as owner of the domain name is ultimately responsible, the company is pushing me to get a lawyer to settle the matter on their behalf.

I do not believe I have any legal obligation to do this, and furthermore don't feel the Company would have any recourse to seek reimbursement or damages from me if they do pay the bills, considering they are 3 instances based on 3 domain names owned by someone else entirely.

Advice? Who is responsible here, and what should I or the company do here versus Masterfile?

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