Statutory damages for copyright infringement in the US range from $750 to $30,000, and for willful infringement, may go as high as $150,000.

I'm not totally familiar with US law, but if it's anything like Canadian law (as I understand it), asking for payment of a particular amount for your work may limit how much you can sue for, should you find that you need to later on.

If you do that, I almost think you could risk inviting the other part to say, "Okay, sue me then" because they know they'd at worst have to pay what you asked plus court/legal fees. And for that, you're unlikely to find anyone to represent you.

Here, you can make it clear you are making offers "Without Prejudice" by printing those two words at the top of any letters that contain some kind of discussion of settlement/payment. It means the contents of the letter are privileged and cannot be used as evidence in court. I believe it is the same in US courts. In this case, it would mean that asking the other party to pay you, say, $200 for use of your image, would not be used as evidence to prove that your image was valued at, at most, $200.

Disclaimer: I make liberal use of "I think" and "I believe" because I'm not a lawyer and certainly not an expert in US law, so I am just offering my personal interpretion of documents (statutes and judgments) publicly available, and not offering legal advice. :)

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