MicrostockGroup

I'm about to join DepositPhotos, the only thing that's telling me to not do that it's the rumor about the connection with a piracy site.
I know there is only one person (or maybe just a little more) complaining about that in a topic, and that complaint it's about one year ago; but it's still bothering me.
What can you say about it? It's DP a safe place or not? 

To be honest I don't know.  Here is the link to the thread where it was all discussed.
http://www.microstockgroup.com/new-sites-general/discussion-for-those-submitting-to-depositphotos/25/
The main things that worry me are the way they seemed to really push their business being based in the US then a bit of searching showed that they actually just have a PO box with an incorporating company in Florida.
It's hard to trust someone when you literally don't know where they are or who they are and they don't seem to want to tell you.

It's also odd the way first time posters seem to appear whenever they are discussed to stand up for them.

In a business where trust is very important it seems to me you need someone to be more open and transparent before you can trust them with your work.

Spooky!   

What I have noticed is that pirates download from sites like SS, IS or PD. Not from DP.

Wouldn't it be good if pirates realized that it's much better to be legal?
If DP is really connected to pirate files, I prefer they succeed in this legal venture instead of failing. Their success can be a way to tell other sites that legal is the way.

One funny thing about pirates and piracy, is that any person, company or country affiliated with such activity does it only until the legal way is more profitable. And this has happened over all history. People disregard IP until they create IP, then they want to protect it. China is the most recent example of this. They are starting right now to create their own brands, their own IP and also starting to hunt down piracy, to protect the new brands and IP.

That said, uploading or not, it's a personal decision.

Is DP still connected to the pirate site?
Anyway, the fact that they hide their physical location it's too suspicious. I think I will not join them.

I have had decent sales and no issues with DepositPhotos.

FWIW, DepositFiles is not necessarily a "pirate" site, it is a file hosting site that specializes in hosting large files. Those files tend to be things like music, movies, software. DepositFiles isn't in the piracy business, but they do enable it.

They aren't going to take your images and give them away in some virtual back alley. They are in the business of selling your images, not pirating them.

As for the "pirates", as fujiko stated, they'll steal your images from where ever you post them.

Whether or not to participate in DP is a decision everyone has to make on their own. There's a clear connection between DepositPhotos and DepositFiles, namely Dmitry Sergeev. No doubt the companies are connected in other ways as well. Nowadays I'm sure that Dimitry and company are trying to keep DP on the up-and-up, maintaining a legitimate business and all. And I'm sure that for everyone involved, it's a legit deal and no reason to suspect otherwise. Aside from hearing about DP stiffing a contracted graphic designer for some completed work, I haven't heard of DP screwing over artists in any way.

For me it's a moral objection. I've had to send DMCA takedown requests to DF in the past to have my stock images removed from their site, and I'm not about to jump in bed with those same folks, even if their new business is 100% clean and legal. And trust me, my moral compass doesn't always point due north (I'm still with istock and vectorstock). But everyone has to draw their own line in the sand somewhere, and DP is where mine is.

I'm not about to help the same folks who profited from enabling the piracy of my work, regardless of the fact that maybe DP itself is a morally upstanding company.

Same owners and swisstock is a photo site, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000082205361  Swisstock Photo Bank – is an international Internet portal, that grants the possibility of demonstration and promotion of creative works as photos, paintings, illustrations etc., made by billions of creative minds.

We all know that threats of punishment don't seem to have much effect on big time pirates, most of whom live in countries where IP rights are weak. Probably in the long run the best way to bring infringers over from the dark side is if they can make more money by selling IP than by stealing it.

Maybe that is what is going on here?

This is a crucial truth which many of us fail to understand. Copyright infringement is not really considered to be 'theft' under the law because there is no 'loss of use'. If you steal my car, I cannot use it; if you copy my image, I still have the image. I have only suffered a loss only if the copier, or someone he give the image to, would have otherwise paid me money to use the image if circumstances were different.

We who make money from royalties only do so because real businesses in 'civilized' countries are afraid to use our intellectual property without paying us for licenses. We will make more money when there are more such businesses in more countries. Piracy may be relatively irrelevant.