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Author Topic: Who has had sales at DepositPhotos?  (Read 79987 times)

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« Reply #200 on: June 13, 2011, 11:51 »
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I guess I'm digging into a hornet's nest here but I did some research on the incorporation of them at
www.sunbiz.org

If you enter the company's name in the documents search you will find documents (public records) that display the name of another company which filed the incorporation.

Most interestingly the filing company was incorporated one day before the agency was incorporated.  ???

A bunch of Greek names pop up. Might be some buddies from Cyprus/Greece simply filing a company in Florida and that's it...

I'm feeling queezy.


« Reply #201 on: June 13, 2011, 12:38 »
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Hi Luis :),
the story, as far as I know, is that Deposit Photos is somehow related to Deposit Files. Deposit Files is a free hosting/sharing site. People upload/download files on their servers, for free. Some of those files are illegal and some might even be stolen photos.
However Deposit Files' management is not breaking any laws.
The service is free and by law they are not required to check the source of every single file uploaded on their servers. In that sense, the site operates a bit like Flickr.
That has nothing at all to do with Deposit Photos, except that they share the same owner (? - possibly).

I understand that some of you might have doubts. Some might even refuse to upload on moral grounds. I respect that; after all, I'm doing it myself. I stopped uploading and deleted my port on IStock for the same reason. Moral grounds.
We see morality in many, many different ways, and that's fine.
In my view Deposit Photos is not to blame for the legality of some of the files uploaded on Deposit Files. And for now at least, they're certainly not stealing my images.

When it comes to Deposit Photos as a microstock agency, this is my experience :
- fast and easy upload
- fast and consistent reviewing (no more than 3 days, no surprise rejections)
- fast and reliable payouts (around 4 days, or faster)
- growing collection (Yuri is there too), stable site
- fair commission and no drama

What about sales?
This is where the good news come.
Deposit Photos is one site that in my case is experiencing a constant growth. Over the past few months, constant, real growth. Yesterday for example, (Sunday), I didn't have any sales at Fotolia, 123, Veer or BigStock. I had one at DepositPhotos. A sub, unfortunately. But I also sold ELs over there.
All in all, I would definitely recommend the site. It's going in the right way. 
But be aware, a lot of the sales (more than half in my case) are subs - 0.30 cent.

Good luck :)

« Reply #202 on: June 13, 2011, 13:08 »
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Hi, I am there since their start, my question is if all this issue continue or ended?

I dont have anything against them, only positive actually.. regarding the comissions I dont agree on some top contributors being already platinium (without reaching it) but the stock industry is obscure and it is like a one to one deal.. :)

they do pay 44% for starters but we mainly have 0.3$ but I do see them increasing, so lets see where they go..

« Reply #203 on: June 13, 2011, 13:22 »
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I started with them 12/2009 too, and have basically starting 02/2010 almost every month increases in sales. Looks like they can stand their position in my Top 6 agencies. I have nothing to complain about them. Fast and easy upload. Fast approval time. Not to many rejections. Excellent for a new site.

m@m

« Reply #204 on: June 13, 2011, 13:28 »
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To each its own...for me is not worth having to worry if my photos are being stolen or not for mostly 0.30 sub downloads... ;)

« Reply #205 on: June 13, 2011, 13:37 »
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To each its own...for me is not worth having to worry if my photos are being stolen or not for mostly 0.30 sub downloads... ;)

thats my question too, I do have big part of my portfolio there.. want answers too

« Reply #206 on: June 13, 2011, 13:39 »
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To each its own...for me is not worth having to worry if my photos are being stolen or not for mostly 0.30 sub downloads... ;)

thats my question too, I do have big part of my portfolio there.. want answers too

I have missed that discussion - what was the issue there?

helix7

« Reply #207 on: June 13, 2011, 13:53 »
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To each its own...for me is not worth having to worry if my photos are being stolen or not for mostly 0.30 sub downloads... ;)

My thoughts exactly. As well as it's not worth having to worry about giving a shady company my personal information. All for a few measly subscription sales? No thanks.

« Reply #208 on: June 13, 2011, 14:05 »
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To each its own...for me is not worth having to worry if my photos are being stolen or not for mostly 0.30 sub downloads... ;)

thats my question too, I do have big part of my portfolio there.. want answers too

I have missed that discussion - what was the issue there?

an old issue about depositphotos and depositfiles, read below

To be fair, I don't know exactly what the connection currently is between DepositPhotos and DepositFiles. But past info suggests a direct connection and some shady efforts to hide the actual location of the company. I struggle with the idea of doing business with a company that is or was in any way connected to another site that enabled the piracy of my work.

What really troubles me is the idea that these two sites could be more connected than we even know about. At the very least we know that they shared a common investor. So it stands to reason that someone profited from DepositFiles (which came before Photos), and then put some of their money into DepositPhotos which was (in part) used for these uploading incentives. In theory, money made from a piracy site could have been used to pay the victims of the piracy to upload their work to the new site. It's just a theory, of course, but not an unreasonable one.

Regardless, I'm not about to support someone who profits from the piracy of my images, even if it's in a roundabout way. On top of that, the company is represented by some extremely shady individuals who openly threatened people in this very forum for uncovering connections to DepositFiles.

So just because Yuri, Lev, Luba and others are on board, and just because the connection to DepositFiles is not as apparent as it was previously, that doesn't make DepositPhotos any more appealing to me now than in the past.

« Reply #209 on: June 13, 2011, 14:39 »
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...
an old issue about depositphotos and depositfiles, read below

To be fair, I don't know exactly what the connection currently is between DepositPhotos and DepositFiles. But past info suggests a direct connection and some shady efforts to hide the actual location of the company. I struggle with the idea of doing business with a company that is or was in any way connected to another site that enabled the piracy of my work.

What really troubles me is the idea that these two sites could be more connected than we even know about. At the very least we know that they shared a common investor. So it stands to reason that someone profited from DepositFiles (which came before Photos), and then put some of their money into DepositPhotos which was (in part) used for these uploading incentives. In theory, money made from a piracy site could have been used to pay the victims of the piracy to upload their work to the new site. It's just a theory, of course, but not an unreasonable one.

Regardless, I'm not about to support someone who profits from the piracy of my images, even if it's in a roundabout way. On top of that, the company is represented by some extremely shady individuals who openly threatened people in this very forum for uncovering connections to DepositFiles.

So just because Yuri, Lev, Luba and others are on board, and just because the connection to DepositFiles is not as apparent as it was previously, that doesn't make DepositPhotos any more appealing to me now than in the past.

I couldn't exactly figure out who this so called "investor" is.

Is there any more information available anywhere?

Are these "just" rumors or has anyone personally spoken to any "culprits"?

I don't have enough information available to claim depositphotos.com to be a shady company.

Where is it stated that there is/might be a direct link to deposit files?

RacePhoto

« Reply #210 on: June 21, 2011, 21:36 »
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To each its own...for me is not worth having to worry if my photos are being stolen or not for mostly 0.30 sub downloads... ;)

My thoughts exactly. As well as it's not worth having to worry about giving a shady company my personal information. All for a few measly subscription sales? No thanks.

Hammer meet Nail. That sealed it for me too, same questions and issues, I won't open an account there.

Quote
I couldn't exactly figure out who this so called "investor" is.

Is there any more information available anywhere?

Are these "just" rumors or has anyone personally spoken to any "culprits"?

I don't have enough information available to claim depositphotos.com to be a shady company.

Where is it stated that there is/might be a direct link to deposit files?

Can't talk to the investor who is a secret, but that's not an issue. Investors can be anyone.

Rumors? Maybe, how do you speak to someone who hides their real location, hides their identity and registered through  an attorney in Florida to conceal their information?

I'm not claiming they are shady, I'm just not happy with a mystery agency, and don't want to give out private information if they won't even step up and give us the truth about who's behind it , where and who's running it?

Ask yourself this, why can't you talk to them or find them? Why are they hiding and trying to be unavailable to answer any of the questions. You take that as a lack of evidence I take it as hiding the truth. :)
« Last Edit: June 21, 2011, 21:48 by RacePhoto »

« Reply #211 on: July 01, 2011, 03:58 »
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Where on the screen do you see the words Cyprus/Greece???  I think the author of this topic represents a competitor of Depositphotos and specifically wanted to be provocative.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2011, 05:01 by igor_kali »

« Reply #212 on: July 01, 2011, 05:19 »
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I think it's too hard to create the whole photo agency only to steal your images. Maybe it is paranoia  ;)
There are many other ways that are much more simple to do that.

But in truth, my portfolio is a small and not very valuable, so I can trust everybody :)

helix7

« Reply #213 on: July 01, 2011, 07:47 »
+1
Where on the screen do you see the words Cyprus/Greece???

The company wasn't incorporated in Florida until after all of these questions about their location came up.

And there were public records of Cyprus connections, including web registry whois info, which, of course, has now also been changed.

I'm curious to know if any actual DP operations are taking place at the Florida office. Anyone in Fort Lauderdale willing to take a drive by and see if there's anything DP-related there?

« Reply #214 on: July 01, 2011, 08:18 »
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Effective Date of registration is 10/01/2009.
Site was started in 09/11/2009!!! - after 10 months from registration date.

Registration information - is official documentation and could not be changed.

In Fort Lauderdale by this address placed very big office buiding with many offices. It is absolutely normal.

helix7

« Reply #215 on: July 01, 2011, 09:05 »
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Nice selective cropping in that record you posted. I searched the same record, and scrolling a little further down the page it shows the address of the Director being in Cyprus.

It also shows the Cyprus address in the annual reports for Officers and Directors.

It looks like the actual operations of this company are not in Florida.

The mystery continues...
« Last Edit: July 01, 2011, 09:07 by helix7 »

« Reply #216 on: July 01, 2011, 09:18 »
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Oops. I really do not seen this. My mistake.
But this address is Director, maybe this is personal home address. But not company.

helix7

« Reply #217 on: July 01, 2011, 09:29 »
+1
Here's another interesting bit: http://comercioo.com/prueba-de-pago-depositfiles

Roughly translated, "Our reader Dixson has already received a payment from DepositFiles, payments are on behalf of Dmitry Sergeev."

Dmitry is the officer listed in the DepositPhotos documents. So we're supposed to believe that DepositFiles and DepositPhotos aren't connected, and yet here's some incriminating evidence (with a screenshot btw) showing a direct connection between the 2 companies.

Also, a search for the email address listed in that PayPal transaction results in this: http://halileo.com.w3spy.net Halileo.com is the company the payment came from, and the website hosting location is listed as (you guessed it) Limassol Cyprus, the same town good old Dmitry is located in.

Coincidence?

If you're comfortable working with DP, good for you and best of luck. For me personally, in just doing a few quick searches I've found more than enough info to cause some concern. On top of the info that's been discussed regularly in this forum, the past responses from DP representatives and threats they made to anyone exposing information about the connection to DepositFiles, it's all just too much.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2011, 09:33 by helix7 »

« Reply #218 on: July 01, 2011, 09:33 »
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Maybe this is the big investor?

helix7

« Reply #219 on: July 01, 2011, 09:34 »
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Maybe this is the big investor?

Maybe. Dmitry's name seems to be connected with a few other companies as well. If he's not the investor, he might just be the entrepreneur that gets these companies going.

« Reply #220 on: July 01, 2011, 09:39 »
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Sorry, I'm quite a newcomer here - well, you have some connection between two companies. And?..

What are you afraid of?  Your personal information being stolen? - come on! In a world where everyone uses Facebook, Twitter, smartfones letting know where you were and what you purchased... There are lots of more easy ways to stole your personal information, there is no need to create such a big site (just count how much it cost - just to pay programmers, admins, managers...), keep it working for almost two years, pay for the images sold...

Well, if you don't want to create your account here - don't do this, that's all. I don't have a feeling they are going to say "bye-bye, we won't work any more" (as some _other_ stock sites did)...

« Reply #221 on: July 01, 2011, 09:41 »
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Maybe this is investor. Maybe this is owner. I think, that if the company works very well and have a big investments - this is very good. Owner can be from any country, but for us, I think, level of sales - is most important.

« Reply #222 on: July 01, 2011, 09:43 »
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Guys, you're looking just like detectives.  :D

If to take a look at the votes on the right they're getting higher while others are slowing their sales. What's the reason in your oppition?

helix7

« Reply #223 on: July 01, 2011, 09:45 »
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(Double post.. oops.)
« Last Edit: July 01, 2011, 09:49 by helix7 »

helix7

« Reply #224 on: July 01, 2011, 09:47 »
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Sorry, I'm quite a newcomer here - well, you have some connection between two companies. And?..

What are you afraid of?  Your personal information being stolen?...

It's a personal decision. I don't want to do business with a company that has obvious ties to a piracy site, especially a site that at one time illegally hosted my files and the files of many other microstock folks, and still does today. Not too long ago I was sending requests to DepositFiles and a few other file sharing site to have my images removed from their servers. I'm not about to ignore that fact and get on board with DP. They may be a totally legit company now, but there's history there that I can't ignore.

It sounds like a lot of folks around here are fine with all of this. I'm not. That's all. And I'll leave it at that. I don't think it's debatable that there's a connection between these companies. If you're comfortable working with DP in spite of that, good for you. It just doesn't sit well with me, so I'm not about to sign up.


 

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