MicrostockGroup

http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_25551

From Achilles

As you all know, Dreamstime sells content using a large distribution network, additional to our own site.  From time to time, we audit our distribution partners to ensure that everything is going as it should.

Earlier last week, we have decided to remove the access to one of our distributors for a serious infringement of the terms of our contract with that distributor.  More specifically, we discovered that the distributor has been selling some images at a higher price point than agreed with Dreamstime, with the extra amount not being reported by the distributor.  The added amount per image varied from a few percentage points up to several times the acceptable price.  Furthermore, some of the files were duplicated and used, via a caching system, to allow future downloads from new and previous customers, without any payments sent to Dreamstime or its photographers.  Dreamstime considers this to be a serious violation of its contributor’s rights – one which we intend to see remedied by any and all available means.

We have consequently removed their access to all Dreamstime images, and we’re currently preparing a legal action towards this company.  I will not name the company here, due to the nature of the legal process.  Once this process ends, and we recover any royalties due, we will add any additional missing royalties due.

We are making this post to publicly advise our distributors and contributors that we will not tolerate any kind of infringements.  Similarly, we will not quietly end an infringement, endorsing suspected instances of fraud this way.  Strong ethics must prevail and should be the very first thing one analyzes before joining a partnership, no matter its type.

We will keep you posted.

The thing I like about DT is that I can trust that they will pay me my part of that money. A year or so ago, money popped into my account over and over for an entire day. They had done some calculation mistake, and corrected that as soon as they found out. I would never have suspected there were money missing.

Thanks for brining the news here - I hadn't seen it before.

Dreamstime just climbed another rung higher on my 'I like that agency' ladder.

Exactly!  I have to say, I am impressed that Dreamstime keeps tabs on it's partners, is willing to aggressively pursue infringers, and is so open about keeping us informed.  I'm very glad they take their responsibility as our agents so seriously.

Thanks a lot for posting this Nancy

Much appreciated!  Thank you for your diligence.

someone knows what happened in the end?

I wouldn't expect to hear anything for a while.  Takes a while to settle these kinds of cases.