Did you know Fotolia allow buyers to make a derivative of your work you just sold to them? if you dont know what a derivative is...

What is a derivative work?
A derivative work is a work that is based on (derived from) another work; for example a painting based on a photograph, a collage, a musical work based on an existing piece or samples, a screenplay based on a book.

Personally i call that down right theft.

They all allow that, that was thought to be the point of Stock: to provide elements which designers could use to create their products.
Without allowing derivatives, buyers wouldn't even be able to add text/crop.
It's not theft if a buyer plays by the rules.

If you don't like the terms of the contract, you shouldn't have signed up.
If the terms change after you joined, so that you're no longer happy, you can quit.

In case  anyone didn't bother to do their 'due diligence', here is the Download Agreement:
https://www.fotolia.com/Info/Agreements/StandardLicense
and here's the upload agreement:
https://www.fotolia.com/Info/Agreements/Upload

I don't understand the problem. This is why people license your work, to edit and use in their projects. They aren't allowed to license the results through stock sites or anything. Why did you think they were buying licenses?

They need to make derivatives of your work to make them useful. It's whether they can modify and sell it as their own. Selling physical items of the derivative is normally allowed under the terms of an EL, submitting them for electronic sale shouldn't be allowed.

I read the fine print 9 years ago. Age makes you forget, especially when you are more used to dealing with other licences these days. Thanks for the links. We all need a refresher sometimes.
By derivative I dont mean crop a bit, add a bit of text, change the background color, make it black and white, etc.  I mean completely copy the original photography into a differernt medium, weather its a painting, a digital cartoon style.

So reading it again, its not just EL licence that allows this, Standard licence does too.

It's only theft if that derivative is put up for sale somewhere else, or if a buyer claims to be the copyright holder of the derivative work.

But it is perfectly allowed to alter a stock photo, illustration or video for use in another personal or commercial project.