MicrostockGroup

Just have a question, is it legal if people contact you via a microstocksite to send them sample photos via e-mail, and then sell them to them, without involving the microstocksite? Probably it is somewhere written down on the stocksites if it is not leagal, but I do not have the time to go through them right now.. I just received an e-mail from a guy on StockXpert to send him samples.. Maybe someone knows..

Since you have a niche of pinguins (I think) they might be genuine, if that is what they are asking for.  If you have the photos on SP then you should sell via there (ethically at least).

If you are selling other images you have withheld from StockXpert, then that is a different matter.

I assume tehy want to pay more that $5.  I wouldn't be bothered with private sales unless they were paying good $$$.

What did they actually ask for?

I would be very skeptical about this.

The reason I would be skeptical is when StockXPert first started out, there were site mails going around asking for images.  Photographer sent a sample and that was it - image was used without consent.

Let me ask this rhetorical question...if the image is available for sale, and it isn't big enough, then why wouldn't a designer download it at the largest size available and upsize it in Photoshop or through the use of Genuine Fractals?

I would contact StockXpert directly and let them know this is going on - it may be a scam.

I get email requests all the time, from designers/buyers who have seen my work on various microstock sites. It is not difficult to find email addresses via site profiles or by googling my name and finding my private website. Requests vary from designers asking for a particular model in a particular outfit, exclusive deals, super-big images upsized using Genuine Fractals etc...

I have no qualms about dealing with clients privately. Like Quevaal said, we are not married to any site and as long as the dialogue is not going on via sitemail, we are not infringing any T&Cs of any site.