MicrostockGroup

Microstock Photography Forum - General => Image Sleuth => Topic started by: Artist on March 16, 2017, 02:56

Title: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Artist on March 16, 2017, 02:56
Re-selling images is not allowed in any license but this user is selling and is a level 2 seller.

https://www.fiverr.com/mehdycr/give-you-20-shutterstock-image-of-your-choice (https://www.fiverr.com/mehdycr/give-you-20-shutterstock-image-of-your-choice)
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: sharpshot on March 16, 2017, 04:05
Have you asked shutterstock if they know about this?
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on March 16, 2017, 04:13
Not really gray, more black. People on Fiverr have been pulling this s*it for years and Fiverr doesn't care.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Artist on March 16, 2017, 04:19
Not really gray, more black. People on Fiverr have been pulling this s*it for years and Fiverr doesn't care.

yes, fiverr doesn't care, its on their forum and they are aware of it and I am sure shutterstock too know of it.
https://forum.fiverr.com/t/royalty-free-stock-photos-from-shutterstock-etc-being-sold-on-fiverr
https://forum.fiverr.com/t/warning-about-stock-photos-sold-on-fiverr/23368
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: ShadySue on March 16, 2017, 04:21
Not really gray, more black. People on Fiverr have been pulling this s*it for years and Fiverr doesn't care.
And strangely, the agencies don't seem to be much bothered either (see previous threads here). Contact SS anyway.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Steveball on March 16, 2017, 04:35
Awful site that encourages theft on a large scale. All we can do is report them and hope something gets done (unlikely). Just left him a message saying what he's doing is theft and encourage everyone to do the same.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: CrFx on March 16, 2017, 05:01
I did a quick search and found many such gigs, the whole website is flooded with same, awful

https://www.fiverr.com/maverick2k/provide-3-images-from-fotolia-on-your-links (https://www.fiverr.com/maverick2k/provide-3-images-from-fotolia-on-your-links)
https://www.fiverr.com/jjhiggins7/provide-a-hi-res-fotolia-image-or-vector-9ff6bed8-d999-4af5-92dc-3e63305e09b7 (https://www.fiverr.com/jjhiggins7/provide-a-hi-res-fotolia-image-or-vector-9ff6bed8-d999-4af5-92dc-3e63305e09b7)
https://www.fiverr.com/dariya007/provide-50-000-licensed-and-royalty-free-high-definition-images (https://www.fiverr.com/dariya007/provide-50-000-licensed-and-royalty-free-high-definition-images)
https://www.fiverr.com/domaincom/give-high-quality-royalty-free-png-images-and-30-000-stock-photos (https://www.fiverr.com/domaincom/give-high-quality-royalty-free-png-images-and-30-000-stock-photos)
https://www.fiverr.com/graphic639/provide-30-000-plus-fresh-high-quality-royalty-free-stock-images (https://www.fiverr.com/graphic639/provide-30-000-plus-fresh-high-quality-royalty-free-stock-images)
https://www.fiverr.com/bulldogsrule66/give-you-2000-royalty-free-images (https://www.fiverr.com/bulldogsrule66/give-you-2000-royalty-free-images)
https://www.fiverr.com/vladeosipovich/send-you-3700-royalty-free-images (https://www.fiverr.com/vladeosipovich/send-you-3700-royalty-free-images)
https://www.fiverr.com/terry_oi/show-you-the-best-free-site-to-find-royalty-free-images (https://www.fiverr.com/terry_oi/show-you-the-best-free-site-to-find-royalty-free-images)
https://www.fiverr.com/seocontent88/25-royalty-free-stock-photos-stock-images-vectors-on-any-subjects-e4b43413-f5da-4b65-8621-3e8881ba32f1 (https://www.fiverr.com/seocontent88/25-royalty-free-stock-photos-stock-images-vectors-on-any-subjects-e4b43413-f5da-4b65-8621-3e8881ba32f1)
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: outoftheblue on March 16, 2017, 05:22
Not really gray, more black. People on Fiverr have been pulling this s*it for years and Fiverr doesn't care.
And strangely, the agencies don't seem to be much bothered either (see previous threads here). Contact SS anyway.

I'm afraid the agencies' point of view is this: grab as much as they can (from us and from honest buyers) with the least possible effort, and consider cases like this as acceptable loss.

Not that I agree, but it could make sense financially for them.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Steveball on March 16, 2017, 06:14
Just had a few messages from him:

mehdycr: "Thanks for your advice , but i don't steal anything , i remove the watermark like any other service on fiverr .. "

Me: Removing the watermark means you haven't paid for the photos. You are making money off people like me who create the photos to sell on Shutterstock. Because fiverr can't be bothered to police things like this means you get away with it. Reported to Shutterstock.

so , should i stop this service ?

Yes you should stop and everyone who does this should stop but many probably wont because it's easy money. Doing graphics work for people is ok if it's your own work. I'm a graphic designer and wouldn't touch Fiverr because the so called clients want stuff for very little money. The last logo I did I charged £400, not £5! The client was happy. Value your work and don't support shite sites like Fiverr. Good luck.

yes i agree with you , i work a lot of time for just 5$ , but there's no alternative , !

There are alternatives, contact local print shops, design companies etc offering to do freelance work. You'll make a lot more money than on Fiverr. Back to work now, hope it works out, seriously. It's tough to make money in graphics these days (been doing it 40 years), partly because of sites like Fiverr offering cheap work lowering prices for everyone.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on March 16, 2017, 08:20
Do a search here and you'll see how long this theft has been going on. For whatever reason (I suspect that it costs money to pursue these folks) SS hasn't done anything/much
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: niktol on March 16, 2017, 10:07

And strangely, the agencies don't seem to be much bothered either (see previous threads here). Contact SS anyway.

I don't know if they are bothered or not, but it's a fairly clever way to do those "gigs". The actual pics aren't shown, can't pop up in searches, the perp can always say he's selling his own stuff, and I doubt it's economically viable to go after each one of them with a mystery shopper.  It's like "war on drugs", can't be solved by chasing every street corner peddler. The only way to go is to "educate" buyers by instilling fear (real or imaginary) of possible repercussions.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Artist on March 16, 2017, 11:29
Just had a few messages from him:

mehdycr: "Thanks for your advice , but i don't steal anything , i remove the watermark like any other service on fiverr .. "

Me: Removing the watermark means you haven't paid for the photos. You are making money off people like me who create the photos to sell on Shutterstock. Because fiverr can't be bothered to police things like this means you get away with it. Reported to Shutterstock.

so , should i stop this service ?

Yes you should stop and everyone who does this should stop but many probably wont because it's easy money. Doing graphics work for people is ok if it's your own work. I'm a graphic designer and wouldn't touch Fiverr because the so called clients want stuff for very little money. The last logo I did I charged £400, not £5! The client was happy. Value your work and don't support shite sites like Fiverr. Good luck.

yes i agree with you , i work a lot of time for just 5$ , but there's no alternative , !

There are alternatives, contact local print shops, design companies etc offering to do freelance work. You'll make a lot more money than on Fiverr. Back to work now, hope it works out, seriously. It's tough to make money in graphics these days (been doing it 40 years), partly because of sites like Fiverr offering cheap work lowering prices for everyone.

You did it right from your side, but I am sure the accuser is very much aware of all the licensing, its only he is trying to be innocent.
I still want that agencies should take a proper action.

There should be a microstock union who listens to contributors, buyers and the agencies.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: DallasP on March 16, 2017, 15:58
Just had a few messages from him:

mehdycr: "Thanks for your advice , but i don't steal anything , i remove the watermark like any other service on fiverr .. "

Me: Removing the watermark means you haven't paid for the photos. You are making money off people like me who create the photos to sell on Shutterstock. Because fiverr can't be bothered to police things like this means you get away with it. Reported to Shutterstock.

so , should i stop this service ?

Yes you should stop and everyone who does this should stop but many probably wont because it's easy money. Doing graphics work for people is ok if it's your own work. I'm a graphic designer and wouldn't touch Fiverr because the so called clients want stuff for very little money. The last logo I did I charged £400, not £5! The client was happy. Value your work and don't support shite sites like Fiverr. Good luck.

yes i agree with you , i work a lot of time for just 5$ , but there's no alternative , !

There are alternatives, contact local print shops, design companies etc offering to do freelance work. You'll make a lot more money than on Fiverr. Back to work now, hope it works out, seriously. It's tough to make money in graphics these days (been doing it 40 years), partly because of sites like Fiverr offering cheap work lowering prices for everyone.


You did it right from your side, but I am sure the accuser is very much aware of all the licensing, its only he is trying to be innocent.
I still want that agencies should take a proper action.

There should be a microstock union who listens to contributors, buyers and the agencies.


Uhm. Fiverr is actually one of the only places that does care. I reported this once and they contacted me back within only an hour or so that they had contacted the person.

That said, sometimes I'll run into clients that want you to buy an image for whatever we're working on (my australian friend comes to mind) and that certainly is within TOS, so I'd imagine technically, if this loser was in fact buying the images and delivering them to the client ... that would be also? Not sure.

I posted about it the day I reported the last one. They were very prompt, it'd be a pain to go through and report all of them that have it listed as a service though. http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/someone-should-do-something/msg454517/#msg454517 (http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/someone-should-do-something/msg454517/#msg454517)
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on March 16, 2017, 19:37
If Fiverr cared about anything but getting their cut of the gross, the huge pile of gigs offering stolen stock images would have been long gone. They could police it but they choose not to and hide behind the policy saying "don't do that".

They could be a decent marketplace, but they've been told over and over about this problem and the best they can do is remove one or two gigs if pushed.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/image-sleuth/fiverr/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/image-sleuth/fiverr/)

http://www.microstockgroup.com/image-sleuth/shutterstock-images-for-sale/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/image-sleuth/shutterstock-images-for-sale/)

http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/fiverrgetty/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/fiverrgetty/)

Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Ides on March 16, 2017, 22:42
Just had a few messages from him:

mehdycr: "Thanks for your advice , but i don't steal anything , i remove the watermark like any other service on fiverr .. "

Me: Removing the watermark means you haven't paid for the photos. You are making money off people like me who create the photos to sell on Shutterstock. Because fiverr can't be bothered to police things like this means you get away with it. Reported to Shutterstock.

so , should i stop this service ?

Yes you should stop and everyone who does this should stop but many probably wont because it's easy money. Doing graphics work for people is ok if it's your own work. I'm a graphic designer and wouldn't touch Fiverr because the so called clients want stuff for very little money. The last logo I did I charged £400, not £5! The client was happy. Value your work and don't support shite sites like Fiverr. Good luck.

yes i agree with you , i work a lot of time for just 5$ , but there's no alternative , !

There are alternatives, contact local print shops, design companies etc offering to do freelance work. You'll make a lot more money than on Fiverr. Back to work now, hope it works out, seriously. It's tough to make money in graphics these days (been doing it 40 years), partly because of sites like Fiverr offering cheap work lowering prices for everyone.

I had never heard of this site. I can not believe it. It's disheartening to work from years to years to make 1000 to 2000 images. Suddenly someone comes out of nowhere and starts selling his work without the slightest concern. I just can not believe it.

We have to put up with the bad payment by the agencies and now this. It really is disheartening to go on.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: Brasilnut on March 17, 2017, 03:58
That's disgusting (assuming it's not their own pics).

Any merits in licensing your own non-premium RF images on fiverr? Let's say 10 RF images for $5, similar price to the subs at 50c/image.

Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: sharpshot on March 17, 2017, 05:33
The search engines should remove sites like fiverr until they comply with copyright laws.
Title: Re: Fiverr, the another gray market
Post by: outoftheblue on March 17, 2017, 08:10
The search engines should remove sites like fiverr until they comply with copyright laws.

Problem is some search engines should remove themselves until they comply.
DMCA puts too much of a burden on copyright holders.