pancakes

MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Author Topic: Discussion for those submitting to Depositphotos  (Read 38472 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

« Reply #25 on: November 18, 2009, 07:57 »
0
Thankyou for helping to provide some clarification.  Some have also mentioned, if you look at the previous posts, that there's documentation on depositphotos that very closely resembles that of Istock's.  Can you comment on this?


RT


« Reply #26 on: November 18, 2009, 08:49 »
0
We also have offices in Russia, Ukraine, London, Cyprus.

Hi,

What's the address and telephone number of your London office?

« Reply #27 on: November 18, 2009, 09:10 »
0
Please feel free to ask any questions
Thanks for the reply. You might consider leaving the passport copy out of the registration requirements, and delay it till the first payout. People might be worried about identity theft with unproven sites.

« Reply #28 on: November 18, 2009, 10:28 »
0
Looks like I just got my payout 4 days from when I requested it.  ;)

« Reply #29 on: November 18, 2009, 10:51 »
0
a stocker cooperating with DepositPhotos should not receive less than he/she receives from the nearest competitor. 



Could you elaborate on that a bit? It reads to me like you want your payouts to be higher than for equal download on competing sites.
If this is true, than given your payout schedule on your site you miss the goal.

The prices are cheap compared to e.g. Istock. Same for the payouts, even if you take higher percentage in account.
Sub commissions are too low compared to e.g. Dreamstime, Shutterstock, Fotolia, 123RF...
EL prices are too low.

It would be nice to have a newcomer not trying to compete on price...

« Reply #30 on: November 18, 2009, 11:01 »
0
.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2009, 11:09 by nicemonkey »

« Reply #31 on: November 18, 2009, 12:00 »
0
Hi DepositPhotos!
Last night, (before reading this thread), I went ahead and registered.
It's fast and the 0.20 cent bonus is great, (thank you!), but this is not where we're heading. As your contributors we wish you well and want you to succeed in the long term. We all know it's not easy.
A few points to make.
The site's web designing is top class. Solid, easy to navigate, fast loading time and pretty to look at. The larger thumbnail view is one of the best I've seen so far.
Images look great and that's very important, well done!

The bad news is the broken English. Fix it as soon as possible or all your beautiful presentation and hard work is worth almost nothing.
Correct the faulty grammar and do not capitalize words mid sentence. It looks amateurish, unprofessional.
Designers are a Picky bunch and this just doesn't feel Right, if you know what I Mean :)
Look at Dreamstime! They're Romanians, my most favourite agency and one of the best in world. It can be done!
Wishing you all the best,
« Last Edit: November 18, 2009, 12:14 by Eireann »

« Reply #32 on: November 18, 2009, 12:01 »
0
Payments are being made and many photographers have already received them. I think it is incorrect to ask questions about micro-payments of the company, which can organize such a project.

In any case the information on the first payments is already available in the net, while full credence to us is the matter of time. We are entering this market honestly and for a long period, and we would like to be clear for our partners. That is why our management has come to the decision to register representatives in outstanding communities of stock photographers and illustrators (which is a rare case, as far as I know). I hope this is for a long time and that from now on we will be able to inform you about our development. 

A passport or any other identification document is obligatory at registration, and this condition should be observed by each author who applies his/her photos for examination. We are not able to change this rule. For the first week we registered about a thousand of photographers who uploaded about two hundred thousand photographs. We do our best to attract high-level professionals.   

In England our office is represented by a law company which conducts the affairs of DepositPhotos. I am able to provide the phone number only by coordination with them in private. If necessary, you may contact us by any convenient way. 
 

Concerning Istock. We consider this resource to be very reliable and respected; in our opinion, it is the lawmaker or even the inventor of the micro stock business model as an Internet service. We have the same business model with several additions and conveniences for our partners. It is hard not be alike using the same structure. However, we copied nothing from IStock for 100%. Let me provide you with an example on the global leaders of the Internet industry (at least it explains the similarity): Google and Yahoo; these are search services which borrowed the best from each other.  Istock and DepositPhotos are services which sell stock photography. We do not copy we take the best and develop it to perfect the business model in general.  Much is ahead, of course. 

KB

« Reply #33 on: November 18, 2009, 13:36 »
0
Concerning Istock. We consider this resource to be very reliable and respected; in our opinion, it is the lawmaker or even the inventor of the micro stock business model as an Internet service. We have the same business model with several additions and conveniences for our partners. It is hard not be alike using the same structure. However, we copied nothing from IStock for 100%. Let me provide you with an example on the global leaders of the Internet industry (at least it explains the similarity): Google and Yahoo; these are search services which borrowed the best from each other.  Istock and DepositPhotos are services which sell stock photography. We do not copy we take the best and develop it to perfect the business model in general.  Much is ahead, of course. 
I appreciate your coming here and discussing these issues with us. I do wish your company well, and hope it can compete successfully in this very crowded field.

But every other new and existing iStock competitor I am aware of managed to create their own photographer's manual without using iStock's as a template. That doesn't make DepositPhotos evil, but it does call into question in my mind your views of intellectual property rights. Though as you said, you did not directly "copy" their work:

==================================================

iStock:

3.0 - Nudity

iStock does accept artistic partial and full nudity stock photography, reserving the right to decline files if the subject and composition is considered pornographic, obscene, or otherwise unsuitable to the iStock collection.

Nudity Filter: Due to request, an "adult content" filter can be activated through your profile to remove potentially offensive images from your search results.

iStock defines adult content as "language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for publishing medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities." This includes patently offensive sexual or excretory references that do not rise to a level of obscenity.

Filter On:

    * Exposed genitalia, pubic hair, female nipples
    * Partially exposed genitalia, pubic hair, female nipples
    * Sexually suggestive and potentially offensive subjects

Filter Off:

    * Underexposed genitalia and nipples
    * Non-sexual partial nudity

Depositphotos
3. Nudity, forbidden subjects

It is forbidden to upload pornographic, racially offensive, provoking international or religious conflicts Images on DepositPhotos.

It is also strictly forbidden to upload nude photos of persons who were under legal adult age at the time of the photography.

We Accept partial and full nudity photography, reserving the right to reject an Image if we considered it obscene or not appropriate for our collection.

Such Images are excluded from the search result by default. In order to view such Images a user has to switch off an Adult filter

Filter On:

    * Underexposed genitalia and breasts;
    * Partly nude subject without pronounced sexuality

Filter Off:

    * Exposed or partly exposed genitalia, female naked breasts;
    * Sexually abusive and provocative Images.

==================================================
As others have said, though, you absolutely need to hire someone NOW to fix the English pages, because some of them border on unintelligible (not to mention just wrong -- why shouldn't a photo of a lake be keyworded with "water"?).

Anyway, congratulations on a successful first week, and I hope you have much more continued success. Good luck!

« Reply #34 on: November 18, 2009, 13:42 »
0
I would be very wary of any stock site that is not physically based in a Western country...a virtual office does not cut it...or a lawyer in London.


RT


« Reply #36 on: November 18, 2009, 14:25 »
0
In England our office is represented by a law company which conducts the affairs of DepositPhotos. I am able to provide the phone number only by coordination with them in private. If necessary, you may contact us by any convenient way. 

So why did you say earlier that you had an office in London when in actual fact you haven't, not everybody is as stupid as you think, "our office is represented by a law company which conducts the affairs of DepositPhotos" - you've paid 150 for a virtual office, one of many that are often run by law firms who forward mail.

Why not be open and honest from the outset, it would give people a bit more faith.

LSD72

  • My Bologna has a first name...
« Reply #37 on: November 18, 2009, 15:07 »
0
Question: Do you accept Raster Illustrations or do you take the same position as Istock and basically only allow Vector Illustrations.

KB

« Reply #38 on: November 18, 2009, 16:24 »
0
I addressed the question to the DepositPhotos office where the design was developed and where layout designers work. I received the following reply: the website was read by our colleagues from the USA and Great Britain, and they do not understand what mistakes are meant. Since I am not able to analyze the whole text adequately by myself  I am asking you to specify the mistakes which discourage you.
There are literally far too many obvious mistakes to try to point them all out. It is the total of all these mistakes that I find discouraging, not any one in particular. I did give a few examples earlier in this thread.

If your colleagues in the US and UK can not find the mistakes, then it seems they also do not speak English as their first or primary language. In my opinion, you need some colleagues in the US and/or UK who speak English as their first language. They will easily be able to find the mistakes, I am sure.

« Reply #39 on: November 18, 2009, 16:37 »
0
I addressed the question to the DepositPhotos office where the design was developed and where layout designers work. I received the following reply: the website was read by our colleagues from the USA and Great Britain, and they do not understand what mistakes are meant. Since I am not able to analyze the whole text adequately by myself  I am asking you to specify the mistakes which discourage you.
There are literally far too many obvious mistakes to try to point them all out. It is the total of all these mistakes that I find discouraging, not any one in particular. I did give a few examples earlier in this thread.

If your colleagues in the US and UK can not find the mistakes, then it seems they also do not speak English as their first or primary language. In my opinion, you need some colleagues in the US and/or UK who speak English as their first language. They will easily be able to find the mistakes, I am sure.

ditto - there are mistakes in virtually every sentence.  I sent you an email just now with some more thoughts.

@ KB - funny - I just sent the email, checked this thread and you wrote almost verbatim what I wrote.  So agreed, it is a problem that really needs to be fixed.

« Reply #40 on: November 18, 2009, 19:16 »
0
One of their group of Russian Americans is Jaroslav74 (Shaker Heihts, United States, presumably Shaker Heights, OH) on DT. Great portfolio! But they'd better come out who really runs the shop and from where, since DT otherwise might ban this contributor. It happened before that DT banned someone that got involved in starting a competing site.

The English spelling/grammar is not that important for contributors but it is for prospective buyers in a saturated market. They might just get a bad impression and move on. If DP can find/pay virtual offices, it wouldn't be too difficult to find a freelance native American English copywriter.

It starts with the front page: "Buy photos easy" is not correct English; it should read: "Buy photos easily".
Two examples of the TOS:
Abuse, threaten, hunt down, affect a goodwill and image or any other any violate data protection rights of the third persons or other users of the Site.
The Site is operated, managed and controlled by DepositPhotos from the Florida, USA.

In general, the site looks great and very well programmed.

About security: their registration page is not https but simply http. Since I'm on public WIFI by antenna in a SE Asian city full of lurkers and hackers, I'm not going to send my personal data over a leaky line by the insecure http protocol.

Good luck!
« Last Edit: November 18, 2009, 20:05 by FD-amateur »

« Reply #41 on: November 19, 2009, 06:04 »
0
Dear Sirs,
I will not explain the situation concerning the addresses of our offices and official representations any longer. This is silly. I am forbidden to do that, since it is not a serious topic for our discussion. I was also asked not to be engaged in empty polemics concerning the project which is now in the process of beta-testing. However, we are very grateful to all those who specified our mistakes on this stage. 

We have nothing to be ashamed of. We have nothing to confess. And there is no one we should make excuses to. If one wishes to visit us physically he/she may do it any time. At the moment our office is not so luxurious, but it is a real office located by the address indicated in our Contacts.  The storey secretary will accompany you to the place where you will be listened and heard. Believe me, there is no need to pretend and make empty statements just for the sake of attracting several photo persons who are not able to analyze the situation and understand that such projects do not appear from scratch. At the moment the things with the project are going quite well. The base is being accumulated. Our hopes for the success are increasing.   

Attention!

We do not force anyone to work with us and we do not ask for trust. It is up to you to decide whether you wish to participate in the project or not. It is your right to earn money or not. Everyone has the right to choose. Forget about us. From our part I can be just grateful to those serious people who have already started the cooperation with us. We will do our best not to let them down. We greatly value the opinion of intelligent and useful persons. 

From this moment all paranoid requests will be ignored by us.


p.s. We accept photographs, vector illustrations, and raster vector illustrations.

RT


« Reply #42 on: November 19, 2009, 06:46 »
0
I will not explain the situation concerning the addresses of our offices and official representations any longer. This is silly. I am forbidden to do that, since it is not a serious topic for our discussion.

...................

From this moment all paranoid requests will be ignored by us.


I think knowing the details of a company is very serious if I'm to do business with them and being told by you that you have an office in London then only to find out that actually you don't is something that concerns me.

I don't think anybody has made any paranoid statements in this thread they're justing asking sensible questions concerning who they might be doing business with, if you choose to ignore those questions then that to me appears suspicious.

YOU need to gain our trust not the other way round, so far you haven't gained mine and I won't be working with you.




« Reply #43 on: November 19, 2009, 08:50 »
0
I will not explain the situation concerning the addresses of our offices and official representations any longer. This is silly.

It's not. You ask people to upload all their personal data plus a passport copy via an insecure http protocol and you keep hidden yourself behind smoke screens and virtual offices.  :)
We have nothing to be ashamed of. We have nothing to confess. And there is no one we should make excuses to. [...] From this moment all paranoid requests will be ignored by us.

Paranoid? your network seems to be a breed of the (in)famous HeroTurko. I did some little research on your network and this is what I came up with.

1 - There is a clear link between depositphotos.com and depositfiles.com.
Not only the name prefix "deposit", but also the less-known registrar Moniker.com, and especially the "offices" in offshore tax and IP heaven Cyprus  where depositphotos.com has "offices" (quote: We also have offices in Russia, Ukraine, London, Cyprus), where the depositphotos.com server is located (Cubestat, Host IP: 78.140.135.60 Site Hosted in: Cyprus) and where the owner of depositfiles.com, Bemrose Tradeinvest LTD  (according to Cubestat: Host IP: 88.85.74.81, Site Hosted in: Cyprus, Owner: BemroseTradeinvestLTD) 54, Eleftherias st Parekklissia Limassol Limassol 4520 Cyprus is located.

2 - Let's now examine where most of the traffic comes from, according to Alexa, on depositfiles.com and on depositphotos.com.
Depositphotos: #  32.3% Russia, # 28.6% Belarus, # 8.5% Ukraine. Not exactly buyer's countries.
Depositfiles: Rank: #  17! in Russia, rank # 20 in Kazakhstan, rank # 24 in Belarus, rank # 27 Ukraine.

3 - So let's have a close look at depositfiles.com, probably the financier (you claimed to have deep pockets) and the programming resource of depositphotos.com.
Quote
According to robtex.com:
www.depositfiles.com ("BemroseTradeinvestLTD") has eight IP numbers , which are the same as for depositfiles.com. Some of them are on the same IP network. [...] www.depositfiles.com is ranked #143 world wide as depositfiles.com Child safety of this site is poor. Trustworthiness, vendor reliability and privacy is unsatisfactory.

Similar: ba-k.com, rom-news.org, letitbit.net, heroturko.com, partypoker.com, easy-share.com, gamebookers.com, sparkstudios.com

4 - Now let's do this interesting Google search: stock photos link:depositfiles.com.
My oh my, loads of links from illegal photo download sites to depositfiles.com. The 3 first:
- Filestube (stolen business photos).
- Funrapid (stolen Amazing Girls photos)
- Art4share.net - It's nice to "share" other people's work, hey?

But let's just have a look at some "shared" Business Ladies at tinydl.com, guys. All with links on depositfiles.com:
http://depositfiles.com/files/z84m712gm
http://depositfiles.com/files/2lnlap8f5

5 - I have downloaded one set as proof: 62MB, 15 stock photos - the 11-th one, business-lady(19) 4800x3504px, downsized by me to 1024 here, and available on Photosearch here for 499$ here at high resolution.

RT was right from the start.

edit: Slight edit by admin to remove racial commentary and borderline libelous statements.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2009, 01:57 by Admin »

« Reply #44 on: November 19, 2009, 09:07 »
0
^^^ Interesting but partypoker.com is one of the biggest poker sites and I haven't seen anyone complaining about them.

« Reply #45 on: November 19, 2009, 09:57 »
0
I didn't follow a lot of what FD is talking about and do not condone all the Name-Calling

I didn't call names. I drew conclusions based on some research. If people can't check links and see the obvious, I rest my case. Sure, partypoker might a legit site, but is Heroturko?

Depositphotos < Depositfiles < stolen photo hosting. It's all over the net. Just click. If you trust an office in tax heaven Cyprus and a virtual office in Florida and a clear connection to an illegal file hoster, I should rest my case.

Let's see what depositfiles.com is "sharing" from ShutterStock to move on. Check this link (Google: shutterstock link:depositfiles.com).
Let's just take one, download4design. But there are sites a galore, "sharing" your SS files for nada, zero, nothing.

Depositfiles = depositphotos, and they can sue me if it's not true.  ;D

And if you still don't believe me, repeat a similar search for Dreamtime. I'm currently downloading some "shared" HQ Dreamstime files from depositfiles.com. Google is yer enemy, Ruskies.  ;D
Subs are a wonderful thing.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2009, 10:47 by FD-amateur »

« Reply #46 on: November 19, 2009, 11:07 »
0

Dear FD-amateur,

I have no wish to start polemics concerning depositfiles.com. I would like to only say that I have already stated everything that you describe now in the negative way. This information is nor concealed by us it is stated as a fact. I do not understand who and in what is right, in your opinion? 

Yes, we do have the office in Cyprus (now it is not an off-shore, but a part of the European Union. It is a pity that today many people do not know geography).

Yes, we do have offices (programmers, administrators, managers) in Russia, Ukraine (programmers, administrators), and in London (lawyers).

We do have the representation office in the USA by the indicated address, and there are real people working there (sales managers and consultants). In this project we work in accordance with the legislation of the USA, under the US jurisdiction, and pay taxes in the USA. 

Yes, among the co-owners of the project there are Russian Americans (besides that, in Russia and European and Asian countries the most talented and cheap employees are concentrated), and we do not consider it to be negative. If you have racial prejudice towards some nations please let us know.

Yes, we are related to depositfiles.com, since the company which owns this project, invested money in us. At the present stage we have no choice. This is very good money.  Let me remind you that any working connection between depositfiles.com and depositphotos.com is impossible. These are absolutely different spheres of the Internet business. 

As far as I know, the files on depositfiles.com and on other file exchange systems are uploaded by the users of the services, but not by their owners. There are norms regulating content circulation in the net (for example, DMCA in the USA). The Rightholder (or his/her representative) has the right to address to the support service with the complaint to delete his/her content. The service works legally and has a great number of users (the third place is occupied by users from the USA and Western Europe) and respected partners. We consider our investors to be serious and respected people. 

If you have or will have the reason to doubt that reliable and honest people related to our project do exist, and if there are or there will be concrete claims I would like to ask you to address us in private. After it we will provide you with the contacts of our lawyers. 

« Reply #47 on: November 19, 2009, 18:09 »
0
FD-Amateur,

thanks for the info you shared. You did a great job tracking down this questionable linkage. I heard enough to wait long before I upload anything there.

On the other hand. Regardless of who these DepositAnything guys are this is rude how you talk about the "Ruskies". Not that I am one of them it just shocks my ear.

« Reply #48 on: November 19, 2009, 19:02 »
0
Companies sometimes choose to set up in Cyprus, because it is still part of the EU, with all its benefits, but has lower taxes and operating expenses than other EU countries.

zymmetricaldotcom

« Reply #49 on: November 19, 2009, 19:08 »
0
Russkies is to my mind like "Canuck" or "Yankee" - a friendly, deferential term. I'd be interested to know if our Russian members thought otherwise - and if so, what is the correct friendly way to play on their nationality - I think most nations generally have a term that is friendly? Aussies, Kiwis, etc.  

Irregardless, FD is an expat and world traveler like many of us - let's not semantics get in the way of the info uncovered. Answers, now- where does an "image agency" get off, being financed from a company that enables image piracy? "At the present stage we have no choice. This is very good money." I bet, congratulations!

There are hundreds of thousands of stock image results, is it expected independent producers or agencies are supposed to access & download from those virus-laden crap sites and file reports for each found image? Are you paying people for the time spent doing this?  
« Last Edit: November 20, 2009, 10:20 by zymmetrical »


 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
7 Replies
4065 Views
Last post May 28, 2007, 20:22
by chellyar
19 Replies
6375 Views
Last post August 15, 2007, 21:39
by Karimala
19 Replies
29104 Views
Last post November 12, 2009, 06:08
by eppic
22 Replies
10595 Views
Last post February 16, 2010, 09:24
by Stu49
11 Replies
3624 Views
Last post October 05, 2011, 08:42
by michealo

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors