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Author Topic: Dreamstime's ridiculous restrictions  (Read 6236 times)

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digitalexpressionimages

« on: April 12, 2011, 07:18 »
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Dreamstime has been going through my portfolio and reversing decisions made on acceptance, having deleted 3 of my images as being too similar.

Now I've been informed by dreamstime that you're not allowed to show Canadian currency in commercial stock photos and so they decided to transfer 4 images that have coins in them from commercial to editorial. I have looked online and can find no restrictions other than photographing Canadian bills flat (the reasoning being that those images could be used for counterfeiting) no such restrictions are in place for coins however and my photos do not show the coins flat anyway.

I'm not going to argue with them as they are not about to change their minds on their absurd interpretation of the law but I wanted to see if anyone has any direct information on this. I found, in my search, hundreds of commercial royalty free photos of Canadian money on bigstockphoto, creatas, istock etc. They don't seem to have a problem with it.


« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2011, 07:28 »
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It's the queen. She's copyrighted. They (Canada) are very strict with her.

« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2011, 07:28 »
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They may ultimately be doing this to protect you as a contributor. And to potentially protect buyers. You should trust them on this since they would not randomly do it just for the fun of it. Therefore they have a reason.

The rules in general with regard to what can and cannot be sold as stock for commercial use are getting tighter (or perhaps becoming more clear would be a better description). All of the sites are tackling this in their own ways. The practicalities of how these things work inevitably mean that content which needs to be pulled does not all get disabled at once.

« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2011, 07:39 »
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digitalexpressionimages

« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2011, 08:03 »
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Did you check out this link?

http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes/legislation/repro.html


yes I did. That pertains to notes not coins since there has never been a case of counterfeit coins because they're much harder to produce. That article also states that the government recognizes the currency is an important symbol of Canada and is therefore acceptable to reproduce for education and. Advertising. There is no mention of the queen in the article and i think it would be hard to claim copyright on a public figure like the queen of England. People put her likeness on everything from coffee mugs to t-shirts for sale, for profit.

digitalexpressionimages

« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2011, 08:05 »
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They may ultimately be doing this to protect you as a contributor. And to potentially protect buyers. You should trust them on this since they would not randomly do it just for the fun of it. Therefore they have a reason.

The rules in general with regard to what can and cannot be sold as stock for commercial use are getting tighter (or perhaps becoming more clear would be a better description). All of the sites are tackling this in their own ways. The practicalities of how these things work inevitably mean that content which needs to be pulled does not all get disabled at once.

I'm not suggesting they're doing it for fun but I am suggesting they have grossly misinterpreted the law and are restricting photos that other agencies allow. It wouldn't be the first poor decision dreamstime's made.

« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2011, 09:04 »
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46 pictures removed due to similar! :P

a few from last week

« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2011, 09:59 »
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I remember posting a notice in this forum several years ago about Canadian coins.  No you can't photograph them.  Can't remember where my source was, but shortly after Shutterstock took down all the Canadian coins.

digitalexpressionimages

« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2011, 11:13 »
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I remember posting a notice in this forum several years ago about Canadian coins.  No you can't photograph them.  Can't remember where my source was, but shortly after Shutterstock took down all the Canadian coins.

I would very much like to see a source then because I see stock photos of coins on a lot of agencies that are not restricted to editorial use. Paper money is also widely available and I don't see where the difference would be. Perhaps if the source was available it would explain. That might make me feel better.

« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2011, 12:11 »
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« Reply #10 on: April 12, 2011, 18:14 »
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Does this help?

http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/about-the-mint/intellectual-property-1800010


That just seems to cover photographs produced by the Mint (produced by RCM employees and of which the RCM owns the rights)...

digitalexpressionimages

« Reply #11 on: April 13, 2011, 07:26 »
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Does this help?

http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/about-the-mint/intellectual-property-1800010


That just seems to cover photographs produced by the Mint (produced by RCM employees and of which the RCM owns the rights)...


You may be right but even so, how can the Canadian Mint claim copyright over coins? The coin itself can't be copyrighted, it's just a piece of metal, only the design on it can be copyrighted and, frankly how can they release something they consider to be intellectual property into the public domain where they distribute it to absolutely everyone,  admit that Canadian currency is a symbol of Canada only to follow it up by saying that they own it and you can't create images of it?

Seems that "law" is only on the books because no one has challenged it yet.


 

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