Just to keep you all up to date:

My account (which was blocked for 8 days) was reactivated late last Thursday evening - 19 images were removed that contained an illegal term/trademark - Thanks again for helping me out here @Mat/Adobe.

Since the account has been reactivated, I have noticed a massive drop in downloads - from an average of 23 per working day (yes, that's not soooo many for some of you) to now 8 per working day on average, a drop to about 35%.

Almost all my images that were doing well before the account are now not selling at all - only one image from my Top20 list had two sales today.

The question I'm asking myself now is: Will the account block also expose you to further mechanisms afterwards that will throw you completely back to the end of the queue (or close to it) in the ranking?
Because before the 8-day block, the account was doing increasingly better.

deleted

A has gone crazy. I had image not accepted with Non-compliant Image reason. Picture was of a flower growing in field with Latin name. I guess it is also copyrighted .

A has gone crazy. I had image not accepted with Non-compliant Image reason. Picture was of a flower growing in field with Latin name. I guess it is also copyrighted .

Was it a rose?

No.  It was some sort of thistle.

Okay. In that case I can�t understand why you had troubles!

I have an update - my account was unblocked yesterday, which is great, of course.
Unfortunately I got no letter of any kind notifying about it and, most importantly, providing the actual reasons behind the 3-week block, besides one generic response about it being related to AI copyright infringement. I can't seem to find if any images were deleted from the portfolio.

I have an update - my account was unblocked yesterday, which is great, of course.
Unfortunately I got no letter of any kind notifying about it and, most importantly, providing the actual reasons behind the 3-week block, besides one generic response about it being related to AI copyright infringement. I can't seem to find if any images were deleted from the portfolio.

Glad to see that you are freed from the block, but IMO it is absolutely imperative that you get details on (a) what the suspicion was; (b) how many images were affected; (c) what action, if any, was taken. If the answer is that no action was taken, then (d) there should be a sincere apology. Adobe Stock should remember that 3 weeks of earnings could be several hundred dollars - this is bad in all circumstances, but unconscionable if it was all a "mistake".

Given how broken this process appears to be, it really does bear repeating that a better response would be to suspend upload privileges and leave all images in the portfolio live except for the "suspect" ones (which could be rejected temporarily if the software team can't figure out a quick way to render them offline).

This is people's livelihood in many cases. This is a serious issue for contributors. Adobe Stock needs to improve this process, especially for established contributors who've been with them for (let's say) more than one year.

3 week block could be several thousand dollars. But in any case it is nearly one month income missing.

If there really was NOTHING wrong with the port, then Adobe should seriously consider compensation. Because then it must have been their algos that made a very serious mistake.

This is the most important buying season. You don't just lose the sales you also lose on the lightboxing of your files for future sales.

I am amazed that Adobe is not understanding that stock is not a hobby for the producers but actually their main income. At least for the old timers who have been uploading for years.

There must be a different way to handle this problem.

example:

- Notify the contributor that their account is under investigation. Give them a case number and communication place to ask questions.

- Give them a time frame estimate when a human will look into the problem.

- Until them let them access their account, their money and also give them the ability to delete files themselves.

- After the process is complete give them a real report what happened, what the problem was and how it was resolved.

Well said and a really good idea. It deserves a thread of its own to be honest with maybe input from Mat. As he's the face of contributor support and has always been really helpful with problems in the past, it maybe something he can feedback on.

At the same time, while the system needs to protect contributors from errors etc, it does need to punish serial offenders so I understand and appreciate Adobes efforts, it just feels like it is a little out of balance at the moment but with a few tweaks it may offer the right balance of protection for both the agency and contributor while not providing a free ticket to deliberate rule breakers.

@Konstantin:
I'm very pleased to hear that your account has been unblocked again.
I know from my own experience how unsettling such an account block can be, so it's very good that it's now active again :-)

Good sales to you!

Thank you Michael!
How are your sales, did they pick up to their prior levels?
Do you submit new AI stuff after all this? I feel uneasy about contributing anything AI now 

Quote from: Konstantin Sutyagin on September 13, 2023, 12:51

I have an update - my account was unblocked yesterday, which is great, of course.
Unfortunately I got no letter of any kind notifying about it and, most importantly, providing the actual reasons behind the 3-week block, besides one generic response about it being related to AI copyright infringement. I can't seem to find if any images were deleted from the portfolio.

Glad to see that you are freed from the block, but IMO it is absolutely imperative that you get details on (a) what the suspicion was; (b) how many images were affected; (c) what action, if any, was taken. If the answer is that no action was taken, then (d) there should be a sincere apology. Adobe Stock should remember that 3 weeks of earnings could be several hundred dollars - this is bad in all circumstances, but unconscionable if it was all a "mistake".

Given how broken this process appears to be, it really does bear repeating that a better response would be to suspend upload privileges and leave all images in the portfolio live except for the "suspect" ones (which could be rejected temporarily if the software team can't figure out a quick way to render them offline).

This is people's livelihood in many cases. This is a serious issue for contributors. Adobe Stock needs to improve this process, especially for established contributors who've been with them for (let's say) more than one year.

Thank you Jo Ann, all good points!

3 week block could be several thousand dollars. But in any case it is nearly one month income missing.

If there really was NOTHING wrong with the port, then Adobe should seriously consider compensation. Because then it must have been their algos that made a very serious mistake.

This is the most important buying season. You don't just lose the sales you also lose on the lightboxing of your files for future sales.

I am amazed that Adobe is not understanding that stock is not a hobby for the producers but actually their main income. At least for the old timers who have been uploading for years.

There must be a different way to handle this problem.

example:

- Notify the contributor that their account is under investigation. Give them a case number and communication place to ask questions.

- Give then a time frame estimate when a human will look into the problem.

- Until them let them access their account, their money and also give them the ability to delete files themselves.

- After the process is complete give them a real report what happened, what the problem was and how it was resolved.

That would certainly ease the process if Adobe implemented your suggestions, let alone show a bit of mutual respect and appreciation.
Until then, unfortunately, the way it is handled gives us a reality check that artists are really dime a dozen for a big agency.
After all, why would they still need us if they have Firefly out to do most of our work?

Thank you Michael!
How are your sales, did they pick up to their prior levels?
Do you submit new AI stuff after all this? I feel uneasy about contributing anything AI now 

My account has been back online for about 2 weeks now and is now at about 45%-50% of the level before the 8-day block - at the current "recovery speed" I would say it could take another 2-3 months to reach the level of say the 2 months before the block, if this very slow increase continues.
Currently, of my previous Top25 images, only a few are selling, the sales since reactivation seem to be mostly images that were never or very rarely sold before.

And yes, I will continue to upload AI images, because this market is currently still very active, but this will probably not last forever - I think "real photos" will become more important again.
However, I am doubly careful about the keywords, titles and filenames I use - everything is now double-checked on my end. Because my account would probably not survive another block like that.

Currently I have about 4300 photos/videos/AI-images mixed in the queue (3001 files - my submission limit - since up to 3 months) and in the upload area and since the account block I have between 5 and 10 checked files per day - so it's going very slowly to maybe boost the account again.

And now I have to make sure I get to the airport - a few days' holiday :-)

Thank you for the update. So far I am seeing a number of downloads a day that I normally had on a weekend day before the block 

Have a great getaway!

Back from holiday - another week later my account is slowly recovering from the block.
I'm now at about 55-65% of the previous volume (after being active for 3 weeks again) - apparently you have to work your way back up in the ranking (in search), but at least that seems to be working, albeit very slowly.

According to my current calculations, it takes about 10-14 weeks to get back to the results before the block, if the current trend continues.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that the account recovers quickly!