One of the sites I contribute to has constant "No Obligation - Free Tryout" marketing campaigns.  I can see that my images get downloaded twice to three times more, but does not get any remuneration for these "free" tryouts (and sales are actually not increasing after these marketing periods).

I am starting to feel very uncomfortable with this, especially when I can see I am also loosing big out where clearly private individuals are making use of this opportunity to obtain high res pictures for free, as my weekend sales/visits goes up by 800% during these marketing spells.

My feeling is that an agency should at least pay us a nominal amount for these free giveaways. We are still the owners of those images, so it is not their own goods they are giving away for free, but our hard work. I say they should include an amount in your marketing budget to pay (at least proportionally) for "stock" they give away, like any other type of company would have to when giving stock away on promotion!

What is your take on this?

I presume it's PhotoCase, with no opt out?  It's not like other sites, they reject all my best selling stock photos.  I don't like free and I agree, we should get something.  The problem is, there's enough people that don't care about giving their images away for free.  So we don't have any power to stop it happening.  I think it would be sensible for the sites to charge something, like $1 for 10 low quality images.  That would get potential new buyers to register their payment details and get used to paying something for their images.  But how do we get any site to change?

I never found an advantage to giving them away (although some people have). Veer gives you the choice and pays you for a set time and use ie 3months, european market etc. I dont see why the others cant do the same.

One of the sites I contribute to has constant "No Obligation - Free Tryout" marketing campaigns.  I can see that my images get downloaded twice to three times more, but does not get any remuneration for these "free" tryouts (and sales are actually not increasing after these marketing periods).

I am starting to feel very uncomfortable with this, especially when I can see I am also loosing big out where clearly private individuals are making use of this opportunity to obtain high res pictures for free, as my weekend sales/visits goes up by 800% during these marketing spells.

My feeling is that an agency should at least pay us a nominal amount for these free giveaways. We are still the owners of those images, so it is not their own goods they are giving away for free, but our hard work. I say they should include an amount in your marketing budget to pay (at least proportionally) for "stock" they give away, like any other type of company would have to when giving stock away on promotion!

What is your take on this?

Unless you have specifically opted into something, you should absolutely get paid.  IS pays you on a credit value of $1 (I believe) for any of the "free" credits given to you when you sign up as a buyer.

I don't remember but I think it is "freeimages" something dot com

You must be crazy to contribute there.. Just remove your port..

Yes, you are making money but distributing your content for free will make people think they are "creative-commons" stuff after a while..

+1

The surprising thing is you feel the need to ask for opinions on this.

When someone takes your property and does not compensate you for it, it's called theft. That's pretty much a universal definition. The fact that this agency then gives it away to third parties or that you let them do it, doesn't change that it's still theft.

That you put up with this because you make a "little" bit of money with them suggests that you value your own work about as much as the agency does.

They will take as much from you as you let them. Stop letting them.

PS This is not a business model, it is a marketing drive they do from time to time (getting to be to frequent for me now).

They MUST pay you..

Free is what happens in the retail world!

They offer something for free to get people in the door and then once you are in the door they get you because they now have you, but what they forgot is that there is and will always be those one or two people who will not falter and will only be there for the "Free" stuff and are not interested in anything else.

There are a bunch of sites that want your rejected work to be given away for free, but why should they give it away for free after all they rejected it.

No one gets anything for free.

Oh, please stop the guessing contest  , can we focus on the principle involved?  

I don't see why you won't just post the name of the site.  If they are gouging contributors this way, I see no reason to protect their anonymity. 

AFAIK, none of the sites I contribute to do these sorts of free promotions without paying contributors.  DT, FT, and 123 all have free sections, but you are under no obligation to donate to them.  

In answer to your question, yes, it's a lousy practice.  The reason it matters where it is, is because if it is a low tier site, you are crazy to continue contributing.  

If/when I do find out who this site is, I will certainly avoid them.  

Does anybody have a link or a list with all the sites that offer for free some of our images ore work together with such agencies?

Craigslist Ad:
We are a small & casual restaurant in downtown Vancouver and we are looking for solo musicians to play in our restaurant to promote their work and sell their CD. This is not a daily job, but only for special events which will eventually turn into a nightly event if we get positive response. More Jazz, Rock, & smooth type music, around the world and mixed cultural music. Are you interested to promote your work? Please reply back ASAP.

A Musician's Reply:
Happy new year! I am a musician with a big house looking for a restauranteur to come to my house to promote his/her restaurant by making dinner for me and my friends. This is not a daily job, but only for special events which will eventually turn into a nightly event if we get a positive response. More fine dining & exotic meals and mixed Ethnic Fusion cuisine. Are you interested to promote your restaurant? Please reply back ASAP.

 

I got an email from some American professor last week asking if she could use one of my pics from my personal website in a book she was writing. No payment was mentioned, but, and wait for it - I had to fill in a form for her, granting her permission to use the pics - she wasn't offering to sign an RM agreement for me, AND I had to size/crop to a particular size and send it as a tif!

So I wrote back and gave her the option of purchasing a similar (E+) from iStock or licensing the one she wanted directly from me for $70, an amount I arrived at from the iStock price of the similar plus the bother of looking for the file, resizing it, converting it to a tif and sending it to her.

Have I heard back from her? You guess! (There are no Googlable alternatives on the web apart from the set on my website, though, so she'll just have to do without.)

I got an email from some American professor last week asking if she could use one of my pics from my personal website in a book she was writing. No payment was mentioned, but, and wait for it - I had to fill in a form for her, granting her permission to use the pics - she wasn't offering to sign an RM agreement for me, AND I had to size/crop to a particular size and send it as a tif!

So I wrote back and gave her the option of purchasing a similar (E+) from iStock or licensing the one she wanted directly from me for $70, an amount I arrived at from the iStock price of the similar plus the bother of looking for the file, resizing it, converting it to a tif and sending it to her.

Have I heard back from her? You guess! (There are no Googlable alternatives on the web apart from the set on my website, though, so she'll just have to do without.)

At least she didn't just steal it from your site. The form may have been for the publisher who would know about such things. But sometimes this process takes some time. I would recommend that you email her back as any good salesperson would do seeking a sale.