Hi all,

A few weeks ago a photo of mine appeared in a national newspaper. When checking the downloads for this picture i found out no EL was bought. I contacted the newspaper and they told me they got the picture from a large travel agency here in Holland who bought the picture from their advertising agency who has a Shutterstock account. So this agency is reselling Shutterstock content. What would be the best way to respond? Contact Shutterstock (I dont have the agency name) or reply to the newspaper and ask them to buy an extended license at Shutterstock?

The newspaper (probably) doesn't know they did anything wrong. They bought it from a travel agency who bought it from their design/advertising agency who bought it from Shutterstock. It seems to me the bad player is the original design/advertising agency who resold it. Then the abuse snowballed. The newspaper shouldn't have purchased it without knowing where it came from but how could they possibly know it was passed down illegally unless the travel agency they bought it from told them the entire story. It's too muddled at this point to let anyone other than Shutterstock investigate.

I emailed the travel agency and they gave me the name of the advertising agency. I'll contact Shutterstock and see what they'll say. Will keep you all informed here.

Thanks.

maybe there should be a fine or something compensation if shutterstock found users misuse of the images.