Can those of Istock / Getty Images give our content for free without paying us anything for it? This is not called theft?

Quote from: Groucho on January 08, 2021, 06:48

Quote from: kall3bu on January 08, 2021, 06:33

Any updates?

I wrote to iStock, but did not get any answer to this,. But they answered another request already. That alone is already interesting.

Very interesting: iStock seems react on my request about promo.com! I wrote them that many contributors proving now a law suit against them, if that is not legal offer all images for free on promo.com.
Yesterday I checked again my images there and it seems like all my iStock images disappeared now. That is for me a sign that it was illegal.

I know many other contributors here alos wrote a request to iStock and Getty. Any answeres yet or same experiences like me: images disappeared oon promo.com?

I made a request to iStock the 23th of December to remove my images from PROMO.com. No response from iStock now till now and my images are still available on PROM.com.

I also posted a message on iStock forum. Here is the response of an iStock employee:
   Question: ... do you have the official 'spin' on this site? How does it benefit us, the content producers?
   Response: Not a site I was aware of but will ask
But no update from iStock on this site till now.

This is illegal I never agreed to give away my pictures for free.

is there a PUBLIC interrogation place to work out these problems with SS *and* iStock ? different places? ok! but are there?

Quote from: Groucho on January 08, 2021, 06:48

Quote from: kall3bu on January 08, 2021, 06:33

Any updates?

I wrote to iStock, but did not get any answer to this,. But they answered another request already. That alone is already interesting.

Very interesting: iStock seems react on my request about promo.com! I wrote them that many contributors proving now a law suit against them, if that is not legal offer all images for free on promo.com.
Yesterday I checked again my images there and it seems like all my iStock images disappeared now. That is for me a sign that it was illegal.

I know many other contributors here alos wrote a request to iStock and Getty. Any answeres yet or same experiences like me: images disappeared oon promo.com?

I made a request to iStock the 23th of December to remove my images from PROMO.com. No response from iStock now till now and my images are still available on PROM.com.

I also posted a message on iStock forum. Here is the response of an iStock employee:
   Question: ... do you have the official 'spin' on this site? How does it benefit us, the content producers?
   Response: Not a site I was aware of but will ask
But no update from iStock on this site till now.

This is illegal I never agreed to give away my pictures for free.

Has anyone here actually found out if this site is legal or not? We seem to be going off, attacking and accusing, when there haven't been answers from any agency or anyplace? I'd like to know?

I really don't want to open an account on some crappy site, just to see what images of mine might be there.

If the site is illegal we need to have a massive reporting action to the host, the agencies and anyone else, to get it shut down.

A friend of mine, also a photographer, contacted Getty/iStock and asked them about promo.com. He got an answer, me not yet.

Here a part of the answer from Getty/iStock:

#Your content is not being used for free.

Your Connect statement will provide the royalty information.#

Followed from two links. I read them carefully and understand now much more about it, but there was no example of promo.com. So I only can get an IDEA what we might get. But at least not for free, but might be for 0,0000000001 penny for each use.

And Getty/iStock wrote:

# Our contract with Promo.com is confidential.

We have not been receiving any other tickets from other Contributors regarding this same matter. #

no comment.

Thanks, answer is, Partner Site. All this stolen images, reporting them to their host, anger, accusations, outrage and whatever, is without basis in fact or truth.

Yes wonderful denial, we haven't had other complaints, when we know that at minimum, a few people here have written, including myself. 

Actually look at you connect sales, or maybe it's a partner sub? I can't make any sense of most of that Connect stuff. Where is Promo located? I get most of my connect credits from Australia and California, if I remember right. Many are in the $.004 range but I did have one for some $.0003 and we do get as low as 2 cents for the promised minimum for subs. If you have the location, then that will show on Connect sales.

Figuring out SS would be more amusing, but we know the minimum is 10� so that's the easy answer.

We are being sold for pennies and paid even less pennies and someone is getting the images for nearly nothing. Not a very happy situation.

A friend of mine, also a photographer, contacted Getty/iStock and asked them about promo.com. He got an answer, me not yet.

Here a part of the answer from Getty/iStock:

#Your content is not being used for free.

Your Connect statement will provide the royalty information.#

Followed from two links. I read them carefully and understand now much more about it, but there was no example of promo.com. So I only can get an IDEA what we might get. But at least not for free, but might be for 0,0000000001 penny for each use.

And Getty/iStock wrote:

# Our contract with Promo.com is confidential.

We have not been receiving any other tickets from other Contributors regarding this same matter. #

no comment.

Oh my god! this the reason because our sales ar downhill! Getty/iStock hijos de puta! Me perdonan la groser�a, pero es demasiado el abuso de esta gente!

Of course I�m not sure whether Promo is legit or not.
Remains that I find it quite odd I can�t, for instance, click on the links of SS or Getty on their site. The links are not linked apart from Instagram and another link they mentioned. Plus, my portfolio�s on Getty and SS are not the same, yet all my images from SS are from Getty according to them.
It�s not possible to download a file. I created an account, clicked on own of my images, but you can�t download the file. You�re redirected to another page to use your image in a video you can create.
They are located on the British Virgin Islands, as a Limited.

Hi, this is a reasonable way to reply and not reply to myself?

"The Images come from our Content Provider Partners, Getty Images, Shutterstock and Unsplash. You are fully licensed to use them with any Promo.com subscription

This means you can share on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, websites, blogs and anywhere else on the Internet.

To download the images, simply add them to a video, click on Publish and choose the Export as Photo option. "

FAQ: Q: Once I make my videos, how and where do I post them?

A: Short answer⁠�everywhere. Long answer: Social media, paid ads, emails, your website, landing pages, and more.

Pricing plans are pretty simple. https://promo.com/pricing?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=desktop_draft_to_publish&utm_creative=faq_desktop

Various watermark, logo and tag options.

That's what I found out about the site. Monthly plans, I don't know what we get paid. Someone buy a plan and use my images please?  OK someone buy a plan, make your three videos and use images from someone you know and tell them what images, so they can report back, how much credit they got. Use images that have never sold, might as well make sure you can pinpoint the actual commission. And if possible use some only on IS, standard 15% person please and some that are only on SS, so you can track the downloads.

I'll venture a guess that SS if anyone does take the time to find out, it's going to be a Sub of some sort from a partner site. On a really good day, it would be a low price OD. I have gotten as low as 31 cent ODs.

Oh and to answer, it's perfectly legit, whether anyone likes them or not. We don't know how much we get for one of these uses.

10.000.000 accounts on Promo and we are wondering that sales goes down everywhere?

Hi!

I'm new here at this forum but I've been working as a contributor to several stock agencies since 2008. In the last years I saw that agencies are not ashamed and do everything they can to make an easy profit at the expense of artists slave work!

I think that the only solution could be the creation of an agency by the contributor community, with fair prices and commissions! If that happens, those sucker agencies will not have fresh content and will have to rethink their business model.

I finally got the official answer from the iStock support on this issue:

Thank you for your message and I sincerely apologize for the delay in my response. Regarding Promo.com, Getty Images makes a subset of iStock content available within their video editing tool. Any licenses of your content will appear on the Connect statement under the �Price Per Image� Product Type (https://contributors.gettyimages.com/HelpArticle.aspx?article_id=5176)

It's important to note that you are receiving royalties for this use - your content is not being given away for free. Also note that the usage is restricted, it is not the same usage permitted on a standard RF license.

We work with these Partners to ensure that your content is right inside their End User�s workflow, exactly where and when they need it. In this way we can reach new, non-traditional customers at scale. For more information, visit: https://contributors.gettyimages.com/HelpArticle.aspx?article_id=6252

So, PROMO.com is legal and we get fabulous Connect royalties when our work is used on this website.

Promo is legal, connect is less then pennies.