Author Topic: MASSIVE ACTION NEEDED - we are closing stock accounts of image thieves (Read 8927 times)

edge · « **on:** January 24, 2024, 11:12 »

Hi,

Today I found two accounts that are stealing my ideas and images:
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/210831321/james [nonactive]
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/211446831/geetanjali [nonactive]

They used my images without permission and changed them a little bit by using A.I.

I wrote about it to Adobe and hopefully their acounts will be closed soon. I just spent around 20 minutes to find those accounts. I will be searching for thieves from time to time because I'm sure there are hundreds more.

Please, we need massive action to clean stock sites from unfair contributors. Write to Adobe about any account that tries to build success on your images.

Please feel free to post unfair contributor's account in this thread.

Many thanks!

DiscreetDuck · « **Reply #1 on:** January 24, 2024, 15:17 »

Hello.
- You can consider that the majority of the users of this forum are fans of AI. They may not really be sensitive to these issues. I even think that they wouldn't be put off doing the same, in secret of course

- For my part, I now prefer to ignore the way in which I am (highly) robbed, too much energy, too much time, and stock sites that don't care much because: It doesn't matter who uploads and how the image is produced, they collect royalties in any situation. And they have less possibility to detect fraudsters anymore, and fraud is massive.
- I Know myself that no idea is really owned. And since the AI machinery is fed by anyone's properties, our ~~images~~ photos are now very relatively our exclusive property. New world of stock imagery.

But... did you generate your images with AI yourself? (it seems to be). If the case, you don't own any copyright and you should not even complain.

Deyan Georgiev Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** January 24, 2024, 16:06 »

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on January 24, 2024, 15:17

But... did you generate your images with AI yourself? (it seems to be). If the case, you don't own any copyright and you should not even complain.

In this case he have the rights to sell those images, the other no. A big difference.

edge · « **Reply #3 on:** January 24, 2024, 17:36 »

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on January 24, 2024, 15:17

Hello.
- You can consider that the majority of the users of this forum are fans of AI. They may not really be sensitive to these issues. I even think that they wouldn't be put off doing the same, in secret of course
- For my part, I now prefer to ignore the way in which I am (highly) robbed, too much energy, too much time, and stock sites that don't care much because: It doesn't matter who uploads and how the image is produced, they collect royalties in any situation. And they have less possibility to detect fraudsters anymore, and fraud is massive.
- I Know myself that no idea is really owned. And since the AI machinery is fed by anyone's properties, our ~~images~~ photos are now very relatively our exclusive property. New world of stock imagery.

But... did you generate your images with AI yourself? (it seems to be). If the case, you don't own any copyright and you should not even complain.

I don't stop anyone from generating A.I. images based on their own ideas. These guys literally used my photos and A.I. images as a reference to try to replicate my portfolio. The fact that you are OK with that is... I don't know what to say.

Even trying to replicate my portfolio by using my ideas would be wrong, but trying to create almost exactly the same photos is just a fraud to me.

cascoly · « **Reply #4 on:** January 24, 2024, 21:07 »

Quote from: Deyan Georgiev Photography on January 24, 2024, 16:06

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on January 24, 2024, 15:17
But... did you generate your images with AI yourself? (it seems to be). If the case, you don't own any copyright and you should not even complain.

In this case he have the rights to sell those images, the other no. A big difference.

this is still a fuzzy area & court rulings have been ambiguous. the copyright office 'opinion' doesn't change the 1976 LAW that automatically grants copyright to the creator

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #5 on:** January 24, 2024, 23:32 »

Quote from: mikolajn on January 24, 2024, 17:36

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on January 24, 2024, 15:17
Hello.
- You can consider that the majority of the users of this forum are fans of AI. They may not really be sensitive to these issues. I even think that they wouldn't be put off doing the same, in secret of course
- For my part, I now prefer to ignore the way in which I am (highly) robbed, too much energy, too much time, and stock sites that don't care much because: It doesn't matter who uploads and how the image is produced, they collect royalties in any situation. And they have less possibility to detect fraudsters anymore, and fraud is massive.
- I Know myself that no idea is really owned. And since the AI machinery is fed by anyone's properties, our ~~images~~ photos are now very relatively our exclusive property. New world of stock imagery.

But... did you generate your images with AI yourself? (it seems to be). If the case, you don't own any copyright and you should not even complain.

I don't stop anyone from generating A.I. images based on their own ideas. These guys literally used my photos and A.I. images as a reference to try to replicate my portfolio. The fact that you are OK with that is... I don't know what to say.

Even trying to replicate my portfolio by using my ideas would be wrong, but trying to create almost exactly the same photos is just a fraud to me.

a) What is your portfolio? I'd like to take a look - can you provide an example of your original image + their "modified" image?
b) Are you saying that they took your original photo, fed it into the midjourney engine, to generate a virtually identical "ai" image? (same people's faces, same poses, maybe just a different shirt color, etc?)

cobalt · « **Reply #6 on:** January 25, 2024, 00:27 »

Can you provide any proof that your content was directly copied one by one?

I had a look at the two portfolios you mentioned and both have very generic and very typical ai content.

https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/211446831/geetanjali

https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/210831321/james

These kind of images are in thousands of ports generating content with ai.

And they are also being generated probably by the millions of users who no longer are buying stock images.

To have these ports closed down by Adobe or any other agency, you will need to prove that the content was visually inspired specifically by your images.

Can you show us some examples of your own content, or your own portfolio that the images in these ports are direct copies and not generic stock created just with a few prompts?

eta

Both portfolios have ultrageneric abstract backgrounds, interior mock ups, a road in the forest drone style, some futuristic fantasy stuff with robots or futuristic tech or cities, they have erupting volcanoes, cargo ships, lots of very generic food (spoons with oats…), they have cruise ships and fantasy cars and they have very generic people, business, portraits. They have the typical „travel“ backgrounds with suitcases and planes…They have still life mock ups with empty frames, flowers with copy space…

Etc…they have very diversified content and it is extremely typical content you will get if you use only prompts.

What exactly are you claiming that they copied specifically and directly from your port?

And why are you not showing your port and reference examples of the duplication?

eta2

This is my port on Adobe with now around 2k ai files.

https://stock.adobe.com/de/contributor/201294533/cobaltstock?load_type=author&prev_url=detail

Can you please point out the files that I supposedly copied from you, even though I have no clue who you are?

You make very drastic accusations but are not showing any examples of intentional copying.

edge · « **Reply #7 on:** January 25, 2024, 10:29 »

Oh, I see. Now I am the bad guy here and I need to prove innocent. This community and whole stock industry is going downhill.

It's not about me and my portfolio. I will deal with it together with Adobe support. It's about unfair contributors that steal also your images. If you don't have any problem with that then GOOD LUCK.

cobalt · « **Reply #8 on:** January 25, 2024, 11:27 »

You make extreme accusations against two producers without any proof.

Nobody can see your port or what was supposedly copied.

That makes you...a whiny troll? No?

The world will never go back to a life without ai.

You can complain forever, upload your content to places where it will not be stolen...if they exist...hope glazing and new technology will stop the steal...or get your licensing fees back by creating your own ai content.

I use a lot of my own images as templates to create variations and new content. My 10 000 stock files were all scraped and used and abused. I can complain forever or use the tech.

Ai is a really interesting technology, but if you hate the modern world so much, you can always go back to painting and join the REAL artists.

Time to leave the stock industry forever, right??

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #9 on:** January 25, 2024, 11:30 »

Quote from: mikolajn on January 25, 2024, 10:29

Oh, I see. Now I am the bad guy here and I need to prove innocent. This community and whole stock industry is going downhill.

It's not about me and my portfolio. I will deal with it together with Adobe support. It's about unfair contributors that steal also your images. If you don't have any problem with that then GOOD LUCK.

NAH, it's just that sometimes it's nice to see specifics of what they stole of your original work and then fed into AI, to alter it and reuse your work.

I think from the first post, someone might have thought they were stealing your AI to make AI. Not that they were copying your actual original images (not ideas, which aren't protected) and then using that as source material.

Got a couple?

blvdone · « **Reply #10 on:** January 25, 2024, 11:37 »

Quote from: mikolajn on January 24, 2024, 11:12

Hi,

Today I found two accounts that are stealing my ideas and images:
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/210831321/james [nonactive]
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/211446831/geetanjali [nonactive]

They used my images without permission and changed them a little bit by using A.I.

I wrote about it to Adobe and hopefully their acounts will be closed soon. I just spent around 20 minutes to find those accounts. I will be searching for thieves from time to time because I'm sure there are hundreds more.

Please, we need massive action to clean stock sites from unfair contributors. Write to Adobe about any account that tries to build success on your images.

Please feel free to post unfair contributor's account in this thread.

Many thanks!

Can you post your portfolio so that we can see if those are stolen from your account? If not, there's no way we know if those are actually stolen. You should post each of your original image and stolen image so that we can compare.

blvdone · « **Reply #11 on:** January 25, 2024, 11:53 »

Quote from: mikolajn on January 24, 2024, 11:12

Hi,

Today I found two accounts that are stealing my ideas and images:
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/210831321/james [nonactive]
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/211446831/geetanjali [nonactive]

They used my images without permission and changed them a little bit by using A.I.

I wrote about it to Adobe and hopefully their acounts will be closed soon. I just spent around 20 minutes to find those accounts. I will be searching for thieves from time to time because I'm sure there are hundreds more.

Please, we need massive action to clean stock sites from unfair contributors. Write to Adobe about any account that tries to build success on your images.

Please feel free to post unfair contributor's account in this thread.

Many thanks!

Also, do you use Midjourney in public mode? If so, anybody can look at your prompt and generate very similar image. You can use higher price plan to use "Stealth" private mode. Also you need to "unpublish" your image gallery to hide from public. And also I see some AI photos have prompts as the title. That's asking for somebody else to just use the same prompt to generate similar image.

edge · « **Reply #12 on:** January 25, 2024, 12:47 »

Alright guys, I will write it once again. It's not about me and my portfolio.

Prolonging discussion about my portfolio doesn't make sense, because I wanted YOU to check if someone is not copying YOUR portfolio.

If you don't care - I'm fine with that.
If you create generic stock AI images you don't have to check.
If you have some creative and specific content and you are ok with other people stealing your images and using it as a reference for AI in order to copy your portfolio then I'm ok with that as well.

edge · « **Reply #13 on:** January 25, 2024, 12:49 »

Quote from: blvdone on January 25, 2024, 11:53

Quote from: mikolajn on January 24, 2024, 11:12
Hi,

Today I found two accounts that are stealing my ideas and images:
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/210831321/james [nonactive]
newbielink:https://stock.adobe.com/pl/contributor/211446831/geetanjali [nonactive]

They used my images without permission and changed them a little bit by using A.I.

I wrote about it to Adobe and hopefully their acounts will be closed soon. I just spent around 20 minutes to find those accounts. I will be searching for thieves from time to time because I'm sure there are hundreds more.

Please, we need massive action to clean stock sites from unfair contributors. Write to Adobe about any account that tries to build success on your images.

Please feel free to post unfair contributor's account in this thread.

Many thanks!

Also, do you use Midjourney in public mode? If so, anybody can look at your prompt and generate very similar image. You can use higher price plan to use "Stealth" private mode. Also you need to "unpublish" your image gallery to hide from public. And also I see some AI photos have prompts as the title. That's asking for somebody else to just use the same prompt to generate similar image.

I use midjourney in private mode only.

Evaristo tenscadisto · « **Reply #14 on:** January 25, 2024, 14:37 »

I understand your reluctance to share your portfolio due to concerns about imitation. However, I agree with Cobalt—the content seems generic, resembling common concepts not necessarily generated by AI.

It's essential to note that a concept alone isn't an idea; it requires both content and form.

For example you can have a concept about "what is an Idea" which is different of "what means an Idea". This is because the concept of an Idea is by its nature generic too. If we consider Descartes we understand the ideas we got for artworks are not innate ideas but rather come from what we experience. In this sense what make artworks unique (ideas) is the way we put together content and form shaped in what we can call sometimes a style.

Hope i am not confusing you...

In other words let's pick the portfolios you shared. Just because someone use a "middle age man in a office..." or "flower love heart on a pink table" does not make it an idea but a concept "what is an Idea". What is unique and copyrighted is the way we put together a concept (content and form) - therefore "what means an Idea".

cascoly · « **Reply #15 on:** January 25, 2024, 14:50 »

Quote from: edge on January 25, 2024, 12:47

Alright guys, I will write it once again. It's not about me and my portfolio.

Prolonging discussion about my portfolio doesn't make sense, because I wanted YOU to check if someone is not copying YOUR portfolio.

If you don't care - I'm fine with that.
If you create generic stock AI images you don't have to check.
If you have some creative and specific content and you are ok with other people stealing your images and using it as a reference for AI in order to copy your portfolio then I'm ok with that as well.

but you made the initial claim your work was stolen, but don't provide comparison images

most of are images were likely scraped already multiple times - it's done, and nothing can reverse that - limits on future scraping are where the battle should be fought (in order to get tiny fractions of a penny for each mage scraped)

RalfLiebhold · « **Reply #16 on:** January 25, 2024, 15:02 »

Quote from: edge on January 25, 2024, 10:29

Oh, I see. Now I am the bad guy here and I need to prove innocent. This community and whole stock industry is going downhill.

It's not about me and my portfolio. I will deal with it together with Adobe support. It's about unfair contributors that steal also your images. If you don't have any problem with that then GOOD LUCK.

You should have noticed that many people here are interested in your topic and want to support you. But nobody can really understand the real problem. So it's not very helpful to curse the whole forum.

Nobody expects you to reveal your entire portfolio here.

But just show an example so that the simple-minded forum community can understand your request.

Mifornia · « **Reply #17 on:** January 25, 2024, 19:45 »

How do you report that your image or idea was stolen?
I found about 50 contributors who redid my best selling image and uploaded it using my exact unique description and keywords.

Now some of them literally follow my portfolio and rip it as soon as my images get approved. It’s disheartening

I’m not going to post a link to my portfolio, it’s just asking for more copycats. And my portfolio is not generic, it’s illustrations and png.

cobalt · « **Reply #18 on:** January 25, 2024, 20:00 »

This does sound like copying of public midjouney prompting.

Somebody perhaps used your unique description in midjourney and was able to generate something very similar.

Others found the prompt and used it as well or just clicked on variations and got something very similar.

Write to Adobe with the examples.

Going forward you could try to use very short and simple descriptions and maybe even test your titles in midjouney if it will generate something similar.

But the ports you mentioned look like the kind of stuff that you get with just prompting and near identical content is in thousands of ports.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #19 on:** January 25, 2024, 22:52 »

Quote from: Mifornia on January 25, 2024, 19:45

How do you report that your image or idea was stolen?
I found about 50 contributors who redid my best selling image and uploaded it using my exact unique description and keywords.

Now some of them literally follow my portfolio and rip it as soon as my images get approved. It’s disheartening

I’m not going to post a link to my portfolio, it’s just asking for more copycats. And my portfolio is not generic, it’s illustrations and png.

a) People will copy anything. For the images, tends to be east indians who do that (steal/spam/copy cat to "get rich quick"), create fake profiles using stolen assets then uploading those, etc, etc... (of course not all, and of course not 'just' restricted to them, but does seem to be a rather high percentage that do that to other people...)
b) Depending on "how" it was generated - you may/may not be able to do something, which is why I think people are asking... if you have a sample image (not your portfolio) - and can show the similarities between your image & the copycat, it would make it a lot easier to determine if it was ripped off, or it was more of a conceptual thing...

If you aren't comfortable sharing your images here - that's fine... I might suggest contacting adobe then and explaining what it is you need assistance with.

Mifornia · « **Reply #20 on:** January 26, 2024, 02:08 »

Quote from: SuperPhoto on January 25, 2024, 22:52

Quote from: Mifornia on January 25, 2024, 19:45
How do you report that your image or idea was stolen?
I found about 50 contributors who redid my best selling image and uploaded it using my exact unique description and keywords.

Now some of them literally follow my portfolio and rip it as soon as my images get approved. It’s disheartening

I’m not going to post a link to my portfolio, it’s just asking for more copycats. And my portfolio is not generic, it’s illustrations and png.

a) People will copy anything. For the images, tends to be east indians who do that (steal/spam/copy cat to "get rich quick"), create fake profiles using stolen assets then uploading those, etc, etc... (of course not all, and of course not 'just' restricted to them, but does seem to be a rather high percentage that do that to other people...)
b) Depending on "how" it was generated - you may/may not be able to do something, which is why I think people are asking... if you have a sample image (not your portfolio) - and can show the similarities between your image & the copycat, it would make it a lot easier to determine if it was ripped off, or it was more of a conceptual thing...

If you aren't comfortable sharing your images here - that's fine... I might suggest contacting adobe then and explaining what it is you need assistance with.

@SuperPhoto Thank you for your reply.
I have Adobe Photoshop multi layers file to prove that I created it. I did use Generative fill in some places.
I apologize, I’m not comfortable sharing it, but apparently too many people saw it already when it was featured several times on Weekly top sellers. Before it, I was quietly doing quite well. (Since then, I uploaded a bunch of stuff that I know will not sell for sure, but hey, they are all high resolution

so I really hope never be featured again)
So it’s a general email that you contact? The one that sends back “we are too busy” emails?

Mifornia · « **Reply #21 on:** January 26, 2024, 02:25 »

Quote from: cobalt on January 25, 2024, 20:00

This does sound like copying of public midjouney prompting.

Somebody perhaps used your unique description in midjourney and was able to generate something very similar.

Others found the prompt and used it as well or just clicked on variations and got something very similar.

Write to Adobe with the examples.

Going forward you could try to use very short and simple descriptions and maybe even test your titles in midjouney if it will generate something similar.

But the ports you mentioned look like the kind of stuff that you get with just prompting and near identical content is in thousands of ports.

I do both, digital hand drawn on iPad illustrations and MJ. I have a stealth pro plan in Midjourney and description is not a prompt.

However, it was a simple illustration that I made in Adobe Photoshop. It’s an idea that counts and now it’s diluted.

There is an increasing problem of copying other people best sellers with AI and not even changing the title. ( how do you explain the same unique long title and highly similar images from 2 dozens of different accounts? ) There should be a method to resolve it.

cobalt · « **Reply #22 on:** January 26, 2024, 03:19 »

They take your descriptions on ADOBE and feed them into midjourney. And many of them have public accounts, so now the prompt and the resulting image are publicly visible.

Even if your midjourney account is private, your descriptions on Adobe are public. Hence my suggestion to adjust your descriptions so it will not generate a copy on midjourney.

A lot of ai people just copy each other, what you think are copies from your port might be an endless stream of copies from people copying others.

I now have extremely generic prompts "Beautiful easter eggs with copy space" but nothing special that will generate a duplicate.

They can still take a screen shot and ask midjourney for a description. But when I tried that with my own images, the results were very different photos.

I used to have copy cats on istock, especially when istock marked high selling images with little flames. As soon as one of my new images got a flame it was copied by at least 10 ports.

And while I do "simple still life" with easter eggs and flowers, the precise composition can make the difference between earning thousands of dollars or nothing. It often takes me a whole day in studio for 2-3 really, really good images.

I understand the frustration with copy cats. But your first post was not very helpful, sorry.

Adjusting your descriptions is the only useful suggestion I have. Some people also add slightly misleading keywords in the title. It still describes the image, but will generate something very different with midjourney.

Her Ugliness · « **Reply #23 on:** January 26, 2024, 06:43 »

While this is very unfortunate that this is happening and while I actually 100% believe this to be true (have seen too many AI images that had the exact same title as other people's photos), I do not believe there is anything you can do about it or Adobe will do anything about it.
The stance of microstock agencies has always been that it was completely okay to steal other people's ideas.

I know this from the past when people came here showing illustrations/vectors that were copied. It even happend to me once myself. People take other people's artwork, basically redraw it with minor changes and submit it. And in some cases there were way too many almost identical illustrations in the ports for it to be a coincidence only.
I know that whenever the contributors complained to the agencies the reply from the agencies where that there was nothing wrong with this. Stock agencies only consider it theft when an exact image is stolen, but don't care when the image idea, title or keywords are stolen.

It has always been very upsetting and of course it's even more upsetting now. At least with illustrations the thieves "only" stole the idea, but still had to do some work. Now AI does all the work and other people just leech off other peoples' real work.

edge · « **Reply #24 on:** January 26, 2024, 08:52 »

I would like to thank everyone for taking time to discuss the topic and for the tips you game me. I feel that too much focus was put on checking if I am right. I just wanted you to check if there are other account trying to steal your work, but if your content is generic then it's impossible.

I would like to ask everyone to belive in yourself and create content based on your own ideas or to create generic content like christmas, easter, valentine's day, office workers, etc.

This world is so complex that there are enough ideas for everyone and inspiration comes from many sources.

Just be yourself and don't try to mimic someone that you are not. I wish you all good luck.

If I get a reply from Adobe, I will let you know.

Cheers!

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Author Topic: MASSIVE ACTION NEEDED - we are closing stock accounts of image thieves (Read 8927 times)

edge

DiscreetDuck

Deyan Georgiev Photography

edge

cascoly

SuperPhoto

cobalt

edge

cobalt

Uncle Pete

blvdone

blvdone

edge

edge

Evaristo tenscadisto

cascoly

RalfLiebhold

Mifornia

cobalt

SuperPhoto

Mifornia

Mifornia

cobalt

Her Ugliness

edge

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