Just lost my shutterstock account due to my ignorance of property releases. I would drive through a local cemetery and take photos. Never dawned on me that I was infringing on private property. Costly mistake. This is a warning for anyone else not up to speed on all copyright issues. Kicking myself into oblivion, God I'm sick. Deleted all images from every site I had them up on but shutterstock shut me down when I asked for bigstock to remove all my images. Was fun while it lasted.

Huh? That shucks but if they approved them, arent they to blame also? And why shut down your account when you came to them? And why not just shut down said images, not your whole account.

I did on shutterstock but since bigstock is part of them, they shut down the account on shutterstock also. My mistake. Bigstock makes it difficult to delete images so I just asked them to shut it down completely. They honored that request.

seriously? you got your account blocked because of a few cemetery pics? what on earth they need property releases? they are public places like churches, they were paid with people money not some private company, were you shooting the names on the graves?

sorry to hear about your situation, hope you got it fixed soon

If I am understanding this correctly- he has bigstock to shutdown his account thus they contacted Shutter (their big brother) and shut down that account as well since they are joined at the hip so to speak...

what I don't understand is why they have over 28k searching for "cemetery"

That was my thinking but this cemetery have photography rules which I wasn't aware of and I guess they have it posted at the entrance which I missed. I was told there cemetery is intellectual property. I have to respect that since thats what we do. My ignorance of there policies cost me. Just warning everyone who is not aware as I wasn't, be aware of what you shoot is not copyright protected.

ask bigstock and shutter to open your account and simply remove the pics...

Quote from: brm1949 on December 04, 2012, 21:05
That was my thinking but this cemetery have photography rules which I wasn't aware of and I guess they have it posted at the entrance which I missed. I was told there cemetery is intellectual property. I have to respect that since thats what we do. My ignorance of there policies cost me. Just warning everyone who is not aware as I wasn't, be aware of what you shoot is not copyright protected.

they cannot block your account because of a few pictures, you do have a nice wildlife portfolio, I really hope you get this sorted out asap

Sadly I heard of many cases like this and had this happen to a friend of mine too. In his case it was an superficial similarity with a existing design. To me it looks like shutterstock does not really care about contributors if they are new or small (in almost any case I know of the Contribs have had a small Port or had been new).

Although we never know what really happened in this case, the amount of complaints like this appearing makes me wish for a little more transparency and sensitivity from SS.

But surely they contact you, like Alamy does, and ask if you have them maybe? And if you havent, cant they just take down the photos in question?

I hope Anthony or Vincent from SS read this and chime in. Sounds way too harsh if you ask me.

Quote from: brm1949 on December 04, 2012, 20:59
I did on shutterstock but since bigstock is part of them, they shut down the account on shutterstock also. My mistake. Bigstock makes it difficult to delete images so I just asked them to shut it down completely. They honored that request.

That rings warning bells. Why shouldn't you be able to delete your own images?

(Hope you get this sorted out ASAP)

I was told that after they look at the situation I could be reinstated. I did remove all the images in question from shutterstock. I hope it works out but I understand the copyright issue. I hope it works out. I need that income.

Quote from: brm1949 on December 04, 2012, 21:30
I was told that after they look at the situation I could be reinstated. I did remove all the images in question from shutterstock. I hope it works out but I understand the copyright issue. I hope it works out. I need that income.

so there is some hope left? I guess I would simply call them... (do they still hide their phone#?)

Churches and cemetery's are "private property".

Private property is the employment, control, ownership, ability to dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property by legal persons and privately owned firms. Private property is distinguishable from public property and collective property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community, or government rather than by individuals or a business entity.

The church property is considered private property that has been paid for by the congregation but it is also tax exempt and therefore is not subject to property taxes.

there isn't a single church or cemetery in iStock technical wiki

(http://www.istockphoto.com/tutorial_copyright_list.php)

Thank God.

They worked it out for me.

Dear Bruce,

Thank you for your explanation. We have reactivated your Shutterstock portfolio. Please allow 72 hours for your images to refresh.

Also, we can reinstate your Bigstock account if you wish, and remove any images which are problematic. You would have to give us a list of image ID numbers for removal. Please let us know if you would like to reactivate your account and manually delete the images in question.

Regards,

Bigstock Compliance

Congrats.

Quote from: ruxpriencdiam on December 04, 2012, 21:47
Churches and cemetery's are "private property".

Private property is the employment, control, ownership, ability to dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property by legal persons and privately owned firms. Private property is distinguishable from public property and collective property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community, or government rather than by individuals or a business entity.

The church property is considered private property that has been paid for by the congregation but it is also tax exempt and therefore is not subject to property taxes.

Did the OP say it was a church graveyard? Our town cemetary is municipal property an in itself is no more subject to copyright than the local park. However, the agencies are understandably wary about having legible names on gravestones, even old, in commercial collections. But you could photograph for editorial, if it was someone famous' grave, for example. Actually even our local church cemetary might now be council (public) property. There's a shortcut path through it and it's maintained by the Council, not the Church.

Thank goodness it's been sorted out. That was an over-reaction.

POI: is it compuslory for images put on SS also to be in BS?

No it was a very large cemetery here with a lot of famous people buried and some interesting statues. Very scenic actually.

just resub as editorial 

Now Arlington National National cemetery is a different story.

Quote from: brm1949 on December 04, 2012, 22:31
No it was a very large cemetery here with a lot of famous people buried and some interesting statues. Very scenic actually.

Can you say which one so someone else doesn't have the same problem in the future or think of sending in a photo from that place. That would be very helpful.

Hollywood Forever Memorial Park comes to mind as a place that would have restrictions, but that's just a guess.

Quote from: ruxpriencdiam on December 05, 2012, 02:49
Now Arlington National National cemetery is a different story.

Run by the US Government, owned by the US Government, should be public?

Quote from: RacePhoto on December 05, 2012, 04:40

Quote from: ruxpriencdiam on December 05, 2012, 02:49
Now Arlington National National cemetery is a different story.

Run by the US Government, owned by the US Government, should be public?

437 commercial photos from Arlington on iStock might suggest so.

Forest Lawn Cemetery