MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: madelaide on March 14, 2008, 20:24
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As some people here also buy images, you may have information about this.
When someone buys an image, what does he get in terms of documentation? I suppose some type of invoice. What kind of information does it contain? Does it show a thumbnail of the image purchased?
I was wondering about this the other day, as this, like most businesses, are not ethernal. Many of the sites we contribute now will not exist in a few years.
So, how are sellers and buyers protected? Of course, I'm more concerned about sellers' rights...
For instance, suppose that years from now you find one of your images in use in a way it would have required an EL, but you know you never sold an EL of it. You contact the user, he says he's purchased it from a site that doesn't exist anymore. If he doesn't have a sort of invoice showing the image and the license terms of the purchase, I believe you will be able to sue him. Now, if he has a simple invoice for an EL image just showing something like "Image ID#123456", and as we can not contact the site anymore, he can use that on his defense.
If we could get a detailed downloads report from every site - something like each sale showing image thumbnail, license type and size, invoice number, maybe on a monthly basis - then we would at least have our own sales' reference for future use.
Maybe it's too much trouble for the little risk of misuse, but even with the sites "alive" we've seen many stories of image abuse.
Regards,
Adelaide
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Good question.
I've "purchased" photos from DT, IS and LO with their free credits.
DT lists the # of downloads purchased at the top of the page under "downloads." They provide a thumbnail, file ID, title, date downloaded, artist, resolution, price, and license type.
IS provides a thumbnail, file ID, date downloaded, size, # of credits, and license type.
I can't seem to find any record of my purchases at LO. :-\
I'd love to see the sites provide more comprehensive financial reports complete with thumbnails. And it would be even better if they would e-mail it to us every month for our records. Do I dare dream? Some of the sites provide pretty good financial info, but all of them still need at least a little work to make it easier for us to track our sales, referrals and licenses sold.
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Karimala,
Thanks for you reply, I'm glad to know that IS and DT show thumbnails in the reports, but as I understand this does not generate a "document" that is emailed or downloaded, like an invoice as I said. So unless the buyer prints it, he will have no proof of purchase in case the site disappears.
I believe most sites would be able to generate a decent report to both buyers and sellers, it doesn't seem that difficult, does it? It would look much more professional. I'll try to suggest it in a couple of sites and see how it goes. In FT I know their IT people will mess up everything, so maybe it's better not ask. :)
Regards,
Adelaide
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Good idea. I don't recall ever receiving an invoice about a purchase from any of the sites, and agree it would be more beneficial to buyers to receive one instead of just relying on the integrity of the site (for example, what if a technical problem occurred on a site and all financial information was wiped away?). If the sites can notify us about each and every sale, they can certainly notify the buyers about their transactions.
I did find the LO buyer's info...it's under "Tokens." Last night when I clicked on the link, it took me to a section to purchase tokens instead of my records. It's working now. The info they include is date purchased without the year, whether the transaction was a purchase of tokens or a download, license, cost/credit, and token balance.