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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: emg on March 13, 2012, 20:29

Title: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: emg on March 13, 2012, 20:29: Hey guys, after lurking around here for quite some time now I finally decided to make a thread as I've recently discovered something quite disturbing. A few days ago I was surfing around and found this website where you can download thousands of stock images for free, these where photos from various sites such as istock and rf123 etc. I also noticed the network they were connected with that included 20+ sites that did the same thing.

Is there something that can be done about this? Would a report to some of the agencys make a difference? Apparently these website has been running for quite some time and it's really sad to see that many pictures being out there for free.

Regards
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: cardmaverick on March 13, 2012, 21:16: If it's what I think it is, it's probably all in Chinese and totally useless to a non-speaker with a deadline to meet.
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: emg on March 13, 2012, 21:28: It's quality images and all the websites is in English so probably not what you think :S you can even search for specific categories and you get fresh stuff, kinda worrying.
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: traveler1116 on March 13, 2012, 21:29: Can't hurt to report it to the agencies.
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: click_click on March 14, 2012, 08:13: Any chance of posting a link to that site so copyright owners can make a claim?
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: Blammo on March 14, 2012, 09:27: Tons of these sites out there

http://www.downturk.n (http://www.downturk.n) e t
http://www.heroturko.m (http://www.heroturko.m) e
http://www.graphixshare.c (http://www.graphixshare.c) o m

quick search on google
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: click_click on March 14, 2012, 09:33: Most of us are already aware of them. All we can do is regularly visit those sites and check if we find one of ours so we can make a DMCA claim with the company that is hosting the files. Not much more we can do.
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: ppdd on March 14, 2012, 10:52: I'm shocked at many of these pirate sites, but it's worth noting that there are quite a few perfectly legit sites that offer decent stock photos for free.
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: stockastic on March 14, 2012, 16:01: Someone please enlighten me - is the OP not posting a link to the site he found because that's considered legally risky, or because it's not allowed on this forum - or just because it's hard to be sure if the images are really stolen?
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: ppdd on March 14, 2012, 16:04: I think it's to avoid giving them SEO publicity. That's why the other post has such odd URLs.
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: click_click on March 14, 2012, 16:27: It would be indeed helpful to get the URLs here - even if they are chopped up so the search engines can't pick them up.
Title: Re: Stock images on "pirate sites"
Post by: cardmaverick on March 15, 2012, 01:03: Just took a look at these sites, they are utterly useless to a real stock photo buyer. They are basically blog format.... with lousy search function.