MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Mona on June 20, 2022, 16:13
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The first sentence on the site: "Easy Ways To Remove iStock Watermark" https://pixcut.wondershare.com/design/remove-istock-watermark.html
Can sites like this be somehow requested to be taken down?
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If you read what they're advising, it's to use Google image search to locate an instance of the image in use on someone else's (presumably paid use) web site. Short of telling every web site not to use any stock images or to remove Google's image search, I'm not sure what you think anyone can do.
If anyone uses an image without a license - and with so many free images now available, it's not clear why that isn't a better option as it's safe and legal - they're at risk. Established companies are unlikely to put themselves at risk this way, and that's where the bulk of our business comes from
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I think articles like this do have a very negative and normalising effect on stealing images. It also points people to various resources for streamlining the process of searching stock sites and stealing the images.
I imagine there are things that can be done. For example they use Paypal to sell their products. Pretty sure Paypal’s terms will have a clause saying you can’t use it on sites promoting illegal activity. They are 100% doing this.
They should be reported, if only for the hypocrisy of selling a digital product/ service while telling their users how to steal other peoples digital IP. What a bunch of dirt bags.
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If you read what they're advising, it's to use Google image search to locate an instance of the image in use on someone else's (presumably paid use) web site. Short of telling every web site not to use any stock images or to remove Google's image search, I'm not sure what you think anyone can do...
If you look further down (I don't blame you if you didn't read the whole thing, it's pretty poorly written) they also link to pirating sites that let you search all the image libraries and automatically download watermark free work.
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If you read what they're advising, it's to use Google image search to locate an instance of the image in use on someone else's (presumably paid use) web site. Short of telling every web site not to use any stock images or to remove Google's image search, I'm not sure what you think anyone can do...
If you look further down (I don't blame you if you didn't read the whole thing, it's pretty poorly written) they also link to pirating sites that let you search all the image libraries and automatically download watermark free work.
Oops! Sorry about that. I did read a long way, but not to the end.
I don't expect agencies to act, but that's who to complain to. The agencies' business is what's being targeted; we're just the collateral damage.
In the past, when the full-of-image-bundles gigs at Fiverr openly offered bundles of iStock and Shutterstock images - in some cases even offering to get specific image numbers for the gig customer - one or both agencies worked with Fiverr to get those gigs taken down. The agencies didn't work all that hard though as explicit mentions of agency names went away for a while, but the image bundles didn't. And now you can see agency names explicitly used (except for that one gig touting "Gutty image" - I guess he's afraid of Getty legal eagles)
https://www.fiverr.com/partho214/provide-you-royalty-free-stock-photos-for-any-business (https://www.fiverr.com/partho214/provide-you-royalty-free-stock-photos-for-any-business)
https://www.fiverr.com/bethi26/provide-high-quality-stock-image-stock-photo (https://www.fiverr.com/bethi26/provide-high-quality-stock-image-stock-photo)
https://www.fiverr.com/aarshawon/find-any-type-of-premium-quality-stock-photos (https://www.fiverr.com/aarshawon/find-any-type-of-premium-quality-stock-photos)
https://www.fiverr.com/guru17328/give-you-any-stock-photos (https://www.fiverr.com/guru17328/give-you-any-stock-photos)
https://www.fiverr.com/joy892/provide-your-stock-image (https://www.fiverr.com/joy892/provide-your-stock-image)
My point with the above is that although the agencies should tackle sites promising a way to let you steal versus license stock images, it's unlikely they will take any/much action.