DOwnload use? Download sell? Upload as a contributer?

Sort of hard to fight but it would be interesting to know where they got them. It should be noted that one is identified as Shutterstock stock as a big chunk. Scary.

http://thepiratebay.org/search/stock%20photography%20archive/0/99/0

There is only way to know the content of it... Someone would check it.

Now the big question is: And if we find our images there? Send a DCMA to thepiratebay?   

Looks like a very risky download to me.  Probably comes with adware, spyware, viruses, keyloggers, and other nasty stuff.

That's the price for subscription! One of many reasons I oppose subscription in general.

That's the price for subscription! One of many reasons I oppose subscription in general.

Yep, it's a double edge sword. Subscription may pay well but this is one of the results.

Images have been stolen from everywhere, including Getty. I think it's pretty difficult to just single out sub sites as the cause of all of this.

I don't think it is risky to open. bitme.org seems to be the source. This is a torrent tracker share "network". Individuals hard to indentify. Why steal from Istock when its free there. Makes the whole Istock theft issue seem even stranger. Never heard who they believe did it there. Istock theft would be easier to track than this.

http://www.fotosearch.com/
They have 9,700,771 images, you can join via Canstock (see below). Their offices are based in Wisconsin, USA

What is Fotosearch?
Publitek, Inc., dba Fotosearch is a provider of royalty free and rights managed stock photography, illustrations, maps, video, and audio. We bring together many different stock agencies to provide "The World's stock photography at one website."� The products on Fotosearch can be licensed and easily downloaded for use in your advertisements, promotional materials, websites, etc. When you purchase a license to use an image, video clip, or audio clip, you do so based on the license agreement of the publisher of that particular content. The license agreement will be presented to you before purchase confirmation.

In 1998 we introduced the Fotosearch website, bringing together the multiple image publishers from our catalog to one searchable web site. Fotosearch features an extensive library of rights-managed and royalty-free photography, illustrations, video footage, and audio from more than 90 publishers located all around the world. Fotosearch continues to lead the stock photography industry. With innovative web site features and outstanding personal service we are dedicated to meeting our customers� needs and making it easy for graphic designers to Find the Perfect Photo Fast!�

In order to submit your content the images must meet the following criteria:
   �   you must be the legal owner of the images
   �   you must have the ability to enter into a binding legal agreement in English
   �   you must provide a signed model release for all images containing recognizeable faces
   �   you must provide a signed property release for all images containing privately owned / copyright property
   �   you must provide keywords in English for all images
   �   all images meet minimum quality standards: (3.0 Megapixels for images)
   �   all images are available without restrictions for worldwide sales

If you meet these criteria, please click the link below.
Clicking this link will redirect you to Can Stock Photo

Can Stock Photo will process your images and provide those images to Fotosearch.

Create an account with Can Stock Photo and submit your images.

After a tiny search over "istock file", I could say that 90% files aren't currently on agency. Only one hit :

http://www.istockphoto.com//stock-photo-2567828-bowling-balls-and-pins.php?refnum=Adivin

2 others points to Fotolia or dreamstime. All of them have thousands of copys over web... so analysing 60gb would take 10 yeras or so...

Now, "scary or not" , almost can be found here:

http://defaultself.com/IMAGES/

Check the folders names...

Theory n�5: Agency Free files that someone "rip"?

Dunno, but would be nice know if only authors can do DMCA to the site.. or even if worth report to agency's?

 

interesting at Istock. I opened a thread to let people know and it was deleted. Guess they do not want people to know their security is slack. They said to email the compliance section but I think they would do it only file prer file if at all.

My believe ( Ok, I only check a small number of files.. but ) is that files were taken from "free files section"... or even ripped from web with an webspider program. Don't think that someone enter agency's datacenter/server and get it

On compliance page will only worth if You find Your images and prove that he are violating agreement.... Huh, wait, it's better do the dcma directly to site owners/hosting services ( learn that this week LOL ).   

Yep, it's a double edge sword. Subscription may pay well but this is one of the results.

Yeah, it would be way better to not make a bunch of money from subscription sites than to have to occasionally be annoyed by piracy.  

My work might be in those torrents, but I don't know and don't care. People downloading from those sites aren't paying customers. And judging from the comments there it looks like these jokers actually have enough sense to know that they can't use these images without a license. So if some teenager wants to download my stuff to make a nice wallpaper image for his computer, he can have at it as far as I'm concerned. I'm not about to waste a minute of my time worrying about it, and I'm certainly not going to give subscriptions a second thought over it.

And don't think you're protected from this. istock content shows up on pirate sites all the time. And sooner or later istock will force some exclusive content into ThinkStock, and you'll be in the same boat as everyone else.