MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Image Sleuth => Topic started by: Jo Ann Snover on June 16, 2011, 00:55
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Someone has stolen a bunch of Shutterstock images and put them into a Picasa album on the web. See here (https://picasaweb.google.com/vuongot7647/ShutterstockBusiness).
I clicked on my image (blond woman with a headset) and the full size image is there. There's no EXIF in the image, but the image name - shutterstock_1482912 - is the Shutterstock image number.
I have submitted a DMCA takedown notice. Others with Shutterstock images might want to check for theirs. This isn't new, but courtesy of Google's new image search, I just came across it.
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I received a reply from Google/Picasa about my image - it's been taken down. The album remains though, so anyone else who has images in it will need to complain (I half hoped they might pull the rest as they're all from Shutterstock...)
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He actually has "Shutterstock-Business" as his album title. Did you contact Shutterstock?
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He actually has "Shutterstock-Business" as his album title. Did you contact Shutterstock?
That looks like it is business images swiped from shutterstock - he also has architecture
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Thanks for posting.
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I didn't contact SS yet, but I will - and point to this post for the details.
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That seems like a pretty fast response to a DMCA.
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It was much faster than in the past. Although I may be thinking of Yahoo (for Flickr) versus Google (for Picasa) - but even so, I've always had a response within 2-3 days.
My guess is that Google responded faster than SS will :)
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Shutterstock's "infringement claims" replied to my support ticket this morning. Thank you..we take theft very seriously....
However, the whole album is now gone, so either SS got Picasa to do it or they did it on their own in the meantime (I didn't check back until today).
For yucks, I did a Picasa search for Shutterstock and there were 6390 results. Tons more albums with (from the looks of the few I checked) unwatermarked SS images available for download in contravention of the license. Over 7400 hits for a search for iStock (again, many appear to be collections of images to download illegally vs. a contributor's own portfolio album). Fotolia over 3100 hits.
It's depressing. Couldn't the agencies hire someone to do the searches and DMCA notices on this? Isn't that part of what they get paid to do? I realize they just don't care and don't want to spend any money to protect our images, but I think if the agencies got tougher with Flickr/Yahoo, Picasa/Google, perhaps they could slow this down if not stop it.
At least the thieves might make more effort to hide what they've done. They appear not to bother as they think there are no consequences for doing this.
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Geez, all I had to do was search my name, and I found a ton of unwatermarked images. If people are going to make albums for work or something they need to keep them private.
I mean, do you assume these are legitimate buyers for the most part and are just not very smart?
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It's possible they are just people collecting their "work" purchases in a Picasa album, but that seems somewhat unlikely to me. A few, perhaps, but so many?
My priority is getting the albums down, regardless of whether they're inadvertent or larcenous in intent. Even if it's the former, I'm sure people with no scruples will have found these and grabbed the images. And if it is inadvertence, perhaps the agencies need to put something very specific in the buyer sections, reminding buyers they can't put the full size image in pubicly accessible places.
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Congratulations JoAnn, on getting the whole album removed. Really horrifying how many places our images are displayed for free download. Feels like lifting a dead log and seeing all the nasty bugs underneath.
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It's possible they are just people collecting their "work" purchases in a Picasa album, but that seems somewhat unlikely to me. A few, perhaps, but so many?
Yes, I'm think they're putting albums together for coworkers or clients to look at, but they leave it wide open to abuse. I can't imagine most people enjoy taking something they've spent money on, and consciously giving it away...
My priority is getting the albums down, regardless of whether they're inadvertent or larcenous in intent. Even if it's the former, I'm sure people with no scruples will have found these and grabbed the images. And if it is inadvertence, perhaps the agencies need to put something very specific in the buyer sections, reminding buyers they can't put the full size image in pubicly accessible places.
Yep.
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I sent site mail to Contour99 and MariaPavlova as they each had a full size image in this album (https://picasaweb.google.com/ushotelslibra/RoyaltyFreeImages).
Useful title - Royalty Free Images. There's a ton of stock in there - you might all want to browse and see if you recognize any of yours.
In the case of the two I sent site mail on, I recognized them as recent free image of the week at iStock. I wonder if someone thought that made this OK??
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I sent site mail to Contour99 and MariaPavlova as they each had a full size image in this album (https://picasaweb.google.com/ushotelslibra/RoyaltyFreeImages).
Useful title - Royalty Free Images. There's a ton of stock in there - you might all want to browse and see if you recognize any of yours.
In the case of the two I sent site mail on, I recognized them as recent free image of the week at iStock. I wonder if someone thought that made this OK??
Thanks for posting, JoAnne. I don't see any of mine, nor do I recognize any.
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I also sent site mail to Dieter and Donald Gruener as I recognized their images (santa and pumpkins at sunset). I think that as iStock is probably swamped with compliance stuff right now, getting individuals to do their own DMCA notices might be the fastest method.