MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Image Sleuth => Topic started by: max headroom on October 25, 2014, 02:02
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http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2766565#2766565 (http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2766565#2766565)
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I've found some images of my friends as well. Let them know already.
This is unbelievable, so many images, best of internet, crossed all lines... If Alamy closes his account, he'll just open new I believe... :o ::) >:(
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Holy crap he has some of my photos as well ! I am reporting.
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Some of mine too. Spread the word guys, on all forums!
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I wonder how many other places he has this collection of 4000 stolen pictures. I hope Alamy sends him a bill for a refund. We need some laws to stop this.
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I've found some images of my friends as well. Let them know already.
This is unbelievable, so many images, best of internet, crossed all lines... If Alamy closes his account, he'll just open new I believe... :o ::) >:(
Agencies such as Shutterstock must be the follower of the images which they keep, at least after the contributors notice of copyright infringement. Because they also make money from the same images and has more power with lawyers than the individual contributors they represent.
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Selling collected images from microstock agencies in macrostock agencies must be the new job for image thieves. And the only solution for this is immediate reaction of agencies. Otherwise we may see many more from these. Agencies must defend the rights of their contributors.
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It would be helpful if the agencies would set up a database of stolen images that automatically flagged up any image going through inspection that had previously been identified in an account full of stolen material. Some agencies already identify and automatically reject duplicate uploads, so it's perfectly possible to do it. It would be a very imperfect way of catching thieves but at least it would prevent people like this guy from repuloading the same files and would catch anyone else trying to steal the same files (it looks as if these may simply have been sorted by most popular and then downloaded - if several thieves use that technique then it might be possible to identify or deter a number of them and make them resort to more time-consuming methods of harvesting files).
Whether any of the sites love us enough to make what would probably be a fairly modest change to the approval process is questionable, but it would help their image and save time for their reviewers if they did.
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I wonder how many other places he has this collection of 4000 stolen pictures. I hope Alamy sends him a bill for a refund. We need some laws to stop this.
A bill for a refund would simply leave Alamy with stolen money - a refund followed by a payout to the owners of the copyright would be appropriate - perhaps the collection could be kept viewable so microstockers could lodge claims for any sales of their images by submitting the file numbers. It's not going to happen, though, is it? More likely, if Alamy want to clean their hands of this cash they will just give it to their charity. Or maybe they will just keep it. The sales must have amounted to thousands of dollars a month.
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Can you all, that found your pictures in his portfolio, please send an email to Alamy. Because his account is still active.
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Can you all, that found your pictures in his portfolio, please send an email to Alamy. Because his account is still active.
I'm not sure how many employees Alamy has working over the weekend.
If anyone has files stolen and sells on Alamy, you could contact their MS (I think their Indian MS members work weekends, but could be wrong about that) and also perhaps post on 'Ask the forum' to ask the fastest way to contact them over weekends.
I'd do it, but I'm not successful enough to be copied.
Interesting how going through that port clearly shows his strategy of searching/copying first one subject, then another and uploading them in blocks.
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All images removed! :)
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All images removed! :)
Nope. Still there.
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Actually, it's a pity this was the thread with follow-ups and the Alamy thread was garbaged, because there isn't much chance that anyone from Alamy will look at a thread on the SS forum.
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Actually, it's a pity this was the thread with follow-ups and the Alamy thread was garbaged, because there isn't much chance that anyone from Alamy will look at a thread on the SS forum.
Agree! Looks like some do not want anyone to know. Even aggrieved contributors responding this thread complained about duplication on Alamy thread.
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Actually, it's a pity this was the thread with follow-ups and the Alamy thread was garbaged, because there isn't much chance that anyone from Alamy will look at a thread on the SS forum.
Agree! Looks like some do not want anyone to know. Even aggrieved contributors responding this thread complained about duplication on Alamy thread.
Sorry, didn't realise they were in different folders. Maybe this entire thread could be transferred to the Alamy forum.
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Actually, it's a pity this was the thread with follow-ups and the Alamy thread was garbaged, because there isn't much chance that anyone from Alamy will look at a thread on the SS forum.
Agree! Looks like some do not want anyone to know. Even aggrieved contributors responding this thread complained about duplication on Alamy thread.
Sorry, didn't realise they were in different folders. Maybe this entire thread could be transferred to the Alamy forum.
Actually both or more threads of different agencies should exist so that everyone can be aware of the situation of such an important issue for all of us.
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Here we are on Alamy thread and left behind the copyright owners of stolen images in shutterstock thread unaware. Thief in Alamy must be happy now!
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There's no pleasing some people.
If you open a thread about one issue in every single forum you end up with a completely fragmented conversation. Maybe it would be OK to post a thread redirecting to this one?
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Here we are on Alamy thread and left behind the copyright owners of stolen images in shutterstock thread unaware. Thief in Alamy must be happy now!
Are the stolen images only available from SS? I thought SS didn't believe in exclusivity, artist or images?
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Here we are on Alamy thread and left behind the copyright owners of stolen images in shutterstock thread unaware. Thief in Alamy must be happy now!
Are the stolen images only available from SS? I thought SS didn't believe in exclusivity, artist or images?
Nope, images could be from every agencies but I have opened in SS thread due to it is the number one. Now watch how low will the viewer and quoted people number be in this "unfragmented" thread.
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Here we are on Alamy thread and left behind the copyright owners of stolen images in shutterstock thread unaware. Thief in Alamy must be happy now!
Are the stolen images only available from SS? I thought SS didn't believe in exclusivity, artist or images?
Nope, images could be from every agencies but I have opened in SS thread due to it is the number one. Now watch how low will the viewer and quoted people number be in this thread.
A quick sample google search shows some of these images at a wide range of other legitimate and not-so-legitimate sites.
I'd think that the link post should be on ImageSleuth, i.e. a post there linking to this thread on Alamy. Hopefully someone from Alamy might see it sooner rather than later.
Indeed, I just tried one, which isn't actually on SS, but is on DT.
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Interesting how going through that port clearly shows his strategy of searching/copying first one subject, then another and uploading them in blocks.
I think he's downloading those theme packages from pirate sites, that's why they are in blocks.
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I hit the agree button ten times but it only gave you one. ;)
Yes that was my immediate thought. I hope the agencies keep track so the same collection, doesn't just come back again, under a new name.
Another thing is, with the checks and balances, don't people have to provide ID and get verified? (which some people resent... ???) Shouldn't this persons personal info be saved as well to help prevent future abuse or a new account, repeating the same?
It would be helpful if the agencies would set up a database of stolen images that automatically flagged up any image going through inspection that had previously been identified in an account full of stolen material. Some agencies already identify and automatically reject duplicate uploads, so it's perfectly possible to do it. It would be a very imperfect way of catching thieves but at least it would prevent people like this guy from repuloading the same files and would catch anyone else trying to steal the same files (it looks as if these may simply have been sorted by most popular and then downloaded - if several thieves use that technique then it might be possible to identify or deter a number of them and make them resort to more time-consuming methods of harvesting files).
Whether any of the sites love us enough to make what would probably be a fairly modest change to the approval process is questionable, but it would help their image and save time for their reviewers if they did.
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Had a job finding this thread. Might be more noticeable in 'General Stock Photography'.
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Would be even better if Tyler created a separate topic called "Copyright Infringement"
It's the most important issue for us contributors and deserves a topic on it's own. Those not interested can avoid it but those that are interested, be it contributors or agency staff can quickly find it.
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Would be even better if Tyler created a separate topic called "Copyright Infringement"
That's what the Image Sleuth forum is used for.
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Strewth, Image Sleuth! Didn't know it existed until now!
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For a while I was getting errors when trying to access that link, (I guess, due to many visits), so I assumed the portfolio has been shut down. However, now I see it is still up.
It would be a decent gesture by both agencies to inform us what action has been taken toward that individual (beside closing the port).
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It's weekend. No any action till Monday, I guess. Aren't they suppose to have some kind of 24 hours service in case of an emergency, like police, firefighters etc. do?
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Yes, because copyright infringement is as bad as your house on fire, or breaking a leg
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For a company that is open for business during the weekend, it's incredibly irresponsible that there's no one there to ensure things are running correctly. Sure it's not life and death, and not curating new uploads during the weekend is one thing. But when there is clear fraud happening and the whole crew is off sipping martinis while many of their contributors are getting their intellectual property stolen, that's pretty irresponsible management. Especially knowing all they'll probably do is close the criminal's account and he and Alamy will end up pocketing the profits. The only losers are the artists whose work has been stolen who won't see a penny from the sales made during their inaction, and Alamy clearly couldn't care less.
Add it to the list of reasons why Alamy proves to be the laziest stock agency out there.
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Has anyone posted it on the Alamy forum yet?
If so, it's been deleted.
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I can't read the link cuz I am banned from shutterstock forums >:(
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I can't read the link cuz I am banned from shutterstock forums >:(
You can't even read them?
I can read the link despite never having been a member of SS.
That's even worse than iS, where I can't post but I can read the forums.
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I just checked the:
http://mystockphoto.com/photo (http://mystockphoto.com/photo) and was amazed how many stolen images they have online.
They have many images still showing shutterstock name and original image number.
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I just checked the:
[url]http://mystockphoto.com/photo[/url] ([url]http://mystockphoto.com/photo[/url]) and was amazed how many stolen images they have online.
They have many images still showing shutterstock name and original image number.
A quick search did find some of my images, but clicking on them brought me to MY Shutterstock image page with just a referral link added to the address. Not stolen, just someone racking up referral income. Might even argue they're directing more customers to our shots. A bit different than someone uploading stolen images in their own name. But good find none-the-less, keep smoking out the thieves!
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I just checked the:
[url]http://mystockphoto.com/photo[/url] ([url]http://mystockphoto.com/photo[/url]) and was amazed how many stolen images they have online.
They have many images still showing shutterstock name and original image number.
A quick search did find some of my images, but clicking on them brought me to MY Shutterstock image page with just a referral link added to the address. Not stolen, just someone racking up referral income. Might even argue they're directing more customers to our shots. A bit different than someone uploading stolen images in their own name. But good find none-the-less, keep smoking out the thieves!
Agreed, this site simply looks like a referral site to Shutterstock. No big deal unless I am missing something.
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The random file I clicked on opened as a large jpg - I don't know if it is public domain or a stock image, but it sure looked stocky. A banner for Deposit Photos popped up at the same time but it wasn't a link to that image.
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We've terminated this account with immediate effect and will be investigating further.
Cheers
Alamy
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Worthy action.
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Immediate effect?
Account still active and still making money...
Although Alamy said that the thief had not received any money for sales through ALAMY. If you believe...
I wonder if Alamy received any money...
Must be a profitable portfolio that they DO NOT terminate...
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The change will show up after the next server update, it just looks active now.
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I was contacted by several people this weekend to take a look to see images of mine in this guy's port...yup, about 6 images)!! I'm actually selling some of the same images myself on A so I see duplicates there! :(
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Immediate effect?
Account still active and still making money...
Although Alamy said that the thief had not received any money for sales through ALAMY. If you believe...
I wonder if Alamy received any money...
Must be a profitable portfolio that they DO NOT terminate...
We have terminated the account, the server does not update immediately.
The thief has not received any money and we will be investigating who the images belong to that have sold and will be returning the owed funds to them.
Alamy
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Well, I do not expect any payment : there was only 1 of my images in his port, an image of a frog. But as the main keyword "frog" was removed (why did he do that??), I'm sure it was never sold. If he did the same with the other images, his business will not have been very lucrative.
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You get automatically paid on Alamy when you reach $75, so he must have been caught before reaching the threshhold.
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You get automatically paid on Alamy when you reach $75, so he must have been caught before reaching the threshhold.
All the effort of uploading there, for nothing :)
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Well, I do not expect any payment : there was only 1 of my images in his port, an image of a frog. But as the main keyword "frog" was removed (why did he do that??), I'm sure it was never sold. If he did the same with the other images, his business will not have been very lucrative.
I noticed he had a lot of animal photos just titled 'wild animal'.
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we will be investigating who the images belong to that have sold and will be returning the owed funds to them
Impressed.
Not sure whether I have ever heard of any of the microstocks ever doing this.
That should be the norm.
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One of mine is stolen and I have just reported it. Thanks guys for being vigillent
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Well, I do not expect any payment : there was only 1 of my images in his port, an image of a frog. But as the main keyword "frog" was removed (why did he do that??), I'm sure it was never sold. If he did the same with the other images, his business will not have been very lucrative.
He had one of mine too but his keywords were different. Mostly relevant but including some spammed keywords. perhaps he thought he wouldn't get caught with different keywords?
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Four of mine were stolen by this Adam Fier. I sent an email to Alamy on Sunday morning (my time) and received their response on Monday morning (their time). So congratulations to Alamy for swift and efficient response.
I am wondering whether this Adam Fier bought these images cheaply on another site, re-keyworded them and uploaded them to Alamy, hoping for a quick profit????
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He had one of mine too but his keywords were different. Mostly relevant but including some spammed keywords. perhaps he thought he wouldn't get caught with different keywords?
Well, lie has short legs... ;)
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Four of mine were stolen by this Adam Fier. I sent an email to Alamy on Sunday morning (my time) and received their response on Monday morning (their time). So congratulations to Alamy for swift and efficient response.
I am wondering whether this Adam Fier bought these images cheaply on another site, re-keyworded them and uploaded them to Alamy, hoping for a quick profit????
As noted above, I saw several of the files on 'dubious' sites, so they might have been downloaded from these.
It would be nice to think he had at least paid a bit for them, so he didn't profit from Alamy and the originators got something.
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I just checked the:
[url]http://mystockphoto.com/photo[/url] ([url]http://mystockphoto.com/photo[/url]) and was amazed how many stolen images they have online.
They have many images still showing shutterstock name and original image number.
A quick search did find some of my images, but clicking on them brought me to MY Shutterstock image page with just a referral link added to the address. Not stolen, just someone racking up referral income. Might even argue they're directing more customers to our shots. A bit different than someone uploading stolen images in their own name. But good find none-the-less, keep smoking out the thieves!
Agreed, this site simply looks like a referral site to Shutterstock. No big deal unless I am missing something.
Maybe the Shutterstock images all point to the SS site.
However, at least one FAA user reported on their forum that mystockphotos.com is showing her FAA images as free pictures, still including the FAA watermark in the right lower corner