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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Image Sleuth => Topic started by: Justanotherphotographer on June 15, 2016, 14:46

Title: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on June 15, 2016, 14:46
all-free-download dot com

and the worst thing about them is that they again seem to be funded by SS affiliate links. Seems to be wholly made up of stolen work. Please take a look for your work on there.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Shelma1 on June 15, 2016, 15:14
I clicked on one of my vectors there and it took me to shutterstock. Then the site stopped working. I wonder if someone reported them to godaddy.

Edited to add: Shutterstock seems to be down again, which is probably why the site stopped working. It seems to be just links to Shutterstock.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Shelma1 on June 15, 2016, 15:30
I was on my iPad. I walked over to my laptop and see now that I can indeed download my vectors for free.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on June 15, 2016, 15:48
They have the referal links to SS but also a shed load of stolen work for free download. I can't believe SS is so desperate for traffic or cares so little for their contributors that they pay out to these people. It's really sickening.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Shelma1 on June 15, 2016, 16:09
I've filled out the long copyright violation form for go daddy. If anyone else needs to write to them, you'll find a link to the form on this page: https://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc.aspx?pageid=TRADMARK_COPY&prog_id=GoDaddy&regionsite=www&marketid=en-US (https://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc.aspx?pageid=TRADMARK_COPY&prog_id=GoDaddy&regionsite=www&marketid=en-US)
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: stockastic on June 15, 2016, 18:07
What the heck is this site and how does it supposedly work?  It supposedly has some legitimate connection to SS?  It seems to be utter cr@p. 
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 15, 2016, 18:50
Thanks for pointing this sad little site out. I checked and although my images show up as "Advertising", I can't find any being offered free.

I think it would be better if Shutterstock exercised more control over who gets to use their API this way. Some of the sites are so sleazy it can't help SS enough to be worth looking like a low-rent flea market.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Shelma1 on June 15, 2016, 19:11
What the heck is this site and how does it supposedly work?  It supposedly has some legitimate connection to SS?  It seems to be utter cr@p.

They have some stolen work available for free download and also offer affiliate links to Shutterstock content. I heard from GoDaddy and they don't host the site...I've emailed another web host to ask if they do.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: stockastic on June 15, 2016, 21:56
I'm a former software developer and  I can't comprehend how a reputable company like SS would create a public available API - giving access to their content and branding, and allowing users to profit from passed-through transactions (which I assume what this "affiliate link" thing does) - without a formal licensing agreement involving a vetting of the 3rd party company, a license fee sufficient to discourage non-serious users, and an inspection and approval process for the resulting 'partner' sites.   If SS actually profits from sales that these 'partners' bring in by offering stolen content on the same page, then SS is, in my mind, complicit.   
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: cathyslife on June 16, 2016, 07:08
What the heck is this site and how does it supposedly work?  It supposedly has some legitimate connection to SS?  It seems to be utter cr@p.

Yeah, I can't figure out how they can even make enough money to pay for hosting fees. I notice they have a sister site buy sell graphic dot com and those are graphics (stolen?) actually for sale, so maybe this free site helps with SEO? I went through 98 pages of free food photos. At the bottom of the page there were 6 images pulled in from SS. The images weren't even of food, though. On all 98 pages, they were images of a sky.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: ArenaCreative on June 17, 2016, 07:02
It also links to images here on this pixabay free photos site. Looks to me just like another crap terd pile of garbage freebies.  There will be a few good images mixed in with a pile of garbage.  I used to scour through websites like these back in the day, when I worked for a company that was too cheap to get me a stock photo buyer's account.

Maybe this site is just an affiliate link grab/type setup.  They send traffic, and refer sales for profits, and they have a few ads to generate some adsense revenues.  Who knows; they probably won't last too long.  These types of websites come and go.  They never last too long.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Shelma1 on June 17, 2016, 08:38
Well, that "crap terd pile of garbage freebies" includes some of my best-selling vectors, and I recognize quite a few other best-sellers from other vector contributors. (In fact, one category I'm looking at is all bestsellers from SS.)

So thanks for the portfolio review, and also for admitting you've used stolen vectors in the past.  ::)
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on June 17, 2016, 13:29
I agree there's a lot of excellent (and best selling) stolen work on there. Anyone with even the slightest understanding of the stock industry shouldn't be going anywhere near sites like this as anything good is bound to be pinched. Has anyone tried their dmca process?
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on June 17, 2016, 13:30
What the heck is this site and how does it supposedly work?  It supposedly has some legitimate connection to SS?  It seems to be utter cr@p.

Yeah, I can't figure out how they can even make enough money to pay for hosting fees. I notice they have a sister site buy sell graphic dot com and those are graphics (stolen?) actually for sale, so maybe this free site helps with SEO? I went through 98 pages of free food photos. At the bottom of the page there were 6 images pulled in from SS. The images weren't even of food, though. On all 98 pages, they were images of a sky.
I think the agencies pay handsomely for traffic. It's only the contributors that get a raw deal.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Hannafate on June 17, 2016, 14:33
Heck, for all we know, it's money laundering.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Dodie on June 17, 2016, 14:59
What about this site: see the URL in the quote. Free download for commercial use, vectors/ photos, some need credit and some have this note:

Quote
This image is provided by a third party, not by Freepik.com

- Freepik.com neither selects nor examines, controls, guarantees, approves or sponsors this image.
- This image is provided under the terms and conditions applied by the relevant third party.
Before downloading the image, you must read such terms and conditions and make sure that they are consistent with your intended use of the image. You are solely responsible for complying with any third party terms and conditions.

Is this legit?
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on June 17, 2016, 15:17
What about this site: see the URL in the quote. Free download for commercial use, vectors/ photos, some need credit and some have this note:

Quote
This image is provided by a third party, not by Freepik.com

- Freepik.com neither selects nor examines, controls, guarantees, approves or sponsors this image.
- This image is provided under the terms and conditions applied by the relevant third party.
Before downloading the image, you must read such terms and conditions and make sure that they are consistent with your intended use of the image. You are solely responsible for complying with any third party terms and conditions.

Is this legit?
As far as i can tell they used to host mostly stolen work pulled from all over the internet. Now it seems they mainly employ people to create copies of best sellers from the other stock sites. They also host work for legit artists who get paid a fraction of a cent per free  download. You would have to me be mad to give them your work as any buyer on the legit micro sites will be furious when they find the work they just paid for for free on another site.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: Shelma1 on June 17, 2016, 15:32
No, freepik is not legit. Shutterstock has already asked them to take down my stolen work.
Title: Re: The worst site I've seen in a long time
Post by: stockastic on June 17, 2016, 16:13
Many cr@p sites like this aren't really in the business they say they are.  They're actually just pushing out malware and have no expectation of making a dime from their apparent "business plan".