Thank you all so much for the support.
I assumed that they had taken down all the images involved, but when I checked the person who stole the images still had their files up while mine had been removed.
I don't blame anyone on here for the confusion, I appreciate everyone looking out for each others copyright and protecting the community's intellectual property.
I am shocked that Shutterstock took down the images without making sure they had it right, especially as I have been selling there for so many years.
I just hope they sort it out quickly.

I am surprised about that too. I hope they get it sorted out quickly for you, too.

Quote from: madelaide on October 14, 2010, 05:40

Does it happen often? I mean, that copyright problems like this are neglected by SS management?

I had nothing but trouble trying to get an image taken down.  I was told it was not 'close enough' looking.  These are my actual lips.  I had to get really angry and demand to see the terms that allowed such abuse before they would comply - and you know how I was 'rewarded' - my lips image that had been in the top 50 selling vectors off all time suddenly vanished from the list and subsequently stopped being a popular seller there.

My image was the #295298 - in the attached image.  Is it really that hard to see the other one was just a slightly tweaked and recoloured version?

Sorry everyone is having such a crappy time with Shuttertsock, I guess it's at times like these you see what a difference it makes when an artists success isn't a factor in an  agency's business model. It pays to remember with the subs model the more money you make the less they do.
There's no doubt those lips are the same, they have download the actual vector from either shutterstock or elsewhere and just run the simplify filter on the paths, so the look a bit less detailed than the original.
It's really starting to look like they can't be bothered to look into these things properly, or to put it another way, to try to look after their artists and their work. Either that or they are totally incompetent.

What is that silence after Microbius post?

Glad that that got sorted out.
The way SS are acting over the font issue is just too weird. They seem to have just deactivated all but the earliest zodiac set listed in my posts on this thread. It looks like they haven't even bothered to do a search for zodiac on the site or even read the posts properly: the zodiac font files weren't taken from the contributor linked to, they are taken from a common source (anyone, including SS admin, can just reread the thread to get get the idea, if they can be bothered to read it this time).

Lets see what happens if I do this:
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-4665649/stock-vector-set-of-vector-icons-for-twelve-zodiac-signs.html
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-4665646/stock-vector-set-of-vector-icons-for-twelve-zodiac-signs.html

A link to even earlier files using the same font, will they now delete the one they left up just because it happened to be the earliest I listed here?
Lame, lame, lame, start doing your job. Buyers deserve at least the smallest bit of diligence on SS's part.

I still can't believe the missed the fact that so many of "zodiac" files have the same content during the review process

ETA and a couple more examples just to show that I'm not expecting too much.
Remember this just happens to be a category that came up on the forum, not necessarily a particularly bad example and searching for images originating from a single source, I'm not even trying to compare between contributors to see if they have been "inspired" by each other.
All found in last few minutes:
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-49567072/stock-photo-illustration-of-a-zodiac-disc.html
and a whole series of zodiac signs in this guys portfolio all use a sometimes very slightly modified version of that graphxedge font

more from others:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-41327863/stock-vector-zodiac.html

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-41327866/stock-vector-zodiac-signs.html

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-34632994/stock-vector-background-marks-of-the-zodiac-a-vector-illustration.html

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-941653/stock-photo-zodiac-horoscope-brass-logo-virgo-d-illustration-background-wallpaper-clipping-path-copy.html
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-941601/stock-photo-zodiac-horoscope-brass-logo-aries-d-illustration-background-wallpaper-clipping-path-copy-space.html
etc. etc. another one with a whole set of illustrations based on the font

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-23352190/stock-photo-zodiac-signs.html
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-27388534/stock-photo-black-white-zodiac-symbols.html
and more in this port, font again, slightly modified

If they don`t give enough importance to the problem, than I should start to make some zodiac icons 

Yeah go for it, there's a ton of other nice clip art fonts on the same site that one came from too. While your at it why not trace other contributors photos too, they don't seem to care about that either as they don't ask for your source files:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/thief-among-us/msg167381/?topicseen#new
I wonder what buyers actually use Shutterstock, knowing what goes into the collection. Is it just there for as a resource Heroturko and his thieving friends now?

So what I don`t get is, if those symbols are font symbols from graphixedge, than how it`s possible that someone else is claiming the rights for it. But maybe I`m to shorty.

Oops - error on my part.

Here's a reject photo for your trouble to come and look here: