MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: Dumc on June 14, 2016, 23:22

Title: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: Dumc on June 14, 2016, 23:22
Just sth. you might be interested in.

http://petapixel.com/2016/06/14/getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos-facebook/ (http://petapixel.com/2016/06/14/getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos-facebook/)
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on June 14, 2016, 23:54
Go getty! Great to see an agency being proactive like this. It's a shame they are so terrible in so many other ways. If only we could combine the best parts of each agency into one.
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: everest on June 15, 2016, 00:33
Go getty! Great to see an agency being proactive like this. It's a shame they are so terrible in so many other ways. If only we could combine the best parts of each agency into one.

Agree on that......many more pirates should fall and many more agencies should take this proactive stand.
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: Shelma1 on June 15, 2016, 04:57
Great! (I wish Shutterstock would sue freepik instead of continuing to pay them as an affiliate after they stole thousands of vectors.)

However. Knowing Getty's history, my guess is that they'll sue for damages, collect the judgement for themselves, and take back the royalties from the photographers whose images were downloaded and resold. I very much doubt the photographers will ever see any money from this. Although it is good to send a message about stealing images.
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: ShadySue on June 15, 2016, 05:24
The margins just aren't there in micro selling to allow for expensive legal cases.
For at least a year after I reported the fiverr gigs featuring Thinkstock images, they were still up, as (IIRC) were the SS ones there which other people reported to SS.
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: Justanotherphotographer on June 15, 2016, 09:13
Great! (I wish Shutterstock would sue freepik instead of continuing to pay them as an affiliate after they stole thousands of vectors.)

However. Knowing Getty's history, my guess is that they'll sue for damages, collect the judgement for themselves, and take back the royalties from the photographers whose images were downloaded and resold. I very much doubt the photographers will ever see any money from this. Although it is good to send a message about stealing images.

I have always found SS to be the slowest of all the agencies to react to reports about stolen images, and even then they make mistakes or decisions I often don't agree with. That's what I mean about wishing you could combine the best of each agency.
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 15, 2016, 09:19
The margins just aren't there in micro selling to allow for expensive legal cases.
For at least a year after I reported the fiverr gigs featuring Thinkstock images, they were still up, as (IIRC) were the SS ones there which other people reported to SS.

I just checked Fiverr yesterday after reading about the Getty lawsuit. About the only change I saw was that if you search for Shutterstock you get no results. If you search for stock photos there are still gigs offering large piles of images for $5 with what appear to be a variety of artists' images in the gig description. Fiverr apparently doesn't care as long as they make their 20% and I guess if the amounts lost stay small enough, the agencies don't care either.

It'd be nice if Getty's action had some sort of trickle-down effect, but I doubt it'll have any impact on the sleazy offerings at Fiverr, sadly
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: kingjon on June 15, 2016, 11:40
the search doesn't pull anything for stock photo - not sure if it is just down - nothing happens at all. There is always small claims court, I suppose. Where is Fiverr based, anyone know?
Title: Re: getty-sues-man-allegedly-sold-thousands-stolen-photos
Post by: PixelBytes on June 15, 2016, 22:46
Great! (I wish Shutterstock would sue freepik instead of continuing to pay them as an affiliate after they stole thousands of vectors.)

However. Knowing Getty's history, my guess is that they'll sue for damages, collect the judgement for themselves, and take back the royalties from the photographers whose images were downloaded and resold. I very much doubt the photographers will ever see any money from this. Although it is good to send a message about stealing images.

Yeah, great to go after the criminals, but they should reimburse the authors whose images were stolen and resold.  It's still our intellectual property.  I am sure their lawsuit claims to be acting on behalf of the copyright holders.  THAT'S US.