MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Pixmac => Topic started by: leaf on October 21, 2008, 14:02
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A press release just sent out today
Pixmac Celebrates 1 000 000 Picture Milestone
October 21, 2008 - Prague, Czech Republic - Pixmac, the sharpshooter among young microstock picture agencies, announces the reach of 1 000 000 picture Milestone. The content makes a unique collection of high quality life style pictures available on Pixmac exclusively. Beside this, the collection contains a broad range of pictures of different subjects.
Moreover, offering free keywording for contributors, Pixmac aims to have professionaly keyworded pictures enabling to provide for its customers not only high volume but especially easy search and relevant search results.
About Pixmac
Pixmac is a young dynamic microstock agency, operating on the microstock market until quite recently.
Based in Prague, the heart of Europe, Pixmac has grown since its start up in August 2008 rapidly and aims to rank among the leading microstock agencies operating worldwide.
[pixmac (http://www.pixmac.com)]
So who is Pixmac and where did they get their images? I am guessing / hoping that they are using an API of fotolia or stockxpert or someone because most everyone's pictures are there and I assume they are legit! .. I hope we are getting are dues!
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Well, it doesn't look like they take vectors, so that automatically drops it from my future consideration list. You eliminate a huge buyer segment by not offering EPS files. Even if you do photographs only, this should be a consideration in evaluating an agency.
After a cruise through on popular subjects, was not able to randomly hit upon an image that had at least one download. Even some really good looking images have zero.
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I have 112 photos from my portfolio on their site. And their watermarks is useless. Who are these guys?!
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I know by my user name there that they have nothing to do with FT , DT, SS, IS , they could be connected with 123RF or SX
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My images are there as well. Ive contacted them... We'll see what they say.
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Strange , some of my images are listed under my name , and quite a few under anonymous
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My images are there as well. Ive contacted them... We'll see what they say.
I've contacted them too. There is no sign of API affiliation on their website. And yes, a lot of my photos are listed under "anonymous".
Later edit: the photos are from Fotolia.
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Fotolia?!?!?!! I wonder if it's another site like that one where you could purchase a canvas of an image.. It will be interesting to see how they respond to my inquiry.
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http://www.pixmac.com/picture/lines/000000205228
versus
http://www.fotolia.com/id/2763000
I don't think there would be another agency which will allow the keyword "fotolia".
Besides, there are other ways to find out where the photos come from.
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Very strange...
When you clic on one of your pictures, it shows also similar pictures and on the left side «Fresh pictures by...», and these are also my pictures.
but then if you clic on the link «All pictures of this author» , it shows random pictures, NOT by me.
I don't like this...
Claude
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Found my portfolio also there... and funny thing.. according to their stats i've sold already 2 pictures with them.....
Now i would like to know from what site they are getting those pictures.
Patrick H.
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A press release just sent out today
Pixmac Celebrates 1 000 000 Picture Milestone
October 21, 2008 - Prague, Czech Republic - Pixmac, the sharpshooter among young microstock picture agencies, announces the reach of 1 000 000 picture Milestone. The content makes a unique collection of high quality life style pictures available on Pixmac exclusively. Beside this, the collection contains a broad range of pictures of different subjects.
[pixmac (http://www.pixmac.com)]
I don't understand... they get their pics from Fotolia (what probably mean that these pics are in many microsites besides of Fotolia) and they claim to offer all "exclusive content"? If that is rigth, this doesn't inspire trust at all.
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They say that my portfolio is there since 1970... extrange thing.
With the default order in the searches I would say that the images can from Fotolia
Have you seen that you can register as a contributor with them?
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that is bizarre!
I found my photos too.To begin with ,according o them I had been regstered with them since 1970(I had not even been born yet:)
I have not being credited as the copyright holder and they refer me as to anonymous author no name is mentioned and there is link saying all images by this author when I click the link it takes me someone else' s photos .
on the left side of the page there is a column showing fresh images of the author.all the images they show there are my ancient uploads.
I guess I have to contact them too. an explanation is certainly needed.
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1970... :o
that's scary! i don't even want to check to see if mine is there. but i deleted my fotolia account months ago, so hopefully, if as some of you think it's fotolia connected, then i shouldn't worry.
i hope for those of you who are there that something comes up to find out who or what this ppl are up to.
exclusive? yikes! :o
btw leaf, how do you find out about all these things? good detective work.
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Of course 1-1-1970 is some sort of default thing.
Funny it shows my images together in the left side, but no author's name. No sales credited to me.
This site appeared here earlier, in this thread, as a "new site":
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=3105.0
The member who posted it, bolis, has posted this in many forum sites and blogs, and is probably the person behind it.
Regards,
Adelaide
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wow! I signed up with them (anonymously) before I was born, and have exclusive images with them that are on at least 5 other sites. sounds good, right? ::)
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I think exclusive images would appear with icons in color, not shaded. I don't hve any exclusive images in FT, so I can't check.
BTW, are you guys positives images are from FT?
Regards,
Adelaide
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wherever they got your images from, i am sure that site wants to know too.
perharps some of you could contact fotolia, or whatever sites have your images and point them to this site. maybe they can investigate better then.
just thinking of a better way to go about checking into this.
i think the other stock sites will want to know too.
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I have one illustration there in a huge size that is only available in FT, StockXpert and FP. One other image is in FT and FP, but not in StockXpert.
I tried to find some photos that were rejected in FT but accepted in FP, but I couldn't - didn't search all, though. Not conclusive, as not all my images re in Pixmac.
Regards,
Adelaide
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Its another Fotolia affiliate. :P Otherwise why would fotolia be in the keywords? (like already mentioned by xalanx)
It seems a new one pops up every other day lately :-\
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Holy Hell! at the bottom of http://www.pixmac.com/termsandconditions
This website is owned and operated by Pixmac Ltd., Francouzská 31, Prague , Czech Republic. Although you may access this website from other territories around the world; by accessing this website, you agree that its use, the use of any material contained on the website and the use of all services provided, will be governed by the laws of the Czech Republic, no matter how it may differ from the laws of the country your accessing this website from. You can denounce this agreement but only after sending written notice to Pixmac. Pixmac has 30 days from receipt of your written notice to remove your account. However, all uploaded photos will remain available on the Pixmac website for 1 year from when their upload expires.
Edit to add: I checked a model image of ours. It's listed as Artist: anonymous, and no model release. (it's a self portrait image)
And does that paragraph mean that even if we petition to be removed, for the entire next year they will be collecting royalties on our images with no compensation to us?
I'm stunned. Not that I should be, but I still am.
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I have one illustration there in a huge size that is only available in FT, StockXpert and FP. One other image is in FT and FP, but not in StockXpert.
I tried to find some photos that were rejected in FT but accepted in FP, but I couldn't - didn't search all, though. Not conclusive, as not all my images re in Pixmac.
Regards,
Adelaide
We don't have any images at FP, so it's gotta be Fotolia
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Same for me, I don't have an account at FP and only started very recently on StockXpert, so it must be Fotolia.
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Yes, it's fotolia! I'm in fotolia with a different contributor pseudo name than other microstock sites and It's the same at pixmac.
The more funny: I can find at last my pictures with all the keywords, I have pictures of a famous lighthouse called "Cordouan", if you search it at fotolia you never find it, at pixmac it shows my pictures without bugs.
Maybe "Pixmac" is a "bugless" clandestine Fotolia?
If I understand correctly they sell our pictures and we'll never received any money in return? What can we do?
50% commission for non-exclusive rights and 60% for exclusive!!!
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I asked them for explanation using their contact form.
And I sent a ticket to FT support.
Let's wait for the answers...
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Very strange...
When you clic on one of your pictures, it shows also similar pictures and on the left side «Fresh pictures by...», and these are also my pictures.
but then if you clic on the link «All pictures of this author» , it shows random pictures, NOT by me.
I don't like this...
Claude
Yes, same here.
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Holy Hell! at the bottom of [url]http://www.pixmac.com/termsandconditions[/url]
This website is owned and operated by Pixmac Ltd., Francouzská 31, Prague , Czech Republic......You can denounce this agreement but only after sending written notice to Pixmac. Pixmac has 30 days from receipt of your written notice to remove your account. However, all uploaded photos will remain available on the Pixmac website for 1 year from when their upload expires.
And does that paragraph mean that even if we petition to be removed, for the entire next year they will be collecting royalties on our images with no compensation to us?
the thing is, none of you made that agreement to put your images with him.
so technically he cannot force you to keep your images for one year.
this abuse of authority is garbage. it protects himself. i think even if it is fotolia,
you can protest the misuse of authority to "hold your images hostage".
you can charge him for copyright infringement, as a group.
find a lawyer.
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Below is the reply to my note to them this morning. Guess we'll need to dig a bit more to make sure we are getting commissions from sales. Also, if you look at the link to All pictures of this author, there is no author info, so that link is broken.
Hello,
Pixmac is a new microstock agency. Beside our own collection, we also feature on our website the Fotolia collection because we have an affiliation and are Fotolia´s reseller. This is the reason you see your photos on our website, we are another distributing channel. We have no hires of Fotolia´s pictures - you will see all your downloads as well as your commission in your Fotolia account. In case there is any download of pictures you have uploaded on Fotolia, you still will get the same comission and you will be payed by Fotolia, like you would be by downloads through Fotolia directly.
If you have any other questions or need help, don´t hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to help you.
Have a nice day
Denisa
Pixmac
www.pixmac.com
[email protected]
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broken links / anonymous author / only small part of the photos / online since 1970 / etc are errors probably because the site is still under heavy development. However, it is NORMAL to state somewhere on the front page that they are a Fotolia affiliate.
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Ok, so Fotolia must notice us for each download on this site, we must also keep an eye on pixmac about the bugs ( portfolio, online since, author name, links etc.)
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If the image is anonymous, how . are they going to pay us for it?
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I got basically the same answer and replied back with the questions mentioned here (pirctures shown as anonymous, no credit given to the photographer).
Also I believe this is in violation of the ToS of the Fotolia API, as these do explicitely state that, if using the API, you must make it clear that you are doing so and must mention Fotolia.
Quote from these ToS:
"3.3 Additional License Terms for Partner API.
All users of the Partner API also agree as follows:
(a) You shall not sell Works or allow Works to be downloaded from Your Fotolia API Client. You shall solely use the Partner API to redirect End Users to the Fotolia Website for such End User to purchase or download Works. You shall not use the Partner API to illustrate or provide content to Your Fotolia API Client.
(b) You shall only derive revenue from Your use of the Partner API through Your participation in the Fotolia Affiliation Program. You shall not use the Partner API for any other commercial purpose and no fee shall be charged to End Users that use Your Fotolia API Client.
(c) You shall only derive revenue from the Affiliation Program in accordance with its terms and conditions. You shall only receive payments under the Affiliation Program if the link redirecting the End User to the Fotolia Website contains Your Affiliate ID in the manner described in the Fotolia API Specifications.
(d) You shall display on Your Fotolia API Client at all times a link to the homepage of the Fotolia Website.
(e) Your Fotolia API Client shall be publicly available and not require any login or other type of restricted access credentials. "
End Quote
...what as such is already a bit contradictory to Fotolia's own website, where they also talk about a "reseller API" (see here:
http://us.fotolia.com/Services/API/Introduction (http://us.fotolia.com/Services/API/Introduction)) which allows to "sell Royalty Free Images without any mention of Fotolia" - but there is nothing in the API ToS for such Reseller API....
strange as always with Fotolia. Let's wait what the response from FT will be. I proposed to them that they should make a list of partners using the API available on their website, but I doubt they will do...
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Below is the reply to my note to them this morning. Guess we'll need to dig a bit more to make sure we are getting commissions from sales. Also, if you look at the link to All pictures of this author, there is no author info, so that link is broken.
...trimmed...
Sounds like Denisa had an interesting morning... I got basically the same email, but with an added sentence (emphasis mine)
Pixmac is a new microstock agency. Beside our own
collection, we also feature on our website the Fotolia collection because we
have an affiliation and are Fotolia´s reseller. This is the reason you see
your photos on our website, we are another distributing channel. We have no
hires of Fotolia´s pictures - you will see all your downloads as well as
your commission in your Fotolia account. In case there is any download of
pictures you have uploaded on Fotolia, you still will get the same comission
and you will be payed by Fotolia, like you would be by downloads through
Fotolia directly. If you upload any pictures directly on Pixmac, you will
get payed for this images directly by Pixmac. If you don´t want your images being displayed
on our site, please let us know, we will delete them from the portfolio
... I proposed to them that they should make a list of partners using the API available on their website, but I doubt they will do...
I was wondering the same thing. It sure would be nice to know who FT is selling through as it would make life easier on just about everyone (no support tickets with FT about it, none with the other agency, and no postings like this on forums where anyone can read).
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My images are all credited with my name and all of them say that they have had 1 dl.
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I received almost the same email, but there is one sentence referring to the issue of being anonymous.
(emphasis mine)
Hello,
Thank you for your email. Pixmac is a new microstock agency. Beside our own collection, we also feature on our website the Fotolia collection because we have an affiliation and are Fotolia´s reseller. This is the reason you see your photos on our website, we are another distributing channel. We have no hires of Fotolia´s pictures - you will see all your downloads as well as your commission in your Fotolia account. In case there is any download of pictures you have uploaded on Fotolia, you still will get the same comission and you will be payed by Fotolia, like you would be by downloads through Fotolia directly. If you upload any pictures directly on Pixmac, you will get payed for this images directly by Pixmac. Unfortunatelly there was a mistake in displaying the names and there appeared pictures as "anonymous". The mistake had been already fixed, but it will be visible on the website tomorrow. By the dynamic preview (appears when you go with the mouse on the picture, without clicking on it) you can see your name as author.
If you have any other questions or need help, don´t hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to help you :)
Have a nice day
Denisa
Pixmac
so, apparently they are faster at fixing broken things than fotolia ;D
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mmmmmhh and what would happen if you upload to pixmac the same image as you have already online at Fotolia?
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mmmmmhh and what would happen if you upload to pixmac the same image as you have already online at Fotolia?
A burly arm clenching a large mallet will come bursting out through your monitor and rap you squarely on the forehead leaving the permanent impression saying "Overabundant photo category" ;D :D ;)
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Fotolia is closing all threads relating to this.
I wonder why...?
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I'll be curious to see how Pixmac responds to my request to remove my portfolio from their site.
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Same for me, I don't have an account at FP and only started very recently on StockXpert, so it must be Fotolia.
Oh it is for sure, I can tell by rolling over one of my photos and the FT account name shows there, even though it doesn't in the portfolio ID. My FT account has a different name than the other photo sites. I'm also a default member since 1970.
A test search for "red pin" showed more pin ups with red hair than pins, ;D so they have same search problem that some other sites have had with partial words. Searching for the exact title of the FT photo returns no results, so if you are looking, they used the keywords and it doesn't look like they imported the Object Name data.
Looks like they are a reseller and if I read it right, they get a percentage for selling images from FT. If it credits back to my account as a FT sale then this means more exposure, and nothing lost.
When do we start the pool for the closing date, and the closest correct guess wins?
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Well they must have an internal deal with fotolia since they are clearly not an API seller. As an API seller they have to state that they are selling fotolia images and they can't sell directly from their own site.
But then why would fotolia close threads on this topic??
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Very simple. Because Fotolia is - as experienced in the past - not consistent in their business practice and their information about that.
If you look at the API section of the Fotolia website, you will find the mention of a Reseller-API, with a nice little picture as example how that works. And that picture shows the words "sell Royalty Free Images without any mention of Fotolia" - I quoted that above in this thread. That indicates, that Fotolia indeed wants to allow exactly the usage Pixmac is now doing. Strange thing now is, if you read the ToS for the API on the Fotolia website, this Reseller-API is not mentioned in there. And all other types of API do require the mentioning of Fotolia and the re-direction on the Fotolia webpage for sale of images - as you pointed out.
Conclusion? I am sure Fotolia has an agreement in place with Pixmac. And Fotolia obviously does not want to discuss this topic. And they don't want to publicly disclose their list of partners. For whatever reason...
One more thing: I read through the contract I have to accept when uploading an image. I am not a legal expert, but it looks as though this usage (Fotolia is giving a sub-license to Pixmac and allows them to sub-license the image in turn to end-users) is not covered by that contract.
What to make out of that? I don't know. First I'll wait for FT's response to my support ticket, though I do not expect that to clarify much...
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At least those guys are responsive and fast with updating their website.
If I click on one of my pictures the author info at the left now shows my FT acronym plus "@ftl" and if I click on "all pictures by this author" it really lists my pictures... At least these problems are getting sorted out.
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It seems that Pixmac released a product (a few days ago) that was not fully tested.
It now seems that the images are tagged as coming from Fotolia (although it is abbreviated "ftl") and include the author's username.
All of my images now show "GeoPappas@ftl".
My biggest complaint with the site (at this point), is that the watermark is very weak. It basically only works on dark images, which leaves light images open to theft.
I still have lots of questions in regards to this new site, including:
How much do we get for a sale? The site seems to sell per image sales that range from 1 to 15 credits. What is our cut?
How will we know that we had a sale from Pixmac? Will FT show the sale originating from Pixmac?
Why weren't we notified of this to begin with? It is pretty obvious that contributors are savvy enough to find out about this sort of stuff at some point, so why not notify us from the beginning? It would go a long way towards "customer relations".
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this is getting more complicated.
does this mean that someone can buy our images and resell them, without our knowledge.
and then what happens if Fotolia closes like PS, LO,etc... ?
how do the contributors know who else is selling our images?
is this only Fotolia? or does the other big 6 do the same thing? this is scary.
we are losing control of our images and money too...
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technically they don't buy and re-sell (as in buy once, re-sell often). My assumption how it works: It is more like a white-labelling solution. They show pictures from FT on their website (with no direct hint that this is FT) and when someone buys, they will forward that requrest to FT, where the sale is recorded as a sale from Pixmac. Their profit is the difference of their sale price and the price they pay at FT (if any) plus they will probably get those sales booked as referred sales from FT.
But I agree, it is somehow scary and I do not understand all the details yet...
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I have seen all my ftl images at pixmac and 0 sales so I can see if fotolia paid me for a sale.
If any of you had sales at pixmac, you can go to ftl and look for that sale
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Is there a way to opt-out of this type of 3rd party agreement at Fotolia?
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Well, my pictures there are not anonymous, but there is only a small fraction of my Fotolia portfolio there.
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What are prices compared to FT? And commissions?
I haven't checked FT forum, but it is annoying to have them closing threads without a reason. Delete offensive posts, but do not close a legitimate discussion.
Regards,
Adelaide
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What are prices compared to FT? And commissions?
As I posted above, the site seems to sell per image sales that range from 1 to 15 credits.
But I have no idea what the commissions are.
Also, I have checked a few of the larger contributors and they haven't sold much of anything yet. Out of the three contributors that I checked, there was only 1 sale among them.
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I'd looked at this site before but the FAQ put me off.. the spelling doesn't reek of professionalism.
" Please notice, that we will not make the payout without you will click on the buttom"
"If there are more poople in the picture" ;D
In fact, it might be fun to print out copies of the FAQ http://www.pixmac.com/infocenter/name/FAQ-photographers and then keep them on your desk to use as a wordsearch/spot the mistake while having a coffee break.
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What are prices compared to FT? And commissions?
As I posted above, the site seems to sell per image sales that range from 1 to 15 credits.
But I have no idea what the commissions are.
Also, I have checked a few of the larger contributors and they haven't sold much of anything yet. Out of the three contributors that I checked, there was only 1 sale among them.
If I understand correctly, we are paid what we normally would get paid from Fotolia. Reference the earlier posts on page one. The answers from Pixmac.
[/qoute] Hello,
Pixmac is a new microstock agency. Beside our own collection, we also feature on our website the Fotolia collection because we have an affiliation and are Fotolia´s reseller. This is the reason you see your photos on our website, we are another distributing channel. We have no hires of Fotolia´s pictures - you will see all your downloads as well as your commission in your Fotolia account. In case there is any download of pictures you have uploaded on Fotolia, you still will get the same comission and you will be payed by Fotolia, like you would be by downloads through Fotolia directly.
[/qoute]
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good to see they put my name on my pictures and they also mention fotolia in some way. (not so openly but with abbreviation),which could end the confusion.and according to current numbers they sold several hundred of my files.not bad:)
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Thank you guys for all the feedback!
Actually, there is too much to improve at Pixmac. We know that and we are working every day on that.
If anyone of you would like to tell us something, the fastest way is to post a comment in our blog at http://blog.pixmac.com
For example, there is a clarification of the Fotolia issue here: http://blog.pixmac.com/2008/11/24/why-do-i-have-my-photos-at-pixmac/
Thank you again, Vitezslav
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congrats zager, and thx for the URL to the blog. i wish you more success.
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Zager,
It is interesting that FT said in the forum that exclusive images are available through API resellers, as they are still FT image bank. In the blog you say they won't show in Pixmac. Is that an optional thing for you as a reseller? I'm just curious, as I don't have anything exclusive with FT.
Regards,
Adelaide
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To madelaide: My assumption is that, there are two levels of the API. Basic which redirects customers to FT site and another, which Pixmac is using, that bills customer right on the side of the reseller. Anyways, here is more about that: http://www.fotolia.com/Services/API/Introduction
The other thing is, that from my point of view, FT exclusive pics should remain just on FT site. Is seems clear to me then. But that is my personal opinion :-)
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I have images exclusively at Fotolia and they are showing as available for download on pixmac site, so exclusive photos are available there not just non-exclusives. I tested the site a while ago by purchasing some of my own images and I still get the same commission as I would do if the image was sold directly from Fotolia. The sale displays in my sales member area as a purchase from/by Pixmac. I see no problems with this from my point of view.
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Sophia, thank you for this. It's weird that FT exclusives are at Pixmac. But I'll check it with our tech guys soon and will find the best solution to have this acceptable for everybody.
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Why would FT exclusives at pixmac be a problem? Fotolia is obviously happy with that and I as a contributor don't see any problem with that...
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Yes, propably we will make it like that. The discussion here sound the same...
Thank you!
Vitezslav