Or, someone who really wants "personal use" may purchase "Presentation/Newsletters".

At any rate, the original is too cheap at both, a smaller size should be offered.

Alamy, respect your contributors! Be charitable to us!
I signed up to contribute to a photo agency , not do charity. Charities should be kept completely separate.

Cheap agencies like 123rf are based on self service. At these prices, you are supposed to search yourself.

If you want premium images, try other agencies.

Btw, I too have stopped contributing to 123rf.

Problems here too, can't log in. Tried multiple times.

I've just published a controversial post highlighting that most of my 9 "Personal / Home usage" license sales on Alamy appear to be misuses by buyers (such as the attached image). I'm not alone and this issue has been highlighted at the Alamy forum for years.

Has it happened to you?

See details within:

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2019/05/27/lets-discuss-alamy-personal-usage-licenses-misuse/

Thank you for writing about this issue.

Alamy's pricing is far from being consistent.

Offering a full size image at vague terms and at a price that is clearly off is a problem.

I've seen a couple of my images bought at PU terms and posted onto forums and such. For images which I offer as RM non-exclusive via other agencies, I have ticked the box "Don't sell for personal use including single copy, non-retail wall art prints" on AIM to disable PU, because of the vast difference in pricing. BUT the problem persist, the images are still available for "Presentations and newsletters" at the cheap PU price. It is not fair to me, to the buyer, or the agency if buyers will get the image at 9.90 Euro on Alamy and from other agency at 25.90-29.90 Euro.

Surely some users will purchase the cheapest license and use the image the way they want to. I've seen this happen. Few bother to read the boring print "how to use".

So what is there to do? Alamy should make changes to pricing, it is insane to offer a full size image at vague terms and at such a low price that's not in line with other agencies.



 

Weighing the potential sales & potential trouble, I would not upload these images.

Would it really be too bad if we started off just by making a ton of noise. I've been reading a little and as of now it seems like the most fair agencies are Alamy (images) and Storyblocks (vidoes). Can we start raising this to creatives on twitter, instagram, facebook. A simple message along the lines of take your business to these players to help us make better content by giving us more money/time to invest.

There's already noise. Noise gets ignored.

What we need is a realistic plan.

> Make an exclusive account with whatever agency is the fairest - Pond5, Alamy, Storyblocks

Or accept only (40) 50% share at the lowest.

I have deleted my account with SS due to the image abuse via Facebook... and have stopped uploading many other micros for multitude of reasons, one being this free trial nonsense and  of course, microscopic payments. Stopping this free giveaway nonsense and protecting our work from illegal image use would be important for me.

I believe the suggested plan can be realized. This team effort should be well structured, so that everybody stays informed, knows the plan and and stays motivated, and more importantly we need the leverage of a group.

It was easier to keep track on sales with the real time notifications. Nothing wrong with many emails per day. It is easy to delete emails after reading but harder to log in the site and remember passwords etc.

Quote from: Brasilnut on March 14, 2019, 12:20

I've had 50cent net sales on Alamy as well and $112 net on SS so it can work both ways.

And I've had the same file selling for high and very low prices on Alamy RF; and also high and low prices for the same file on iS. (Different files on each agency).

Yes, it can go both ways, but high sales are more common on Alamy, and much less common on SS, iS, and similar.

What we rather do or not is really irrelevant. We're here to provide a service to buyers.

Why can't you sell at both? Today, I've had the same image sell on both Alamy and SS...


[/quote]

You say we are here to provide a service to the buyers. What will the buyer think when the exact same photo costs just cents on SS and 10 USD minimum on Alamy? Isn't it confusing?  Is it good service? They probably won't be happy finding out that the image they just bought at 150 USD on Alamy costs a fraction of that on SS.

True, we are here to provide a service, but it's not a free service. We're trying to earn income (like Pauws99 here already mentioned). Everyone needs to decide for themselves what works. Personally I would rather keep RM and premium RF images on Alamy and on better paying agencies, and keep my "standard" RF images on micro sites.

Travel photography, the genre Robert Harding represents, is heavily competed. It may be true that some genres (like travel) sell better as RF. However this doesn't mean RM would be dead. For many genres and industries, it is alive and well. RM is not inflexible, it can be tailor made for the buyer.

Interesting that on the stock photography site Robert Harding - a photographer -  founded contributors earn only 30%. !

Alamy puts blog size images out there and it's easy to take screenshots, and they say:

"We can�t chase unauthorised uses on your behalf if your image�

Has been used in a personal (non commercial) blog or on an individual�s social media platform."

I'm really surprised MORE people aren't concerned.