interesting ...  in their career page there's this job position :

"Search and Data Mining Engineer

You will be responsible for mining our deeply linked data set connecting millions of people to the objects they love. Our data set gives us the opportunity to provide personal recommendations of unprecedented specificity and quality. Your work will help millions of people discover products, services and places they love."


so, it seems they recognize their search function sucks and they're realizing that unkeyworded images are impossible to find easily, their job description also clearly mention they plan on working on automted "recommendation" .. what's that exactly ? "related images" ? related pins ? related links to e-commerce sites ? how will this work, of course by cross checking the keyworkding and making keyword ranks on density etc .. hmm ...let's see ...

they also clearly state "discover products" and this can only mean they will add something suggesting links to buy products related to their pins ... if i steal and pin a photo of the Tour Eiffel i will be served with a box with ads from travel agents, hotels, etc .. i guess !

so, a poor man's Adsense basically but i'm afraid they're going to integrate everyting inside pinterest in a huge pin & buy scenario, a mix of Flickr, Ebay, and Amazon more or less, all based on stolen photos !

In an interview with Financial Time, Rakuten CEO calls it "discovery shopping".

http://blogs.ft.com/tech-blog/2012/05/rakuten-ceo-pinterest/

And in case you missed it Rakuten is the new $100mil investor in Pinterest. In effect, all the mindless Pinhags will become shills for Pinterest. So Antistock, you're correct in your assessment here. It will become all about the commerce. Rakuten now also controls Buy.com, so look for a head to head battle with Amazon.

Now let's take it a little further - let's suppose that pinterest is somehow willing to pay the pinhags a penny per sales conversion, or issue "Rakuten Points" as Buy.com does (I use Buy.com and points are issued to buyers for each purchase based on sales price.). The trailer trash housewives will be in a pin frenzy and will be able to get their chocolate covered bacon snacks for free. They won't be interested in stock photos anymore. It will be a fast sprint to get the Louis Vuitton handbags the husbands wont' let them buy.

And another article of interest

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/17/rakuten-ceo-on-the-100b-pinterest-round-we-want-pinterest-users-to-pin-images-and-buy-using-our-id/

I've modified my .htaccess file on my seanlockephotography.com site, so any attempt to pin from the Pinterest agent gets this image instead:
http://pinterest.com/pin/269793833897646473/
(which I host on their server, which is awesome)

Any ideas for better text?  That was just temp text...  I don't think anyone takes from my domain - I just wanted to write a blog post about it...

I would leave it. The words are small enough for them to understand.

So Brian....how is the solution going?

Yes Brian, inquiring minds want to know.

Actually I don't know how Veer could even think of doing this, especially when it's known that a lot of microstockers are double stuffing, meaning Alamy and the micros. Didn't anyone over there realize that there was going to be a conflict by submitting dupes? And if Veer didn't know that, then they don't know the business.

Also interesting is is that images are some images do not meet Alamy's size requirements. They're just being arbitrarily shoved up there.

I don't, I wasn't around back then (when it happened, I've only been doing this for just over 2 years). What happened?

Nice one about sleeping pills

They came around about 5 years ago I think. When the new what seemed to be fly by nights started, I had a specially prepared batch of 5 images that were, well, pretty much garbage by today's standards. I uploaded - they took them all. Only one other agency that shall remain nameless did too. It was a test to see how low the quality barrier was. All I can say was, pretty low. Turned out the place was run out of some apartment in Calif. Anyway, same old story - I had about 100 images there, 2 sales in a year. Some of the stuff on the site very sad. After while of basically no movement, I decided to pull out. I was one of the lucky ones where they actually did it for me. Because they stopped responding to support emails etc, and I think for awhile the site may have been offline. Looks like there is a new site design now that seems to be active, but perhaps only in the strict definition of the word. These days I've been deleting the losers, not keeping them.

A third thread. The Sigma 105mm is a fine lens. Since you don't seem to know what you want, you might be best going for the cheaper. Even then, 750 bucks for the Sigma is a lot of cash to shoot dates on coins. Do you have any experience here at all? Because the questions are basically repetitive. Your cheapest way out to test the waters would be with a reversing ring and the 50mm or tubes. Don't expect miracles as it takes a bit of work.

I you have actual access to the lens then borrow it . Only you can judge how good it is. You have the distinct option here in seeing if the lens fits your actual needs. It's a no brainer. Not everybody gets tat opportunity.

Why two threads on this stuff?

omg we're on Yuri watch again?

I take macro photos, and I sell macro photos.
Its all about what is the frame.
Go do a louse in a stacked macro, or a mosquitto...
It will sell well.

Half bees with shallow dof does not sell.

Do you use Zerene? Just curious.

With an average of about $100/mo in commissions at the old stockxpert, my applcation hung for something like 6 months even though I notified them of my former account when applying. Stockfresh can stick it. I'm on to bigger and better things so doesn't much matter any more..

I love the first name - EULA - pretty funny. That should be a clue at least to some right there.

You might try this site and do some hunting

http://cheesycam.com/

We use Kessler here, not exactly lightweight but we have big trucks.

Quote from: stormchaser on April 18, 2012, 05:54

Quote from: digitalexpression on March 16, 2012, 11:06

As far as the words "Facebook" and "twitter" go you can use them as long as they are not in the typeface and color that make up the logo. The logo is protected, the word isn't.

Helix7 has covered the rest. You'll know your made up fake logo is too similar when they reject it.

Sorry, but both words are protected as they are both registered trademarks. In fact in the case of facebook they even want to limit the use of the word Book by others, which of course is a bunch of crap, but they see things differently.'

http://mashable.com/2010/08/25/facebook-teachbook-lawsuit/

Paris Hilton tried to trademark the term "that's hot" and failed. Donald trump tried to trademark the term "you're fired" and failed. I could sue you right now for the use of the term stormchaser which I'm currently in the process of trademarking. Will I win a lawsuit like that? Doubtful. Referencing a lawsuit is not evidence of anything since anyone can sue anyone for anything. You can protect logos but not words and while facebook didn't exist as a word in common usage prior to the website the word twitter certainly did. It would be surprising if the courts allow facebook to control the use of the word book in any context but until they rule, it's not a fact.

The rejections here are a case of SS and IS playing it safe because they don't want any hassles and the reviewers are generally uninformed and make poor judgements much of the time.

Edit: The issue here is the specific context of a stock illustration, not in general terms. Here is a definition from a legal website on trademark: "a trademark is a distinguishing mark that one can readily associate to a person or business. One example of a symbol trademark is Nike's swoosh design. We all know that swoosh is identified with Nike." The swoosh is an element of the logo which is trademarked. That doesn't mean you can't ever use a swoosh in an image, you just can't use that particular swoosh design. A blue bird is associated with twitter but that doesn't mean you can't have a blue bird in an illustration. The key term in the definition above is "distinguishing mark" and I don't think a word alone qualifies unless it also resembles the style and design of the logo.

Companies do submit Wordmarks only and many times do not register a drawing.  The question that was asked is "Are Twitter and Facebook words protected?" Yes they are. This in direct opposition to your statement if "The logo is protected, the word isn't." Please go back to trademark school 101 and then talk to me.

and i hope server or blogger service will really suspense or take down a website if the users are violating copyrights..

In order for that to happen you need to use the best avenue for reporting and follow through on it. I just got done chasing down a few of those Pinterest people for having a bunch of my stuff there - food and wedding images. One girl got pretty snippy with me, so I had my attorney send off a note. That fixed it fast.

In order for people to mind your usage rights photographers need to decide if they want to take a stand on the issue, but many want to try to play the game both ways to see what's in it for them. There is no unified voice here. And the free image sites will just kill off micro, yet people still donate hoping for "exposure", and it's really the biggest joke going. You bought a camera for a thousand, another 5 hundred for a lens, and you are satisfied with your image being worth nothing? Gimme a break.

Good you got your image down. That the agency name was not correct bothers me - I would look into that a little. It could also have been a mistake in naming on the part of the blogger so don't overlook that possibility.