Quote from: 9lives on February 01, 2013, 18:33
From my experiences on Zazzle they seem to take copyright pretty seriously and the community there that is active on the forums is more knowledgeable than the average internet user.  You have to click a specific box agreeing that you own the copyright of materials/ have the legal right to use them for each product created.

Well, that's reassuring at least.

BTW, just a couple of days ago Zazzle was busy taking down any designs that had anything to do with Fender guitars. So I guess they're on top of copyright infringement.

Quote from: polar on February 01, 2013, 16:53


I haven't tried using GD myself but as I understand comments from people who have, you can download high-res stock images from GD to your own computer, right? If so, what's to prevent you from uploading them to Zazzle from your hard drive?

That's what I was wondering too. Wouldn't it be easy to do?

Quote from: sharpshot on February 01, 2013, 18:15

Quote from: pegleg on February 01, 2013, 16:31

Quote from: sharpshot on February 01, 2013, 16:27
I did when I signed in with Zazzle recently.


I've been there for a long time but when I logged in recently there was message, something like if I continued, I agreed to these terms.  I clicked on the link and briefly read them before continuing.  This looks like it.
"As a guideline, you may contribute only original work that you have created yourself from original elements. This means you can't use images of celebrities or corporate products, nor images, text, or designs that you've copied from a website without written permission from the owner. You cannot create a "new" image using elements from images other people have created. You cannot contribute a quote or a slogan that is substantially the same as something already written by someone else. By uploading any Content, you represent and warrant that you have the lawful right to reproduce and distribute such Content and that the Content complies with all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances;"
http://www.zazzle.co.uk/mk/policy/user_agreement

Hmmm...well, I notice your link is for the UK site. I never saw any such agreement on the .com site.

Quote from: sharpshot on February 01, 2013, 16:27
I did when I signed in with Zazzle recently.

I'm sorry, I'm not following you...possibly because I hardly got any sleep last night. So you mean you recently joined Zazzle and there was a contributor agreement that you had to own the copyright to anything you used there? But the thing is, in the Google Drive deal, images are free to use commercially. It's a mixed message if nothing else.

Quote from: sharpshot on February 01, 2013, 16:09
They did have a new contributor agreement to sign recently and it looked to me that they were emphasising that people must own the copyright of the images they're using to sell products. 

Who had a new contributor agreement?

Quote from: a1bercik on February 01, 2013, 16:01
It was operational, I did not click buy...

Do you mean that you could upload a picture from Google Drive?

O.K., well thanks for looking into it, guys. Since this is brand new on the Zazzle site, I hope it isn't that it's just not operational yet.

Quote from: Microbius on February 01, 2013, 12:54
Surely this can't be right?
I can't believe how bad this is getting!

I know... I'm a little tech-challenged and was wondering if it really is true. Can't sleep...this is like a nightmare.

I think you have to have a folder of saved images from Google Drive ahead of time. So go to Create tab > choose product > create > select image > then you have four options: pull an image from My Computer, My Images, Google Drive, or Instagram. If you have images stored already, click on Images. I don't have images stored in GD so the Images link isn't active.

Hope this is what you were looking for. It's the middle of the night here and now I'm going to try to get some sleep. Probably won't happen after discovering this though.

Just discovered that you can now add photographs from Google Drive and Instagram to products on Zazzle. I assume store owners on Zazzle will be able to make money on anything on GD. Just click on "create" and away you go. Unbelievable!

Quote from: polar on January 31, 2013, 19:09

Quote from: jsnover on January 31, 2013, 18:50

I didn't know that Getty had made it imposible for their Flickr contributors to select items to remove - seems most unreasonable as you could be offered a deal for purchase of the rights, for example, and want to remove just that image but keep the rest. Fits with this growing theme of Getty removing choices from their contributors - other than "leave if you don't like it". They really are tightening those thumbscrews.

There have been some recent musings on the iStock forum about the possibility of forum bans and/or account terminations there:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=350913&page=12.

Yes, I was reading that last night. Lobo asks these questions:

1. If people deactivate their portfolios should they still be allowed to participate in the forums?
2. Should they be allowed to keep their accounts open?
3. Should we revoke their photog applications and make them reapply if they decide to come back?

At Flickr/Getty, photographers don't have any of those options open to them. As far as question 3 goes, we can't reapply in any case.

Quote from: jsnover on January 31, 2013, 18:50
There had been some mention of the Flickr contributors from Sheila Smart - in her blog and the Fred Miranda forums

Thanks, I've read Sheila's post about it and I've been meaning to drop a line and show my support. I haven't seen the Fred Miranda forum discussion yet.

QuoteI didn't know that Getty had made it imposible for their Flickr contributors to select items to remove - seems most unreasonable as you could be offered a deal for purchase of the rights, for example, and want to remove just that image but keep the rest. Fits with this growing theme of Getty removing choices from their contributors - other than "leave if you don't like it". They really are tightening those thumbscrews.

They often say something along the lines, "If you don't like it, you don't have to contribute". Their attitude is definitely take it or leave it. The thing is, they've changed the rules since I signed the contract. Paltry licensing fees from premium access and their portal partners were bad enough. Like I said before, the Google deal was the final straw for me.

QuoteThanks for posting here and you can add a link to this thread if you find - or create - any press about this issue. Do you use Facebook or Twitter and have you sounded off about this issue there already?

I'll add a link if I come across anything. I don't use FB much and haven't yet tweeted about it. I wanted to make sure my images were off their website and unavailable for licensing before I made any moves like that. I'm sure you  understand why.

Thank you, Poncke and cybernesco. Much appreciated.

Quote from: Poncke on January 31, 2013, 18:24
Thanks for sharing, if you dont mind, I will quote you in my next blog about this deal, tomorrow.

Yes, you can quote me on that! The more info that gets out there, the better.

Quote from: cybernesco on January 31, 2013, 18:19
I pegleg, are you the one that has posted a link of my blog in the Flickr contributor forum, because I did get a lot of traffic from there yesterday but could not get in to check it out because as you say it is a private forum.  Thanks for your side of the story!! Denis Pepin

Hi Denis, no, I'm not the one but I read your blog post and it was very thorough, thanks! What happened was, a separate private group has been set up by another contributor to discuss details related to the Google deal and the link was posted there.

Quote from: Snufkin on January 31, 2013, 18:16
Thanks pegleg. They have invited over 10% of my Flickr photostream recently.
I am sure they are fishing for idiots. Nothing else but a scam.

Unfortunately there are still legions of people throwing themselves at Getty. I don't know if they're unaware of this situation or they just don't care.

Quote from: cobalt on January 31, 2013, 18:15
Thank you for sharing. What a shame that artists feel they have to terminate their contract.

Did they not reach out to you to find common ground?

No, not in my case. If I could've pulled individual images, I might've gone that route. However, I sell my work on my own and was concerned that some of my more popular photos might've ended up in this deal and that would render them valueless. I'm still paranoid that they could've gone ahead and thrown them into the Google deal after I terminated my contract but before the images were removed from the Getty site.

This could have all been easily done TOGETHER with the vast contributor community. We wouldn´t even have to know what kind of deal it is or who they wanted to work with. Just  a "free files for promotional use" lightbox from all their partners and I am sure they would have had thousands of donations.

And if they then ask the google community to nominate images from that pool, it would have truly been a "crowd sourced" project through and through.

Just a little communication, a healthy dose of respect for other people´s property and reaching out with an open mind and this whole disaster could have been one of the most successful crowd sourced projects in the stock world.

I totally agree. It's a real shame.

Thanks for your reply, gostwyck. I've read that thread here and there but unfortunately I don't have time to go through all of it. Also did a search for "Flickr" and couldn't find anything relevant. My apologies if it's already been discussed to death!

Hi, I'm new here and forgive me if this has been mentioned but if it has, I can't find it.

iStock photographers are not alone in this mess...there are many photographers who have a contract with Getty through Flickr whose photographs were licensed to Google for $12 or $6. I had 223 images with Getty (through Flickr) but terminated my contract last week because of the Google deal. I don't have any on Google Drive yet but am holding my breath for my next statement. Anyway, this deal was the final straw for me.

Unlike iStock contributors, photographers with Getty through Flickr cannot remove individual images from their portfolio. The only way out is to terminate your contract. Once the contract is terminated, you cannot rejoin. You are also banned from participating in the two contributor forums although some of your licenses may be ongoing. The forums are private, for contributors only, so word isn't getting out about what's going on there.

I just wanted to put this out there because although there might be some articles about Flickr/Getty photographers being affected by the Google deal, I can't remember seeing anything about it in any of the articles that I've read.