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Messages - ErickN
126
« on: August 28, 2007, 09:19 »
Hi all, I now have 5 reffered members (4 new ones in august) who seem to be referred buyers as I earned $10 for each of them. What I don't understand is where they got my referral link from ? I've never left any referral link anywhere, be it on personal websites or discussion forums. Do our referral links appear automatically in search engines ? Or is it that when a buyer's first buy happens to be one of your images, you are considered as the referrer ? Not that I'm bothered earning more money  , but I like to understand how things work, just out of curiosity. Erick
128
« on: May 04, 2007, 06:45 »
1 sale per 94 views for me. One of my lowest earners, but still far better than LO for me (624 views... 0 sale, with 1120 images online  )
129
« on: April 02, 2007, 16:51 »
Eendicott :
Thanks for the suggestion. Indeed, I first had a look at Alamy prices as well as the Stock photo price calculator to have a rough idea of the fee.
But though it was not very clear in my original post, Yingyang is right on the fact that the client asked for an exclusive use of the image without any time limit. In fact, they want to use the image on a packaging, as a clear identification of one of their product.
YingYang :
Wow ! Thanks for the contract sample. I still haven't carefully read it all but will take the time to do so (while I can read/speak everyday english, legal stuff is much more difficult to understand for me - even in French !)
Thanks very much again
Erick
130
« on: April 02, 2007, 07:21 »
Thanks Grizzlybear and Yingyang. Why would you insist on remaining the copyright holder and limiting the use of the image. They want exclusive rights to use the image, so unless you're setting a specific time frame for the exclusivity (which I'm willing to venture they don't want to do) their is no point in retaining or limiting anything. They're looking for a work-for-hire arrangement and you should give it to them, charge them appropriately but still give it to them.
I'm not used to work and negociate directly with an end client for my photography. So I guess what I had in mind was more the RM model than the work-for-hire/buy-out one. I have no real reason to keep the copyright on it, unless a limited time frame was the deal, but you're right, that's not the case here. Thank you both very much for your insights. Your advises really make sense. Erick
131
« on: March 20, 2007, 14:19 »
Hi everyone, I need some advice about exclusive image pricing and contract. I have been contacted by a client after they have seen one of my images on several stock sites. This image would fit their needs, except that they need an exclusive one for the software packaging they are designing (the image has already been sold several times). So they asked me for a quote (proposal?) about creating one or more new images in the same style (it's an illustration, not a photograph) that would be exclusive to them. I tried the Stock Photo Price Calculator at http://photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm and the average price for "Packaging / Major illustration / 10.000 or less" is $1350 (I still don't know their print run, but I will of course adjust for it when I have more infos). These prices are assumed for non-exclusive reproduction rights, but I think that if I can sell one picture for such money, I'd be happy not to sell it elsewere, that's much more than my average sale on Alamy, and to be honest, creating this kind of image is not very time consuming. Do you think I should charge even more, considering it's for exclusive use ? I'd be bothered missing the sale for being too hungry... Any advice on what terms I SHOULD include in the contract for such a sale, apart from clearly indicating that I remain the copyright holder and limiting the use of the image ? Any link to a standard contract would also be apreciated ! Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts, advices and experiences as photographers or designers. Erick
132
« on: February 14, 2007, 10:22 »
Same here (from France). I had the security certificate error message this morning, and now am unable to see any page of the site. I get : "An error occurred while processing your request. Reference #..."
133
« on: January 27, 2007, 22:41 »
Added mine too - in Paris, France
134
« on: January 08, 2007, 13:02 »
An admin answered about this issue on StockXpert forum : http://www.stockxpert.com/forum.phtml?f=showtopic&n=1934It seems it affects only contributors who are paid from their hungarian paypal account for some strange hungarian law reasons. Though I personally didn't receive the email, I sure wouldn't feel confortable giving such personal (and somewhat sensitive) informations. Erick
135
« on: December 14, 2006, 17:33 »
Check the SS forum for more info.
I had also 2 images removed, showing 3D pound symbols (no bank note photo). Setho said (on the forum) it was a misunderstanding, and we have to re-submit the deleted images with a note to the reviewer saying they were deleted by mistake.
136
« on: December 12, 2006, 22:48 »
Nice update Tyler, I like the new look. One thing I miss though is the different color of the subject lines when the post has been read. Yes, the little "new" icons are there, but I find it more difficult now to quickly locate the last post I read on my previous visit, especially with the variable position of the "new" icon depending on the subject's length. Erick [EDIT] Oops ! As soon as I submitted my post, I saw the latest update with the subject lines in normal type (vs bold), and now the little "new" icons are much more easy to locate ! Tyler, you run too fast for me...  [EDIT 2] Oops again  What I saw was the "Site related" front page (which I like very much), not the home page which still has bold subject lines... It's very late, I should definately go to bed... Sweet dreams !
137
« on: November 22, 2006, 19:09 »
Either Shutterstock or DPReview forum. I don't remember for sure.
138
« on: November 22, 2006, 17:35 »
I trust the expression "Well begun is half done".
The lack of integrity and transparency from the owner of this new site does not inspire me to join at all.
I totally agree. Trying to fool people on a public forum is definately a bad way to start a business, especially when this business is based on making us contributors confident enough to send them our whole portfolios. Thank you Erik for doing this research, and thanks Leaf for keeping this site clean.
You're welcome, it was just the matter of a 10 sec. whois search It's just that, since the recent image theft issues, I'm a little bit touchy (read "paranoid") when it comes to new stock agencies.
139
« on: November 22, 2006, 10:12 »
Hi, The domain name "mystock.com" has been registered by "Jon Phillips" Are you sure you were contacted by the creator of mystock, or are you the creator ? I don't mean to be rude here. Just wondering, if you're the creator, why not just make an plain announcement of your upcoming site ? Erick I was contacted by the creator of mystock today - http://www.mystock.com. They are creating a new site and calling it a hybrid between microstock & traditional stock photography sites. The images are going to be in the $39-$139 range. They arent up and running yet but there is a notification signup where you can leave your email and be contacted when the site is up.
Who knows? It could be a good thing.
(I accidentally posted the same thing in the "news" section - oops - sorry)
140
« on: November 02, 2006, 10:57 »
It would be a pleasure, but... I live in Paris ! So if you decide, on the way back home, to have a stop in Paris, feel free to drop me a line. What ? Paris is not exactly on the way from Sydney to Singapore ? Well, you have to cross the equator anyway Have a nice trip Erick
141
« on: October 06, 2006, 16:45 »
wow, different passwords for every site... how do you keep them all seperate.
[...]
but to have a different pass for every site... I am not sure i could manage.
That's true. With several email adresses, accounts on stock sites, websites hosted on different servers, paypal, etc., it can quickly become a real hassle ! But I got used to that many years ago while working for a company dealing with highly sensitive data. We HAD to change our UNIX user passwords every month, with very strict rules for composing passwords. If you worked on different projects at the same time, you HAD to have different passwords for each project, etc... So I think I developped a kind of personal logic which helps me memorize them all.
142
« on: October 06, 2006, 14:49 »
Thanks for your answers, I don't see how someone could have gotten your credit card from just knowing your Paypal e-mail address. I'm in no way sure they got it through Paypal. But Paypal do store my credit card number somewhere on their servers. So if someone manages to "hack" one of their servers, it may be possible to obtain a lot of informations. But of course, it's obviously not a child's game. I checked my paypal account online, and didn't see anything fishy there. And even if they managed to decipher my password, they couldn't see my credit card number as it's partially masked, even for me. If he created an account on a microstock site, then he would have given them a user ID, a password, and an email address.
They could then take the email address and password and try to log into his paypal account. Since many people use the same passwords across multiple accounts, they could then have broken into the account. If the account had a credit card associated with it, they could have then used it to transfer money into a foreign account.
Yes, I know what you mean. But as a former software programmer, I'm quite aware of security problems and never use a password twice, change them regularly, and even don't use a standard "scheme" for all my passwords. And when I subscribe to a stock agency, I'm very careful not to choose login informations similar to those of my email account, or paypal account, ... Erick
143
« on: October 06, 2006, 07:11 »
Hi all,
After the recent image theft issue, I have been victim of another fraud.
I noticed on my september bank account statement a fake 139 USD credit card transaction originated from Latvia (LVA), on Sept. 13th, which is precisely the day I signed up at Galastock last month. Of course, I never gave any credit card info to them, but they had my paypal id (my email).
Coincidence or not ? I would advise all of you to check your recent credit card activity, just in case...
I had to file a complaint to the police dept. for fraudulent use of my credit card, then make an opposition to my credit card at my bank, which confirmed the Latvian origin of the transaction, but they didn't have any more information.
Sorry to bring bad news again, and maybe it's not related to Galastock (though these issues, both originated from Latvia, at the same time period, make me really suspicious) but I thought I had to make this public warning for everyone's sake.
Take care,
Erick
144
« on: September 29, 2006, 10:06 »
And I would like to assure you that such awful situation is not possible for us in future!
Sooo reassuring... As far as I'm concerned, my future with GS is already history 440 mouse clicks = 220 images deleted So long, GS
145
« on: September 29, 2006, 06:56 »
Ohh... what a theatrical mea-culpa  And so what ? What about our stolen images ? What about the rest of our submitted images ? Were they stolen too ? What law suit are you going to take as a stock house owner after such a copyright infringement case ? Do you really think you'll be done with just a 3 lines answer ? Come on !
146
« on: September 29, 2006, 05:03 »
There seems to be some movement at GS. The thief guy had an account at GS until recently (a few minutes ago), and this account apparently has just been deleted. Maybe we will finally read from GS staff here ? [Edit] In fact, some of his images are still accessible there, but one cannot browse his portfolio anymore by clicking his name. ( http://www.galastock.com/?x=fTgTeF4UAzt4FD4eE0V7flFPLPYGFQXE1IW&login=1)
147
« on: September 29, 2006, 02:12 »
How did you manage that, if I may ask? Weren't your stolen pictures under the robber's name? So why did they show up?
One of google's results was a link to an image search engine page ( http://es.inversible.info/search.php?q=paris&l=5&n=100) where I immediatly saw two thumbnails of my Parisian Metro Sign image side-by-side, one with my name under it, and the other with the thief's name.
148
« on: September 29, 2006, 01:37 »
Since I discovered my stolen images, I tried to investigate further and find a possible source for the "leaked" images. I was first reluctant to talk about Galastock as one possible source, having no real evidence of that fact. But after some search about the thief and after reading all of your posts here and on other fora, I have the bad feeling that Galastock is at least involved in the leak of those photos (wether culprit or not), for the following reasons : - the stolen photos seem to have in common the fact that they have been submitted to Galastok recently - one member had a stolen photo which has never sold anywhere (so the leak seems to have an internal source) - a google search on the thief's name (Deniss Kolesnikovs) gave a few results showing that he seems to be a 21 yo student registered in a sports club in Riga, capital city of Latvia (if it's his real name of course) - a whois search indicates that Galastock domain name is registered in... Riga, Latvia !!! (as indicated also on the contact form of GS website) Well I can think of several scenarios, among which : - the worst case would be that the thief is a Galastock's accomplice (in which case we should reconsider our uploading to GS and worry about all our submitted images) - if we are inclined to give GS the benefit of the doubt, it could be that they employed some cheap student as reviewers to deal with the huge amount of submissions, and this guy has taken the opportunity to steal our images - I could also be completely wrong and then you could call me paranod... Anyway, I just checked on Fotolia, and the guy's portfolio is still online and has even grown from 182 to 203 photos since yesterday...  Erick [Edit] Oh, and I agree with AreaPhotography about the "loser with no brains". He even managed to submit my Japanese Piggybank image twice...
149
« on: September 28, 2006, 18:54 »
Thanks Chad !
Of course, I didn't intend to blame Fotolia in any way for this issue. I think it could have happen anywhere else.
Erick
150
« on: September 28, 2006, 17:30 »
WOW!! thanks for the heads up, he has 36 of mine 
You're welcome. Steve, are you the author of the nice "blue eye" ? When I saw this one on the fake porfolio, I was sure I already knew this shot. Erick
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