I was alerted by another agency this week with which I'm exclusive, that one of my videos is still for sale on Shutterstock. See https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1008267766-aerial-flyover-small-town-beaufort-south-carolina
I shut down my shutterstock account months ago. They removed my name from the video and kept it up for sale. Anyone else having this issue. If they don't do anything about it I'll be taking legal action.

What did Shutterstock tell you about it?

Quote from: wollwerth on December 08, 2020, 20:52

I�ve been going back and forth with their support from someone overseas with no real power to et anything done. Getting the usual BS. This time I responded back with their infringement department ccd, saying that they�ve essentially admitted that they�ve broken the terms of service by still having it for sale. They can either take it down or the next correspondence will be from my lawyer. I think I�ve got a case. The only question is whether it�s worth going through with a lawsuit.

I hope you get a settlement, this stinks. Get a lawyer who specializes in this kind of thing, wasn't there one for artists. Usually first consultation is free, which means, they get the details and decide if they want to handle the case or if there's a good chance of winning.

Quote from: Groucho on December 08, 2020, 14:05

If you do a search with Google and "aerial flyover small town beaufort", the first result is on Shutterstock. This is how Pond5 found it.

It look like SS keep the footage available from Google search but not from it own search engine. Clever way to say it is not their fault.

No excuse for them to let this happen.

I have read that Shutterstock is used to selling the contents of the accounts that they close. Remember?

The T&Cs allow for retention up to 2 months before an item is removed.

But also, if the name has gone, its possible the thing cant actually be bought if someone tries to go through with it. 

Quote

b. Shutterstock shall use reasonable efforts to cause Content removed from Shutterstock Websites to be removed from the websites of any Shutterstock affiliates (including co-branded websites)

The video given in the link can be bought, look.

I don't know much about Alamy, but four of my photos got AlamyPOTM, this make promote my work?
https://www.alamy.com/search/lightbox/4178593.html

I imagine that people are discouraged. It is not worth much effort in the microstock to earn so little that it is not enough for much.

Quote from: Roscoe on November 29, 2020, 08:48

Quote from: Horizon on November 28, 2020, 14:01

Uncle Pete!!  " They do pay us for OD, S&O and EL ".........these are extremely scarce! and 90% goes to Ukraine and Philippine contributors!

Every now and then statements like this pop up: microstock agencies are giving contributors from developing countries, or countries with lower cost of living a ranking boost.
Now, I might have missed it, but until now, I never seen anyone really proving this. Neither have I seen anyone giving a valid reason why agencies would do something like that.
They want to sell licenses, as much as possible, and the only way to optimize that is designing an algorithm that matches relevant content with keywords entered in the search engine.
Physical location of the contributor is completely irrelevant to that.

Maybe we are just seeing a lot more content from contributors from countries with a lower cost of living because ... well it is more profitable for them to engage in microstock?
A 35 dollar payout buys me a pizza in Iceland... or a loaded supermarket shopping cart in let's say Phillipines. (not sure that's completely true, but you get the point)

Interesting views and I learned something new today:

Cost of living in Ukraine
 Single person estimated monthly costs: $820 (23,381₴)
 Ukraine is the cheapest country in Eastern Europe (13 out of 13)
Ukraine is the 4th cheapest country in the World

Cost of living in Venezuela
Single person estimated monthly costs: $183 (49,656,775 Bs.S.)
(came with a warning that the numbers are estimated)

Cost of living in Iceland
Single person estimated monthly costs: $3,040 (404,164 kr)
(also estimated)

USA
Single person estimated monthly costs: $2,611
Cost of living in United States is more expensive than in 77% of countries in the World (18 out of 74)

No judgements, just some numbers. Well maybe one observation. Iceland isn't a cheap place to live! But I hear it's nice and beautiful as well. 

Cost of living in Venezuela
Single person estimated monthly costs: $183 (49,656,775 Bs.S.)
(came with a warning that the numbers are estimated)  Could you show me where did you find that information? it is very few!  Not rent cost included , no leisure, no medicines . Maybe that person only eat and live with his/her parents !
Look at this!
https://inmueble.mercadolibre.com.ve/MLV-569612537-alquiler-de-habitacion-en-el-paraiso-para-dama-_JM#position=11&type=item&tracking_id=b1d48ff2-ef93-409b-b85e-05b57f17a979 $ 80 room rent for a month, not an apartment.

In my country Venezuela exist two kinds of dollars, the black market , https://twitter.com/DolarToday, and the official dollar, Banco Central de Venezuela  http://www.bcv.org.ve/

I've received all of my payouts without problems

Insteresting to know that, thanks!

Quote from: Horizon on November 28, 2020, 14:01

Uncle Pete!!  " They do pay us for OD, S&O and EL ".........these are extremely scarce! and 90% goes to Ukraine and Philippine contributors!

Every now and then statements like this pop up: microstock agencies are giving contributors from developing countries, or countries with lower cost of living a ranking boost.
Now, I might have missed it, but until now, I never seen anyone really proving this. Neither have I seen anyone giving a valid reason why agencies would do something like that.
They want to sell licenses, as much as possible, and the only way to optimize that is designing an algorithm that matches relevant content with keywords entered in the search engine.
Physical location of the contributor is completely irrelevant to that.

Maybe we are just seeing a lot more content from contributors from countries with a lower cost of living because ... well it is more profitable for them to engage in microstock?
A 35 dollar payout buys me a pizza in Iceland... or a loaded supermarket shopping cart in let's say Phillipines. (not sure that's completely true, but you get the point)

I live in Venezuela a third world country  and i swear you with $ 35 usd, you can't fill a shopping cart market with food and others essentials for home, maybe in another third world countries, but in Venezuela not! I think sometimes, it's more profitable begging money on the street than microstock incomes. In the past ( 3 years ago, 2017) with $ 100 you could make a lot in Venezuela, but now you can't. 

Quote from: Hannafate on November 25, 2020, 08:46

Thanks for the link to the pin.  However,  the issue is ads, not pins.

And Shutterstock ads, to boot! Just one final FU from them to you. FYI, I think JoAnn Snover has mentioned the same problem. They closed her account, but they are all too happy to keep using images in their ads.

I have read that Shutterstock is used to selling the contents of the accounts that they close.

A review of the MINI 2 for photography.
RAW files, AEB, low light and HDR performance
https://youtu.be/g9tyqqYcuus

is it worth investing in a drone to sell photos and video on microstock?

Quote from: alexandersr on November 16, 2020, 19:21

Are you sure? But in microstock  is not allowed.  I don't know much about that. Well, many people has told that, for example composites.

A composite from two public domain images is very different from a composite made from two images that are not in the public domain. Same as Jingle Bells or Silent Night... you don't own the copyright to the music, but if you record your own rendition of the song, then you own the copyright to that track/recording. Which you can then sell. And just in case Lizard wants to chip in... yes, a website might not allow you to sell it, or they might want you to make it clear who the original authors were, or that you only own the copyright to the recording not the song... but that's a condition of the site in question, not of copyright law and the like.

I don't understand much about public domain images, but microstock sites allowed to sell composites made with images from unsplash, pexels and pixabay ? I am not very clear. Are they  public domain images ? For that reason I ask so much, because I don't know. Sorry.

https://unsplash.com/images/stock/public-domain
https://pixabay.com/es/images/search/domain/
https://www.pexels.com/public-domain-images/

You also need to check the contributors� terms for each agency you want to upload that image to. As has been mentioned, some do not allow the use of public domain photos, or even composites containing them.

Here is terminology from Adobe: �Generally, we do not accept Creative Commons Zero (CC0) or public domain content that is uploaded to the Adobe Stock site. Modified NASA images may be an exception, however. We can accept content that incorporates NASA public domain imagery if the content does not depict any NASA trademark or likeness of an astronaut or other persons and has been used to create a recognizably new visual work. For example, in the image above, a NASA image (1) was modified to create a new image (2) that is distinctly different from the original.�

And there is more here: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/terminology-and-importance-of-copyright.html

You just have to check each agency.

Thanks! Is this the NASA public domain imagery? https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html