Author Topic: Foundstock is back and all our SS images are being given away for free (Read 42209 times)

JimP · « **Reply #25 on:** December 06, 2017, 17:34 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on December 06, 2017, 17:20

Quote from: Phototom on December 06, 2017, 17:12
It seems as if the the photos on foundstock.com was deleted or blocked.utterget.com

I can still download my photos from foundstock at 1,000px width, for free.

Our photos are not on that site, they are downloaded on request straight from Shutterstock. That's why you have to put in the link to get the picture. That means everything on SS is available free from these crooks.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #26 on:** December 06, 2017, 18:05 »

Quote from: JimP on December 06, 2017, 17:34

...Our photos are not on that site, they are downloaded on request straight from Shutterstock. That's why you have to put in the link to get the picture. That means everything on SS is available free from these crooks.

I don't know where they are, but they get a 1,000 pixel on the long edge image, which isn't the "high res" image they promise, but still is outrageous to make available.

ShutterGet downloader worked for me too (tested with a couple of my own images) - they are named foundstock_(SS image number).jpg same as those from earlier today - so the same tool/engine/hack is behind both sites

cathyslife · « **Reply #27 on:** December 06, 2017, 18:23 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 06, 2017, 16:41

Quote from: cathyslife on December 06, 2017, 15:38
Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 06, 2017, 13:03
I sent a report (using four of my own images as examples) to Shutterstock's complliance enforcement via the web site report form.

Do you have a link to that report form? I can't locate it. I sent an email to general support, for all the good it is likely to do.

I don't hold out much hope they'll do anything, but we have to report it anyway

The link is useless - it's just the contact form - but if you are logged in as a contributor and scroll down, in the center you'll see two legal links, one for misuse and one for infringement (I used Infringement)

https://submit.shutterstock.com/contact?language=en

Perfect, thanks. I will send another one tomorrow, using that infringement link. Thanks Jo Ann!

cathyslife · « **Reply #28 on:** December 07, 2017, 09:08 »

Something is different today. I get an app downloader page, instead of one where I can search for my images. Maybe they have been stopped?
edit: No, no such luck. You just have to use the shutterget downloader. Ba$$tards.

Phadrea · « **Reply #29 on:** December 07, 2017, 09:27 »

Here is another site

https://www.hackjungle.com/news/get-any-pictures-for-free-from-shutterstock-with-this-hack

Phototom · « **Reply #30 on:** December 07, 2017, 11:37 »

I have wrote yesterday and today on the shutterstock support and send all links to the illegal sides.
I´m curious about the reaction.

It ist time to form a organisation which represents the interest of stock photographer !
I wil think about this, maybe I have a idea.

cathyslife · « **Reply #31 on:** December 07, 2017, 11:52 »

I reported yesterday to SS, and today regarding the new site posted. just got a response back from SS:

Thank you for writing in.

Shutterstock aggressively enforces the intellectual property rights of its community of contributors and does not tolerate infringement or piracy of any kind. We investigate every claim of infringement of Shutterstock's or its contributors' intellectual property rights and take appropriate steps, including the institution of legal action.

We are aware of this website. However, we cannot provide specific details about our enforcement efforts. Please know that Shutterstock's anti-piracy efforts are ongoing and we appreciate the input and patience of our contributors as we work to combat this global issue.

Best Regards,
Carl
Shutterstock Compliance

I have also sent a request to have my account closed.I am VERY sick and tired of companies making millions and billions of $$ and not giving a crap about protecting our assets, I know the horse has left the barn, but clearly they have no intention of fixing the problem, as it has been going on for awhile. Not only am I losing sales from shutterstock, but also from any other site where my images are for sale.

ravens · « **Reply #32 on:** December 07, 2017, 13:13 »

Quote from: Hannafate on December 06, 2017, 13:17

For anyone else who wants to know how, since Shutterstock support probably won't tell you, here's how to disable your images altogether.

From your dashboard, go to the drop down under your name in the upper right corner of the page, and select "account settings"

On the right side, about half way down on that page, will be buttons to opt out of selling extended license, etc.

Opt out of image sales. Save settings. (big red button, bottom left) You're done.

This doesn't delete your images, so you can opt back in, if Shutterstock gets their s*** together.

This is something to consider!! Imagine if we all did this at the same time? SS would NOTICE.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #33 on:** December 07, 2017, 19:08 »

Quote from: ravens on December 07, 2017, 13:13

Quote from: Hannafate on December 06, 2017, 13:17
...here's how to disable your images altogether... so you can opt back in, if Shutterstock gets their s*** together.

This is something to consider!! Imagine if we all did this at the same time? SS would NOTICE.

There's the rub - getting a large number of contributors to agree on any action.

I wouldn't disable my portfolio until they took action, but I would consider disabling it for a couple of weekdays just to get their attention. I probably wouldn't want to do it until later in December though as this is a very busy time of year and I don't want to walk away from the sales during such a key month.

The concerns/issues would be:

1) getting a substantial number of images opted out (let's say at least 40 million and who cares if the replicator and marijuana portfolios stay up). I'd rate the odds of this happening as so close to zero as to be zero.
2) worry about retaliation from SS (closing our accounts)
3) SS could very easily eliminate the ability to disable account contents by changing the software and then we lose a useful feature. Given the actual losses from this scammy site, is this worth the risk?

No legitimate business will use these stolen property sites because there's no license and they wouldn't want the legal risk.

The images are small (certainly good for blogs) and easily stolen elsewhere if you don't care about legality (from any web site that's used an image already) so I don't see the actual damage (versus potential) as being all that great.

I did get the standard "we take this very seriously" email back from SS compliance and they acknowledge that they know about the site. The only other avenue I can think of to get attention to this issue is to try and get the financial analysts who watch SS as a public company to be concerned - that it might impact their future profitability if no one pays because sites offer stolen stuff for free. I think that it's unlikely they'd view this as a big threat because the big bucks are business customers who won't be buying from thieves.

Hannafate · « **Reply #34 on:** December 07, 2017, 19:52 »

I saw what happened when iStock screwed up a few years ago, and lost their contributors' confidence. Their portfolio hemorrhaged millions of images overnight. More millions vanished in the next 48 hours. This wasn't just people opting out of sales, either, they were deleting.

If I recall correctly, they made a deal with Microsoft that had some similarities to Shutterstock's deal with Facebook.

ShadySue · « **Reply #35 on:** December 07, 2017, 20:01 »

Quote from: Hannafate on December 07, 2017, 19:52

I saw what happened when iStock screwed up a few years ago, and lost their contributors' confidence. Their portfolio hemorrhaged millions of images overnight. More millions vanished in the next 48 hours. This wasn't just people opting out of sales, either, they were deleting.

If I recall correctly, they made a deal with Microsoft that had some similarities to Shutterstock's deal with Facebook.

Maybe so, but it made no improvement to the way they deal with things. As always, for everyone who leaves there are several more who join up, and for less money.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #36 on:** December 07, 2017, 20:12 »

Quote from: Hannafate on December 07, 2017, 19:52

I saw what happened when iStock screwed up a few years ago, and lost their contributors' confidence. Their portfolio hemorrhaged millions of images overnight. More millions vanished in the next 48 hours. This wasn't just people opting out of sales, either, they were deleting.

If I recall correctly, they made a deal with Microsoft that had some similarities to Shutterstock's deal with Facebook.

There was a deal with Microsoft, but the big stink was over the deal with Google where there was no opt out and a one time minimal payment for eternal giveaways. I removed all but 100 images from iStock over that - arguably making no difference to anyone but me as Getty has lumbered on its march to mess up its business undeterred - so I know all about deleting thousands of images. That's why I'm not doing it again, at least not without a very big issue at stake

http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/google-giving-photos-away-free-for-commercial-use-and-istock-agrees/
http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/gettygoogle-news-blog-and-forum-links-here/

Amanda_K · « **Reply #37 on:** December 07, 2017, 22:24 »

I skimmed through this thread pretty fast so apologies if someone already mentioned this but we should be reporting them to Google too rather than relying on the corrupt host or SS to take them down. AdSesnse does NOT mess around and if you get your account cutoff for shady business it should be hard for them to get it running again on the same domain.

Of course they will pop up with a new one but when it comes to playing whack-a-mole with these thieves Google may be our best bet when it come to bulk complaints. If you take away their monetization they have no reason to be giving our files away.

Edit: I just went and reported the site through the ad-sense banner at the bottom to google, only took about 3 minutes I'd encourage others to do this too. If you hover over the the ad banner at the bottom specifically the play button icon the word "AdChoices" will appear in gray.

Click that (Make sure NOT to click outside in the actual ad!) and it will take you to the google site to a page where you can "Leave feedback on the website or ad you just saw" scroll close to the bottom for this option and chose website.

You can then check "The page violates AdSense program policies in other ways" and "This page is distributing someone eles's copyrighted material, possibly without permission."

There is also a place to leave a comment with details and optionally your email.

rinderart · « **Reply #38 on:** December 08, 2017, 00:27 »

Quote from: cathyslife on December 07, 2017, 11:52

I reported yesterday to SS, and today regarding the new site posted. just got a response back from SS:

Thank you for writing in.

Shutterstock aggressively enforces the intellectual property rights of its community of contributors and does not tolerate infringement or piracy of any kind. We investigate every claim of infringement of Shutterstock's or its contributors' intellectual property rights and take appropriate steps, including the institution of legal action.

We are aware of this website. However, we cannot provide specific details about our enforcement efforts. Please know that Shutterstock's anti-piracy efforts are ongoing and we appreciate the input and patience of our contributors as we work to combat this global issue.

Best Regards,
Carl
Shutterstock Compliance

I have also sent a request to have my account closed.I am VERY sick and tired of companies making millions and billions of $$ and not giving a crap about protecting our assets, I know the horse has left the barn, but clearly they have no intention of fixing the problem, as it has been going on for awhile. Not only am I losing sales from shutterstock, but also from any other site where my images are for sale.

Thank you Cathy for taking a stand. About time. WE........Let this happen. there have been warnings for years and No one said a * thing. If we don't stand up Now. we are done.
remember the Dollar Photo club we stood up. this is a 100 times worse.

MicroVet · « **Reply #39 on:** December 08, 2017, 01:29 »

At this moment the current message appears on the site:

"Sadly, Facebook Watermark Its Back Again. "

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #40 on:** December 08, 2017, 01:34 »

This evening, I can only see 1000-pixel images with a facebook watermark on ShutterGet. On FoundStock there's a note about "sadly" the watermark is back and the feature to paste in a URL to the thumbnail no longer works (DNS server can't be found). The HackJungle link posted above produces a 404 error.

It appears for the moment the unwatermarked images are gone.

JimP · « **Reply #41 on:** December 08, 2017, 09:53 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 08, 2017, 01:34

This evening, I can only see 1000-pixel images with a facebook watermark on ShutterGet. On FoundStock there's a note about "sadly" the watermark is back and the feature to paste in a URL to the thumbnail no longer works (DNS server can't be found). The HackJungle link posted above produces a 404 error.

It appears for the moment the unwatermarked images are gone.

Too bad some people over reacted and closed their SS accounts over something that SS didn't do. A bit hasty I'd say? I like the income from my top site too much to remove thousands of images over some creepy thief site. Don't forget that these free photo places also steal from AS, FT, P5, 123, DT, DP and others. Will people close those accounts too in protest?

How did that IS thing go where many people closed accounts or deleted most of their photos. Did it change anything? I mean did we get a raise or better sales? I deleted hundreds of photos, I only saw a drop in income. Of course ESP made all that worse. Ready to leave total.

cathyslife · « **Reply #42 on:** December 08, 2017, 10:27 »

Quote from: JimP on December 08, 2017, 09:53

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 08, 2017, 01:34
This evening, I can only see 1000-pixel images with a facebook watermark on ShutterGet. On FoundStock there's a note about "sadly" the watermark is back and the feature to paste in a URL to the thumbnail no longer works (DNS server can't be found). The HackJungle link posted above produces a 404 error.

It appears for the moment the unwatermarked images are gone.

Too bad some people over reacted and closed their SS accounts over something that SS didn't do. A bit hasty I'd say? I like the income from my top site too much to remove thousands of images over some creepy thief site. Don't forget that these free photo places also steal from AS, FT, P5, 123, DT, DP and others. Will people close those accounts too in protest?

How did that IS thing go where many people closed accounts or deleted most of their photos. Did it change anything? I mean did we get a raise or better sales? I deleted hundreds of photos, I only saw a drop in income. Of course ESP made all that worse. Ready to leave total.

LOL. "Pennies are better than nothing." Right? 😉

obj owl · « **Reply #43 on:** December 08, 2017, 23:02 »

Facebook and Shutterstock have not been able to keep up with these people, twice reported, twice stopped, up again. Shutterstock should employ them, they seem to have less downtime than them.

updated December 9, 2017 https://softwarez.us/shutterstock-images-downloader-1-2-8-download-now/

k_t_g · « **Reply #44 on:** December 09, 2017, 00:32 »

Quote from: GraniteCove on December 06, 2017, 15:58

Quote from: Asthebelltolls on December 06, 2017, 14:11
Class action lawsuit?

Class action DOS. If every contributor affected by these dirtbags (hundreds of thousands?) accessed the site say two or three times a day...a perfectly legal way to hack the hackers. I highly doubt their hosting plan allows for that kind of bandwidth. Just don't click on any ad links though.

Or better yet block those ads.

mediamasterrace · « **Reply #45 on:** December 09, 2017, 11:30 »

Quote from: Amanda_K on December 07, 2017, 22:24

I skimmed through this thread pretty fast so apologies if someone already mentioned this but we should be reporting them to Google too rather than relying on the corrupt host or SS to take them down. AdSesnse does NOT mess around and if you get your account cutoff for shady business it should be hard for them to get it running again on the same domain.

Of course they will pop up with a new one but when it comes to playing whack-a-mole with these thieves Google may be our best bet when it come to bulk complaints. If you take away their monetization they have no reason to be giving our files away.

Edit: I just went and reported the site through the ad-sense banner at the bottom to google, only took about 3 minutes I'd encourage others to do this too. If you hover over the the ad banner at the bottom specifically the play button icon the word "AdChoices" will appear in gray.

Click that (Make sure NOT to click outside in the actual ad!) and it will take you to the google site to a page where you can "Leave feedback on the website or ad you just saw" scroll close to the bottom for this option and chose website.

You can then check "The page violates AdSense program policies in other ways" and "This page is distributing someone eles's copyrighted material, possibly without permission."

There is also a place to leave a comment with details and optionally your email.

You win the day in the campaign against fraud!. If everyone reported these free and pirate sites directly to Google ASAP rather than wait for the IT "teams" form these sites who "take your data security seriously" to actually do something it might just have a much more immediate effect. Great idea. Need to report every single one of them and if everyone does their part this can be accomplished quite quickly.

niktol · « **Reply #46 on:** December 09, 2017, 13:41 »

Quote from: Amanda_K on December 07, 2017, 22:24

I skimmed through this thread pretty fast so apologies if someone already mentioned this but we should be reporting them to Google too rather than relying on the corrupt host or SS to take them down. AdSesnse does NOT mess around and if you get your account cutoff for shady business it should be hard for them to get it running again on the same domain.

Of course they will pop up with a new one but when it comes to playing whack-a-mole with these thieves Google may be our best bet when it come to bulk complaints. If you take away their monetization they have no reason to be giving our files away.

Edit: I just went and reported the site through the ad-sense banner at the bottom to google, only took about 3 minutes I'd encourage others to do this too. If you hover over the the ad banner at the bottom specifically the play button icon the word "AdChoices" will appear in gray.

Click that (Make sure NOT to click outside in the actual ad!) and it will take you to the google site to a page where you can "Leave feedback on the website or ad you just saw" scroll close to the bottom for this option and chose website.

You can then check "The page violates AdSense program policies in other ways" and "This page is distributing someone eles's copyrighted material, possibly without permission."

There is also a place to leave a comment with details and optionally your email.

Sounds like an interesting option. Let's see if it works.

rinderart · « **Reply #47 on:** December 09, 2017, 17:29 »

Quote from: Phototom on December 07, 2017, 11:37

I have wrote yesterday and today on the shutterstock support and send all links to the illegal sides.
I´m curious about the reaction.

It ist time to form a organisation which represents the interest of stock photographer !
I wil think about this, maybe I have a idea.

I have been behind every single one of these ideas. Let me know if ya need Help.

JimP · « **Reply #48 on:** December 10, 2017, 21:22 »

Quote from: cathyslife on December 08, 2017, 10:27

Quote from: JimP on December 08, 2017, 09:53
Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 08, 2017, 01:34
This evening, I can only see 1000-pixel images with a facebook watermark on ShutterGet. On FoundStock there's a note about "sadly" the watermark is back and the feature to paste in a URL to the thumbnail no longer works (DNS server can't be found). The HackJungle link posted above produces a 404 error.

It appears for the moment the unwatermarked images are gone.

Too bad some people over reacted and closed their SS accounts over something that SS didn't do. A bit hasty I'd say? I like the income from my top site too much to remove thousands of images over some creepy thief site. Don't forget that these free photo places also steal from AS, FT, P5, 123, DT, DP and others. Will people close those accounts too in protest?

How did that IS thing go where many people closed accounts or deleted most of their photos. Did it change anything? I mean did we get a raise or better sales? I deleted hundreds of photos, I only saw a drop in income. Of course ESP made all that worse. Ready to leave total.

LOL. "Pennies are better than nothing." Right? 😉

No, but the best selling agency that makes me the most money I would be slashing my income just because of a hasty decision. Buyers use my images, the thieves might not care if I exist, or I could use one sale a month. I wouldn't close my best income over some turds who offer 1000 pixel images. Buyers will not risk using stolen images, the liability is too much risk. People who don't buy just steal these. My opinion is I'm not losing money.

SS is working to block them, it's not like they are ignoring us or the problem. Some things take time, patience and consideration for the long term.

cathyslife · « **Reply #49 on:** December 10, 2017, 21:54 »

But SS might not be as big of an income-producing site for some as it is for you. Hence the decision to close their account would not be an overreaction or hasty. From what I understand, this problem is not new. How is it that contributors accounts can be closed virtually instantaneously if they so choose, but a pipeline into our assets takes time and patience? I am pretty sure the solution has to do with code. It should take months to close a hole? My guess is that the solution will somehow disrupt their money-making, which is why it is taking so long.

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Author Topic: Foundstock is back and all our SS images are being given away for free (Read 42209 times)

JimP

Jo Ann Snover

cathyslife

cathyslife

Phadrea

Phototom

cathyslife

ravens

Jo Ann Snover

Hannafate

ShadySue

Jo Ann Snover

Amanda_K

rinderart

MicroVet

Jo Ann Snover

JimP

cathyslife

obj owl

k_t_g

mediamasterrace

niktol

rinderart

JimP

cathyslife

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