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Author Topic: Huh? Can they do it like this?  (Read 59369 times)

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« on: December 04, 2010, 12:59 »
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I don't have any idea what they are talking about, but my entire port at Bigstock and Shutterstock was removed suddenly. I must have made some serious enemies here or elsewhere.

What bothers me most is that there is no indication at all about the images I should have infringed upon, since of course I have all the raws and more factual info that all images I uploaded are mine. I also don't understand why they would just block a contributor of more than 5 years without asking an explanation first. I can easily prove the images are mine of course.

I'm still waiting for the reply of "Glynnis Jones" so I will refrain of any other comment now. I'll just reflect the response here, but it makes me wonder about the morality of microstock in general. Let's see...

Quote
In accordance with Paragraph 2-6 of the Terms and Conditions you agreed to when you became a submitter at Bigstock, you warranted and represented that you are the owner of the copyright thereto of any image files uploaded to Bigstock.

Paragraph 10-1 of the Bigstock Terms of Service states Bigstock, in its sole discretion, may remove any content uploaded to the Website including that appearing to infringe the intellectual property rights of other entities.

We discovered serious copyright infringement issues within your portfolio of images on Shutterstock Images, LLC. Based upon our investigation, we have determined that you made a material misrepresentation to Shutterstock Images, LLC.

As Bigstock is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shutterstock Images, LLC, your Bigstock portfolio has now been terminated.  You may not open up a new account.

Regards,

Glynnis Jones
Sr. Review Coordinator
Bigstock


grp_photo

« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2010, 13:17 »
+1
Speechless  :o
Without contacting you in advance, many people rely on their Microstock-income moves like that can easily destroy lives

lisafx

« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2010, 13:18 »
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Wow.  This has to be some sort of mistake.  I hope they are able to sort it out for you before you lose too much income  ???

« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2010, 13:21 »
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Can you ring them, talk to them directly?

Hope this gets sorted quickly for you

« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2010, 13:22 »
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It seems to me that there should be a well defined process - and it would be one of those issues where it'd be great if all the micros would work together to have common handling of such situations - where contributors who've come "under suspicion" have notice given them and a process for demonstrating that the accusations are false, if that's the case.

Pulling the portfolio temporarily while they investigate might be fine if there's a need, but when you're not a newbie at a site, it does seem completely wrong to send out a letter like that as if the whole discussion is over before anyone even contacted you to ask about whatever accusation has been made.

Sounds like the Court of Star Chamber to me.

« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2010, 13:24 »
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Sounds ridiculous, and especially since we are real businesses, borderline unethical to do this without initiating contact.

rubyroo

« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2010, 13:25 »
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Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?

I certainly agree that they should have opened a dialogue with you regarding their concerns before accusing you in this way.    

« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2010, 13:26 »
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who is going to compensate your loss? if the mistake is on them?

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2010, 13:30 »
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May be unethical but probably not illegal based on the contract.

Assuming you didn't infringe, it sounds like you really made somebody pretty angry over there and this is retaliation.

If it's just a misunderstanding on their part, that's pretty scary.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2010, 13:30 »
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I'd hope at the very least they should explain in detail what exactly they're suspecting/accusing you of and give you a chance to prove your innocence.
But, sadly, I expect it's buried somewhere in their t&c that they can terminate your account at any time.  >:(
Ideal soution/pipedream: Then, when/if you establish your innocence, they should have to pay you e.g. the average pay per day of the two weeks surrounding your suspension for each day you were suspended, for goodwill.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2010, 18:33 by ShadySue »

« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2010, 13:34 »
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Is it possible they received a DMCA takedown notice for some of your images?  From what I've read of YouTube's response to such notices, I suspect that would require immediate action of the "shoot first, ask questions later" kind.  Still, I'd expect more detail on the specific accusations rather than a blanket "you've been a bad boy" letter.

jbarber873

« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2010, 13:38 »
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   It certainly reflects badly on Bigstock. I recently had a bunch of sales thrown out with a very lame excuse, but to their credit they looked into it and made it ( almost) right. I'm sure this was just some middle level person out of their mind for a while. Hopefully someone from Bigstock will make this right. It really is a business based on trust, and that's a two way street.

« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2010, 14:18 »
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Yikes!

« Reply #13 on: December 04, 2010, 14:26 »
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Not fair at all. Hope you'll be able to work it out.

« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2010, 14:49 »
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You are a respected man around here and I believe you when you say you didn't infringe. I hope it was only a misunderstanding and everything will be fine soon. Good luck!

« Reply #15 on: December 04, 2010, 15:13 »
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It looks ridiculous indeed.  They could block your account and inhibit your images if there was a something they considered suspicious, but close accounts without any previous inquiry?

nruboc

« Reply #16 on: December 04, 2010, 15:21 »
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Big Stock and ShutterStock have always been the most fair agencies for me, and not knowing the OP, I will withhold judgement until I know more.


vonkara

« Reply #17 on: December 04, 2010, 15:29 »
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This is ridiculous...

That remind me our government tax police. They initiate contact by letter looking the same as your email.

donding

  • Think before you speak
« Reply #18 on: December 04, 2010, 16:08 »
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Wow FD...who did you pi** off. Good business practice would be to notify you about their concerns and since you've been there so long I can't imagine why they wouldn't have done it just that way. Question is if they find it to be a mistake will they let you reopen your account. From that e-mail it sure sounds like they aren't even willing to listen.

lisafx

« Reply #19 on: December 04, 2010, 16:08 »
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Big Stock and ShutterStock have always been the most fair agencies for me, and not knowing the OP, I will withhold judgement until I know more.

I agree, BigStock and Shutterstock are wonderful agencies and have always been fair to me too.  

However, the OP is extremely well-known around here, and has been a well respected microstock photographer for over 5 years.  There is absolutely no doubting his veracity.  

This has to be some misunderstanding, and I am certain it will be cleared up soon.

donding

  • Think before you speak
« Reply #20 on: December 04, 2010, 16:10 »
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You know what's the scary part...if all it took was some angry contributor accusing another contributor of copyright infringement and then you get kicked in the a** right out the door without explanation.

nruboc

« Reply #21 on: December 04, 2010, 16:26 »
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Big Stock and ShutterStock have always been the most fair agencies for me, and not knowing the OP, I will withhold judgement until I know more.

I agree, BigStock and Shutterstock are wonderful agencies and have always been fair to me too.  

However, the OP is extremely well-known around here, and has been a well respected microstock photographer for over 5 years.  There is absolutely no doubting his veracity.  

This has to be some misunderstanding, and I am certain it will be cleared up soon.

I guess it's just a matter of opinion, from what I remember of OP posts, they have a slant against corporations, who dare to try to make money from their software, and is always trying to justify others use of pirated software.

I'm not saying he is guilty and it could very well be a mistake, but I'm not giving someone with those views the benefit of the doubt when it comes to copyright infringement, over the views of companies who have always been fair with me. If OP is innocent, then yes, Big Stock has handled it the wrong way.

« Reply #22 on: December 04, 2010, 16:39 »
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, and is always trying to justify others use of pirated software.

Huh? Can you point me to some post of his where he did that?

nruboc

« Reply #23 on: December 04, 2010, 17:02 »
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, and is always trying to justify others use of pirated software.


Huh? Can you point me to some post of his where he did that?


Here you go, even implies Adobe are sociopaths for not giving more back to the people who steal their programs:


http://www.microstockgroup.com/off-topic/the-logics-behind-the-pirates/msg170419/#msg170413

"I will be crucified probably, like Ivan (Dreamframer) a few months ago. The world is larger, strange but true, than the industrialized high-wages West. In the Philippines (but the same is true for Indonesia, as I heard), 40% of the people have an income of <2$ per day. The monthly wage for a grade school teacher is 6000php = 140$. Yet many PC's I saw have the latest Office, PS and Windows Ultimate. When back in 2007, I bought my first local PC, they told me that for a legal Windows (the CD with the laser hologram) I would have to wait 7 weeks. In the whole Philippines (94 million people) not one legal copy present of Windows was my conclusion. When I fetched my PC after a couple of days and I wanted to install Linux-Ubuntu, I found out it had XP Ultimate, Photoshop, Office, Pro CD-burning software and "sample music" that filled up the rest of the disc. Courtesy of one of the country's largest PC chains. Don't ask don't tell.

When I bought a replacement system disk earlier this year, as an "added service", the vendor included the same software, even if I didn't ask for it.

All recent software and games are sold in markets and booths in malls, for 5$ or less. All in the open. The games have "installers" that create a virtual CD-drive mimicking the original circumventing the copy-protection. In principle it's illegal but a government that would dare to bust this home-grown industry would lose a lot of votes and would be faced with a major foreign currency drain.

Last week I tried to buy Photoshop for my photography partner that is a full-time university student. I had the enrollment proofs ready. On the site of Adobe for the Philippines, it said you couldn't pay and download from the Philippines and you should order in Australia. Yeah right, the postal services open all the snail mail from abroad in the hope to find money in it. Last month I got a letter from Moneybookers with no external marks. The mailman told me with a cheesy wink that it was about money. How could he know? Ah, the letter had been opened. If you order something in Australia, be sure the CD will be missing or copied at least.
Fair chance the customs will block the CD in their custody until you come with "proof" it's genuine. They will need months to "examine" the proof unless you give the decisive "proof" under the form of a banknote. Then you can take it right away. No thanks.

In fact, you can't buy any software here legally unless you import it yourself. My Windows is legal (OEM on my new PC I brought from Belgium) but I'm quite sure I'm the only one in continents around. And before the moral rants start, my PS is a legal CS2 from long ago. It does what I want but of course the RAW handlers are not updated.

My photography partner had to make a movie for a class assignment. He used Adobe Premiere CS4. He got it from the Chinese torrents, he told. Is he a sociopath? The price is a full year income of a school teacher and you can't even buy it in the Philippines. No movie = assignment failed = the college enrollment fee wasted. Sociopath, huh?

When Microsoft did an audit years ago on the Indonesian government PC's, they found none of the Windows were genuine. They made a settlement with the Indonesian government to legalize these installs for 1$ per copy so they had access to all upgrades. After that, they poured the money x 10 back in scholarship grants to Indonesia. That's the right way to go. Adobe has no such program, as far as I know. I wonder who the real sociopaths are."

nruboc

« Reply #24 on: December 04, 2010, 17:03 »
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Again, not trying to say OP is guilty, just that I'm definitely not giving him the benefit of the doubt over BS/SS


 

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