Author Topic: New Data / Data set Licensing (Read 12393 times)

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #25 on:** July 11, 2023, 10:40 »

Still no answer, except either opt out or they will take any uploaded image and add it.

"Images in the Data Catalog can not be deleted, although they are indeed your images, you voluntarily decided to upload them to our website, and as long as we are not infringing your copyrights and we have your agreement to our Terms of Service, we can administer them internally in the way that is most convenient to us, if you opt-out the images will not be deleted, they will remain there in case you decide to opt in again..."

In case I decide to opt in again, after they have hijacked my images and are holding them hostage?

I asked what if I want to upload a rejected image as exclusive somewhere else, but I can't delete them? I think under all of this, they are claiming that they aren't using the images, since they can't be searched, but as an artist, they are using them and our data. I just can't see how they claim we agreed to this in the TOS. They might as well say, they own all rights to everything we upload and we have no control after that?

While the TOS could say that, it wouldn't make the rights grab legal.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #26 on:** July 11, 2023, 11:37 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on July 11, 2023, 10:40

...While the TOS could say that, it wouldn't make the rights grab legal.

With contracts, you're in the realm of civil law and enforcement of contract terms isn't handled by any agency or any state, but by one of the parties to the contract taking the others to court and claiming damages or a declaration that a particular part of the contact is invalid (specific performance is another, very rare, remedy but isn't relevant here).

Lawyers are expansive, court proceedings lengthy and the outcome uncertain. In practice, without some foundation or the ACLU or some deep-pocketed philanthropist who hates scummy stock agencies, the power imbalance between the agencies and their suppliers is what determines the outcome, not whether the contract terms are actually enforceable.

In other words, "you, and what army..."

In Shutterstock's case, the terms of service have a binding arbitration agreement, so you can't even go to court directly: "The TOS also includes a binding arbitration agreement that requires arbitration of covered disputes instead of litigation by court or jury trial."

(I think version 10 is the most recent version of the TOS, but it still references forums which are long-since removed).

It all s@¢ks, but your only realistic option if you want to stop SS grabbing your stuff and refusing to let go is to stop uploading for the moment.

If SS changes the terms for the better, it's always worth remembering that the terms of service say that they can change the agreement at any time...

"Please note that Shutterstock reserves the right to modify these terms at any time in its sole discretion"

AWAnderson1106 · « **Reply #27 on:** July 20, 2023, 19:57 »

I'm new to stock photography, made a bunch of submissions to Shutterstock (among other places). A few were approved, but the great majority were "accepted" for data licensing. (By contrast Dreamstime accepted more than half, and iStock accepted dang near everything I threw at them.)

I turned off data licensing, but that said, apparently you can earn money if you let them do their data licensing thing. My question is, how much? I'm guessing it's just pennies (so I don't feel bad about turning that option off), but I'm still curious what amount those who leave it on should expect to receive, if anything?

gnirtS · « **Reply #28 on:** July 23, 2023, 09:27 »

Ive started seeing these (when its not asking for a translation required on an image of ocean waves).

Im opted out of data and despite having several images rejected (sorry "approved") for data licensing, when i try to view my data catalogue it appears empty.

Are you seeing your "rejected" images appearing in there?

NuttyMoo · « **Reply #29 on:** August 10, 2023, 10:22 »

I got a reply from shutter stock regarding being able to delete images in the data catalogue and being exclusive elsewhere.

Quote

After checking your question with our teams, they confirmed that as far as you have the data licensing opted out your assets won't be licensed and that won't affect your exclusivity with other image stock companies.

On the other hand, we are working on providing contributors tools that allow you to remove specific assets from Data Catalog and we continuously working to improve your experience while offering as many opportunities to earn on your assets as possible.

I will not be uploading any more images until they provide the means to delete images from the data licensing catalogue.

gnirtS · « **Reply #30 on:** August 10, 2023, 22:19 »

It'll depend on the other agencies definition of exclusive but having that media living on a competitors server may well break that no matter what SS say.

NuttyMoo · « **Reply #31 on:** August 11, 2023, 04:39 »

Update to asking for clarification

Quote

Thanks for reaching back.

Unfortunately, we do not have an estimation of when this feature might be implemented and we can not even guarantee it will happen, it is just something that is under consideration due to the substantial amount of feedback from contributors regarding their complaints against it not being possible.

We highly appreciate your understanding in this matter.

gnirtS · « **Reply #32 on:** August 11, 2023, 09:10 »

From a coding point of view its trivial to remove an image from a database and serve that by their claims, is not being used for or doing anything.
You can already perform the much harder task of removing an image from the active library.

In other words, they really dont want to do this.