If you find your photos in that portfolio, you should alert Shutterstock to it. As far as I know, your images should only appear in your own portfolio.


edit: I will send an email to SS support on Mon. Hopefully they will investigate and do something. Since none of the images I found are mine, not sure they give a rats a$$ what I say, but this stuff hurts everyone.

What is your opinion about these two pictures, they are not the same but one of them seems very inspired from the other one. The first person has such a mixed portfolio.

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/set-cute-penguins-352431668?src=Vrdy30r2YLivsjj_TJ23Bg-2-66

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/cute-hand-drawn-penguins-set-merry-329821625

the images that have some added elements are stolen since it's a lot harder to subtract something from an image

Or these 2:

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/big-ben-sunny-day-london-263670233?src=xJd1LeBPfO6Oiq89k1vHNg-1-8
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/big-ben-cup-coffee-london-uk-445101400


Again, uncanny identical clouds. Iakov clearly added that table and coffee cup in the foreground.

Iakov Kalinin seems to be the thief, unless we are dealing with the same author and two ports.

But look at the image numbers - ESB professional is 225,089,575 and Iakov Kalinin is 223,808,896. Not sure how you steal and get an *earlier* image number. And in ESB pro's port is an even earlier number of the same scene, 220,682,149

Plus if you look at ESB profession and pathdoc's portfolios there are other images where ESB professional has only one or two and the other artist a whole series

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/ESB+Professional?searchterm=lightbulb&search_source=base_gallery&language=en&sort=popular&safe=true
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/pathdoc?searchterm=light+bulb&search_source=base_gallery&language=en&sort=popular&safe=true

and

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/ESB+Professional?searchterm=money&search_source=base_gallery&language=en&sort=popular&safe=true
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/pathdoc?searchterm=money&search_source=base_gallery&language=en&sort=popular&safe=true

But then you have this almost identical pair and ESB Professional is the lower number - I did a quick look but couldn't find a common source (I wondered if they were both taking images from another person and adding their own lens flare)

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/people-bokeh-street-london-223809385
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/people-bokeh-street-london-221639851

If it's one person with multiple portfolios, that's against SS rules I think, unless they have permission

The palace of westminster one isn't just the same shoot it's the same image edited.  Look at the vehicles on the bridge.

There are shots from multiple authors in the esb port. Look at  my links. If he has earlier numbers could it be that he got them from another source.  For example nicking istock exclusives images and selling them on ss, then the authors stop being exclusive and sign up to SS too? Could both authors be getting images from a third source? I thought someone had stolen a vector recently,  turned out both he and the person I thought was stolen from were lifting from wikipedia. Can't look into it too much right now as I'm on my phone.

how do they both get the model releases?

This is so weird, I'm not sure it can be right - I'm wondering if SS's database is totally and utterly corrupted. What I think I see is that two different contributors, ESB Professional and Sergey Nivens have the same images (with different image numbers) in their portfolios and are using the same model release for both.

When you do a "Same model" search, the URL shows a number for that model release. If you look at the case I posted above, you'll see the the vectorfusionart copies have different model release numbers.

But take a look at these two photos which are identical in model and doors, but with different skies/mountains behind them

ESB Professional (earlier image number):

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businessman-standing-front-opened-doors-making-340334069

Sergey Nivens (newer image number):

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/open-new-doors-opportunities-394845343

Do a same model search for each and you get the same model release number for both

https://www.shutterstock.com/search?models=16512749&context_photo=340334069

https://www.shutterstock.com/search?models=16512749&context_photo=394845343

Both sets of results say 5,507 images use that release. If that wasn't weird enough, click on any of the images in the ESB Professional "same model" search and the image you get is one of Sergey Nivens!

Take this image from ESB Professional - click on any one of the "same model" thumbs shown on this page and you are taken to images in racom's portfolio. This woman's model release number is 14049070 for both contributors

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/nerdy-scholastic-young-woman-wearing-geeky-318060599

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-short-red-hair-white-583304458

I'm truly stumped for an explanation. Even if someone had made a copy of a model release it would have a different number in SS's database, but these have the same number...

Actually sounds like collusion.

Again, uncanny identical clouds. Iakov clearly added that table and coffee cup in the foreground.

Iakov Kalinin seems to be the thief, unless we are dealing with the same author and two ports.

I think it has to be ESB Pro who is ripping off multiple other artists. I can find the other people - Dean Drobot and Iakov Kalinin etc. on other sites, but not ESB Professional. Also, I found one of ESB best sellers on SS is in Iakov Kalinin's portfolio on 123rf but uncropped there (if you look at the enlarged preview you can see the images are identical except for the extra info that's in the 123rf upload by Iakov Kalinin

https://www.123rf.com/photo_51111249_westminster-bridge-at-sunset-london-uk.html?&vti=mnz407sfa2a8wgt20m
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/westminster-bridge-sunset-london-uk-362072633

You also see on 123rf one of Dean Drobot's photos in his own portfolio which ESB has on Shutterstock as his

https://www.123rf.com/photo_49774464_funny-playful-young-woman-in-checkered-shirt-holding-halves-of-citrus-fruits-against-her-eyes-and-ma.html?&vti=lgf4ayntll6rvfr313
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/funny-playful-young-woman-checkered-shirt-357710990

Add to that the DT porfolio with the same image and a portfolio that matches the others in content (first name is different)

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-funny-playful-woman-holding-halves-citrus-fruits-against-eyes-young-checkered-shirt-her-making-duck-face-over-yellow-image64153295

Same thing with the Sergey Nivens images that ESB has copies of. You can find those on Dreamstime (for Sergey Khakimullin) but nothing for ESB professional anywhere else (that I can find)

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 10, 2017, 12:56

Again, uncanny identical clouds. Iakov clearly added that table and coffee cup in the foreground.

Iakov Kalinin seems to be the thief, unless we are dealing with the same author and two ports.

I think it has to be ESB Pro who is ripping off multiple other artists. I can find the other people - Dean Drobot and Iakov Kalinin etc. on other sites, but not ESB Professional. Also, I found one of ESB best sellers on SS is in Iakov Kalinin's portfolio on 123rf but uncropped there (if you look at the enlarged preview you can see the images are identical except for the extra info that's in the 123rf upload by Iakov Kalinin

https://www.123rf.com/photo_51111249_westminster-bridge-at-sunset-london-uk.html?&vti=mnz407sfa2a8wgt20m
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/westminster-bridge-sunset-london-uk-362072633

You also see on 123rf one of Dean Drobot's photos in his own portfolio which ESB has on Shutterstock as his

https://www.123rf.com/photo_49774464_funny-playful-young-woman-in-checkered-shirt-holding-halves-of-citrus-fruits-against-her-eyes-and-ma.html?&vti=lgf4ayntll6rvfr313
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/funny-playful-young-woman-checkered-shirt-357710990

Add to that the DT porfolio with the same image and a portfolio that matches the others in content (first name is different)

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-funny-playful-woman-holding-halves-citrus-fruits-against-eyes-young-checkered-shirt-her-making-duck-face-over-yellow-image64153295

Same thing with the Sergey Nivens images that ESB has copies of. You can find those on Dreamstime (for Sergey Khakimullin) but nothing for ESB professional anywhere else (that I can find)

Your analysis looks right.
I'll be glad to see this thief kicked out by SS.


Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Maybe ESB is / was  a collaboration of multiple artists who either have split up or maybe even still working together that individually are uploading to other sites.