Same here. That's mess!
And BTW Collection : Stock Budget (Most likely 123rf) - all my images there listed as "No release"
 

I just found my photos on agency www.profimedia.com.
I do not contribute to them, but I do contribute to Alamy and Veer etc.
I found most of my images in 3 copies for 3 different prices on Profimedia.
Same photos from Alamy + same photos from Veer + same photos from - don’t know.  

5M photos from – Alamy : Collection: Alamy
web 170px      5 €
web 280px      15 €
web 400px      49 €
web 800+px   90 €
A6 (300 dpi)   180 €
A5 (300 dpi)   235 €
A4 (300 dpi)   305 €
A3 (300 dpi)   360 €
http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/2

2M photos from - Veer : Collection: MS Value
web 400px      2 €
web 800+px   4 €
web 1600px   7 €
A5 (300 dpi)   12 €
A4 (300 dpi)   17 €
A3 (300 dpi)   24 €
http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/618


10M photos from - don’t know – Collection : Stock Budget
web 400px      2 €
web 800+px   3 €
web 1600px   4 €
A5 (300 dpi)   6 €
A4 (300 dpi)   7 €
A3 (300 dpi)   8 €
http://www.profimedia.com/creative/search/archiv/622

hmm must be a big addressment 

I feel a 5pm friday us time announcement coming

...For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com....

In addition to communicating with contributors up front about these things, I would expect that a simple rule that would keep you out of trouble is not to form partnerships with distributors to which Veer contributors can submit directly. Otherwise you're just trying to take a cut out of our income instead of actually increasing the places our images can sell

Some sites have a list of their partner sites with the option for us to opt out.  I think that's the way to deal with this.

I'll rescue you from the unbearable trauma of all those committee meetings .... provide an opt-out button.

There is clear difference between feeding content into obscure agencies that have few artists supplying directly and in supplying agencies that are a major channel for direct sales by artists.

What next? Will you be uploading our work to iStock and Shutterstock and having our existing portfolios deleted in a middle-men's pact to split almost the entire income between each other, cutting the artist out entirely? This situation is ridiculous.

Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon.


 -  Brian

... For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com. ...

Here we go. More exposure does not necessarily mean happier contributors - the agency will be happy about additional sales yes, but we contributors are pushed around, left out in the decision process and find ourselves in situations like this one.

Now, as I upload both to Veer and Alamy it turns out I'm undercutting myself!!! Why would I want to do that?

I could care less about duplicates (which is confusing enough...) but I'm more interested about losing sales through Alamy.

VEER: Offer an opt-out function for partners and you will save your face and that will make ALL contributors happy (maybe not everyone at Veer/Corbis management though) but please don't forget that none of you would be working there if it wasn't for our content...

Quote from: Brian O'Shea on May 18, 2012, 09:19

... For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com. ...

I could care less about duplicates (which is confusing enough...) but I'm more interested about losing sales through Alamy.

Same here!  Cannibalizing my sales at Alamy will end up putting me out of business, and that isn't good for me, Alamy or Veer.

I used one of my images to find my "portfolio" at Profimedia and it shows 2,307 images. That can't be Veer as I have only 800+ images uploaded. It can't be 123rf as I have only 1,795 uploaded.

Best guess is CanStock - I have 2,471 images there, but perhaps they don't update all the time?

It looks like they are a mixture.  The first of your images coming up have a Veer watermark.  Later images have a generic "©Copyright" watermark.

Looking at the list of partners, I see Profimedia partners with Alamy, Corbis and Panthermedia.

... I'd say +1 but I would like to add that there should be individual opt in buttons for each partner, not an all or nothing choice. Some agencies might be fine, others not - depends on where other people have, or want to have their portfolio. ...

A perfect world is what you describe. Love it.

However, I can't see any partner agreeing to cooperation/negotiations with a stock agency NOT knowing how much content will actually be supplied. It's like opening a store without knowing how much cheese you will sell (or how much you have in stock - no pun intended!).

I can see the agencies' problem but some sort of compromise has to be found.

A general opt-out of partner programs should be the minimum.

A opt-in/out for individual partners would be terrific but I don't expect it.

No opt-out is the worst case scenario and in the case of Veer I would expect them to drop Alamy and also publish a list of their partners so we can verify if we don't shoot ourselves in the foot.

As much as the agencies need to cover their assets, we certainly have to cover ours. In the end, we the suppliers and the agencies do sit in the same boat...

Quote from: click_click on May 18, 2012, 12:03

However, I can't see any partner agreeing to cooperation/negotiations with a stock agency NOT knowing how much content will actually be supplied.

Zoonar and Yaymicro come to my mind. They offer exactly that - explicit opt in / out per partner.

That's good.

I'm not with either of the two and I don't know their collection size but I would think that is Veer (backed by Corbis) goes into negotiations with Alamy or any other significant player in the industry will have a harder time to have those requirements met.

Hi All –

We are currently working with Alamy to find a solution to this situation.

For more context here, we are regularly seeking ways to increase sales of your images through new agency relationships such as the one we've recently launched with Alamy.
These agencies offer additional exposure and access to different markets beyond that offered thru Veer.com.

Clearly, creating duplicates is not good business for any of us: for you, for us, or for our partners.
We will be providing additional details on this, and other partnerships soon.


 -  Brian

Brian, duplicates should never have been deleted from Alamy. They shouldn't be transferred to Alamy instead, which is way different.