Infringement Reporting

[incamerastock]

Hi Alamy, here's a suggestion.

 

Now you have your own "infringements team" how about an effective way to report the multiple infringements that are caused by your own sloppy accounting procedures? We spent a few hours putting together spreadsheets for the Infringements Team yesterday showing multiple infringements (commercial and newspaper) of our Alamy images and sent it to infringements@alamy.com. I asked if this was the correct procedure to report new infringements (of which we find many each and every time we look). I received no acknowledgement whatsoever.

 

Today, I chased with MS to see if it had been received and the contents of our email logged. In reply I'm sent a stupid little form I have to fill in for EACH infringement providing information that's already available to you. And I have to provide "screengrabs" or scans every time. ALL these infringements are online and the hyperlinks were provided in the email I sent. Why do you need a screengrab when the infringement is live on the internet?

 

Moreover, given the returns when chasing infringements via you (as we're now obliged to do after the contract change) do you really think we have time to screengrab EACH infringing page for the multiple times your Newspaper clients use our images and "forget" to self bill? Then we wait to see a wonderful $5 Gross pop into the account and like the 20 or so Newspaper sales we currently have reported form January, wait SIX MONTHS from them to "clear"?

 

This is a business, not a hobby. Time is money. How about you devise a more efficient way for these constant bulk infringements to be reported.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Phil Robinson]

Though I might not have written the above in quite the same tone, I agree in principle. Most infringements, I suspect, are discovered with Google Image Search. Alamy can do that just as easily as we can.

[dustydingo]

Though I might not have written the above in quite the same tone, I agree in principle. Most infringements, I suspect, are discovered with Google Image Search. Alamy can do that just as easily as we can.

. . . except that for us, we know with which images we'd start our search . . . our own. Even then, I truly doubt many (if any) of us have searched each and every one of the images we have with Alamy to determine unauthorised usage. And if we can't check each and every one of our own, how the heck is Alamy going to?

 

Speaking generally (not directed at you Phil), why should an agency get priority over non-agency contributors? Why should Alamy check images contributed by an agency before they check mine?

 

. . and even if it was possible to somehow check 30,000 images a day, every day, the number to be checked will just keep on growing. I'd suggest it's more likely they'd check hundreds a day, and then the question becomes: to what end?

 

It does appear that Alamy do have introduced some system for checking some unathorised uses, and I'm happy to allow them to do it, at the same time fending off those who occasionally pop up arguing (speaking generally again here Phil, not directed at you) for their images to be checked before anyone elses'.

 

dd

[Doug Houghton]

Hi Alamy

 

I made a suggestion when this forum started about finding images:

http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/123-found-images-database/

 

"Would it not be a good idea for Alamy to produce a database for photographers to enter images

they find in publications and on the internet. This data could then be compared with sales records. Any image that has been used and not paid for can then be chased up."

 

 

"In an Alamy controlled database a photographer finding an image would input only five fields:

Alamy Ref - then up on the screen would appear the image from the Alamy database to confirm that is the right image.

 

Also a list of previously found entries for this image would appear on the screen to help stop duplication.

Date seen - normally todays date

Publication -

URL - if a website cut and paste URL

Proof - a photograph(I hope we can all do that) or screenshot if web based.

 

Alamy then would have three choices:

Image sold: the image is in the system and will be dealt with in the normal manner.

Image not paid: the image has been used by a customer and will be chased up.

Image does not concern Alamy - Photographer can go and chase copyright infringer."

 

Now we have a section at Alamy looking for copyright thief, would it not be better to database the responses instead of using a Word document?

 

Doug

[Phil Robinson]

I wasn't suggesting that Alamy perform Google searches on all our images just on the off chance. I just thought that if we were reporting an infringement of a particular image, Alamy could easily search that image and find all the uses, without needing a separate form for each, and screengrabs.

[Phil Robinson]

I've just had a reply regarding 11 infringement forms I sent to be chased up, for the same image. The reply says

"Unfortunately, we can’t chase the following usages as we can’t be sure it originated from Alamy. You’ve also mentioned that the image is not exclusive to Alamy."

 

Does this mean Alamy will ONLY chase exclusive images? If so why do they ask on the form if the image is available elsewhere, instead of telling us not to waste our time? 

And how can anyone be sure where a stolen image originates? I pointed out where the image was legitimately published and copied from - that was an Alamy sale.

Has anyone had a successful infringement chased up for a non-exclusive image? 

[skylineboy]

interesting post, as i have recently filled in the form for the first time,

 

awaiting reply.

[TABan]

I just sent a note to member services asking why this Word doc form can't be a "Report Infringements" page on My Alamy. I also suggested that when an infringing link is reported, their team check it out and take the screen grab. It would simplify things immensely. Using an emailed form is silly and out of date.