losdemas

Always worth a try!

Dreadful - and heartwarming at the same time. To know that there are such selfish - and selfless - people in the world. On a side note: have you ever thought of entering WPOTY (Wildlife Photographer of the Year)? They always have a section for subjects such as endangered species and abuse of animals, etc.

Makes me feel sick. The problem with big brands and those who are now termed 'infuencers', is that the brands haven't the foggiest idea of what is going on in the world and just want to latch on to whatever seems to be currently popular (mostly with the young). And all in order to make money, with little or no other consideration. Back in 'my day' (!) the same happened with punk bands, when every talentless jerk who could shout loudest and spit furthest got a record contract! I guess that it did shake things up a little though.

Similar images have sold before - thanks for the reminder! - I've got a few of these on my hard drive and will get around to uploading them this week!

Waitrose Food magazine app, June 2018 GDEY7G by Arco Images GmbH (cropped to portrait and lightened)

Waitrose Food magazine app, June 2018 KK4DP7 by Sylvain Leser / Le Pictorium

Well, after a couple of very good months, the fairground-style of Alamy sales (swings and roundabouts) bites back. Halfway through the month and only one sale and (currently) my worst CTR ever! Seriously, if it gets any lower, it'll be underground! Sales (or lack therof) is a little worrying. Time to get my *** into gear and start uploading again!

Just an update on one of my images licensed as personal use, which was found by me being used by a commercial business on their website. The image in question was licensed under PU terms on 13th Feb 2017. I found it on 6th October 2017 and notified Alamy on the same date. The image was licensed again on 8th March 2018 for $40.27 under the following terms: Country: Worldwide Usage: Commercial electronic, Websites, apps, social media and blogs (excludes advertising). Worldwide for 5 years. Media: Website, app and social media Image Size: Any size Start: 08 March 2018 End: 08 March 2023 I suspected that this was a re-license of the infringement, but heard nothing official from Alamy until an email from Abingdon today ("we’ve had a switch up of teams here and it seems the communication from them about this never reached us"). So the total license fee is $40.27 + $12.11 = $52.38. I now await updates on a further PU misuse and a presentation license misuse dating back to May and July 2017 and will have to supply Alamy with further info on other similar discoveries. Trouble is, it has taken nearly a year and a half and around ten emails (from me) + the all the admin and record-keeping to resolve one case and get the additional $40.27, which amounts to ~£15 net, before income tax/NI etc. are taken into account. And it only bumps me up to what the license fee should have been in the first place! There is no disincentive to the buyer not to do the same thing again. In fact, they and many others know that most togs will likely not have the time or incentive to seek out and pursue such uses. Onward, ever onward....

Understand what you're saying, but the examples you give relate to the actions (doubtless cynical) of the subject, not the requests of the photographer.

Just bought a 7dayshop shoulder bag (£21.99) to replace a generic Fuji shoulder bag that really was not up to the job. Cheap and cheerful, does the job I need it to - very happy.

One month on, I don't know if any of the tags have been changed, but (in this case), I would have thought that surrey and savill garden are overly specific location tags given the subject? The other tech tags (100mm 7d canon eos7d f2.8 macro) are surely unnecessary?

Can you give me a link to that post? Maybe I'm being slow, but I'm not sure how you'd do that! Having done a little web design/development in the past, nothing would surprise me about the mistakes the general public make or, in our specific case here, the images they might licence for the most bizarre of purposes! I constantly had to remind web design clients that the textual content of their web pages was primarily there for search engines to scour, not for the human visitor to read, because chances are that - unless it was something of primary importance or particular interest - the text would be skimmed at best. At Alamy, of course, most visitors are here to research or purchase, so more time will be spent and more attention to detail will be paid. However, those purchasing a PU license for genuine reasons will doubtless make mistakes, I agree, and some slack should be given. We're all human. At least, that's what I keep telling myself! All said, I'm sorry, but I can't help but be infuriated by individuals, companies and organisations who choose to deliberately take advantage of others in life for nothing but their own benefit. I know that this is more social thinking than business thinking, and probably more to my own detriment than anything. Even concentrating on these posts gives me a headache! Time to move on....

I don't think that Alamy would be particularly happy if I - or anyone else - started listing names, URLs, etc. here, do you?! BTW, I haven't had refunds, only images incorrectly licensed.

I see and understand that point and perhaps some of us are more sensitive than others, (to our own business detriment at times?), but when abuses of any system are found and reported on, one would hope that those abuses are acted upon (and promptly) in order to both reassure the content providers (us) and deter abusers, both current and prospective. Perhaps I should just concentrate more on providing sufficient quantity of quality material to ensure a degree of sales success which might go some length to lessening my upset? What worries me is that this might only provide more material to those who choose to subvert the system in place. I understand that Alamy have seen a market here and seek to take advantage of that in a difficult period in the industry. I also understand that should they seek to deter the tiny minority stealing (I'm certain that this is always the case in society), they may deter the genuine avocado purchasers, who are happy to pay a premium for the product they require. Very tricky...

I do. I have found commercial usages of PU sales. Many months later, I'm still awaiting resolution of this from Alamy.