Search the Community

Has anybody had any successful dealings with the infringement notification form that was introduced last November? I have recently reported three examples of images stolen from the Alamy website, complete with watermark, being used on commercial websites. Unfortunately it seems that if you cannot find a valid email address for the person who has stolen your work, the team "won't be able to pursue this case any further". Providing a postal address for the business and a dozen phone numbers is of no use, as without a valid email address they "won't be able to pursue this case any further". Even pointing out a link on the page to click on to 'Send an Enquiry' or 'Email Us' is no good as they "won't be able to pursue this case any further". Anyone had any luck yet?

Has anyone had a payment for a chased-up infringement come through recently, or are they a thing of the past?

Just saw this. About 50% are mine, I think. http://flowers.pearljewelryusa.com/flower-shows-uk-may-2016/ DISCLAIMER: All Images and background found in this web are believed to be in the "public domains". More of the images displayed are of unknown origin. We don't intend to infringe any legitimate copyright intellectual right or artistic rights. If you are the rightfull owner of any of the Images/pictures posted in this web, and you won't it to be displayed here or if you require a suitable credit to your website, then please contact us from contact form & we will immediately do whatever is needed either for the image to be removed or provide credit where it is matching. All the content of this site are don't gain any financial benefit from the downloads of any wallpapers/images.

I’ve taken a look round the forums, and the subject of “personal use” photos has already had plenty of debate. One I sold last month on that basis was almost undoubtedly not for personal use … it’s of the pre-amp unit of a guitar (see AFK256). To add insult to injury, the sale was refunded a few days into this month, creating an issue where someone downloaded one of my pictures, presumably used it and stored it for future commercial use, and finally got his/her fee refunded too… So, a couple of issues: Is there not a case for no refunds being given on “personal use” photos? Do the infringements team look at all refunds as the most likely source of potential misuse? I could, of course, just opt out of personal use sales, but before I do so, I’d like to know a lot more, so I’d be interested to know what anyone else thinks on these points, and any other measures that could be put in place to limit misuse.

In December 2015 and January this year, I was contacted by the Alamy Infringement Team regarding several issues of possible infringements To date, I have heard nothing more, and on 15th July they contacted me again offering to chase another infringement, asking if I would like them to chase it for me. If I had pursued the earlier infringements myself I could be many thousands of pounds better off by now, but Alamy have done absolutely nothing for me. Has anyone else got any comments on this ?

Over the past six to twelve months I've noticed an increased number of Alamy preview images used on the web. Most of these images aren't "shared" with a link back to Alamy but rather are watermarked comp images. Most often I've come across these on Facebook used in a totally innocuous manner.. but not always. Yesterday I decided to google two recently reported sales. I never did find a legitimate use but one is being used on a Malware site that spits out various errors when you click on the link. The second is on page called "Gay Boys" which used an unreleased photo of minor children who were protesting against gays.. Ironically, that one does eventually link back to Alamy. From a photographer's point of view, allowing unregistered access to comp images doesn't seem t be working out so well. I wonder if Alamy would consider limiting these 1300x948 comp images to registered users who are logged in. fD

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.

Hello there I'd like to hear from anyone with experience of dealing with ImageRights for pursuing copyright infringements - I know you're out there. I have found multiple copies of my images on the web, from all over the world, from blogs to commercial sites. The so-called search engine they speak of has found nothing since I joined and I am planning to contact them with a long list of infringements I've found. Do I send them every example and let them sort them out? I know chasing blogs is a waste of time but sometimes there is a fine line between a blog and a commercial operation. And do they only deal with businesses in the US? I have found some from South Africa and Europe. I have the basic (free) package. Am I going to lose most of what they recover in commission? Any help would be very gratefully received. Thanks in advance Phil