Infringements - ImageRights Reach

[hsessions]

Would any experienced or keen infringements chasers be able to answer this one.  Just how much reach do ImageRights have chasing infringements?  I mean, do they have more success chasing US, UK, North America, Europe for example and give up on everyone else, or what.  I ask because I have subscribed for a monthly fee, so very new to all this; have only uploaded a few images so far, will upload more.  Several 'sightings' for certain images in particular, but there are just loads fr sites that they have labeled as either Unable to Pursue or Outside of Recovery Area, which is fine I understand about the social media sites, bloggers and so on.  It just seems a bit difficult to accept though that sites like Alibaba can get away with selling products using Alamy watermarked images and just get away with it; they are similar to eBay I believe and have various trading companies selling via their site, so one would have to chase the trader.  Actually, anyone ever find their image on Alibaba what if anything did you do about it? There is also this eBayer I'd like to file a case against.  This is one Alamy abandoned for not being able to contact or get a response from the seller, alamy said I could chase it myself; selling signs and banners, every image he/she /they are selling has been ripped off someone, I am almost sure. I think I recognized some Alamy images on there so you might want to have a look here in case one of yours is on there: https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/thesignstore?rt=nc

Thanks in advance for any responses or helpful tips.

Helen

[losdemas]

I have had varying success with ImageRights. All infringements resolved by them so far have been in the US. Some have had good outcomes, some pretty pathetic. It may depend on who takes on the case? The last one resulted in a low fee, basically because the abuser refused to play ball - exactly the reason why I was going through a third party to sort all this nonsense out! 

[hsessions]

1 hour ago, losdemas said:

I have had varying success with ImageRights. All infringements resolved by them so far have been in the US. Some have had good outcomes, some pretty pathetic. It may depend on who takes on the case? The last one resulted in a low fee, basically because the abuser refused to play ball - exactly the reason why I was going through a third party to sort all this nonsense out! 

 

Thanks losdemas, I suspected as much.  I saw your post and the thread you'd started.  So they probably have more luck with US/North America infringers, I can forget about Asia, Africa, South America.  Not 'worldwide' reach then, would have been too good to be true.

 

Helen

[losdemas]

18 minutes ago, hsessions said:

 

Thanks losdemas, I suspected as much.  I saw your post and the thread you'd started.  So they probably have more luck with US/North America infringers, I can forget about Asia, Africa, South America.  Not 'worldwide' reach then, would have been too good to be true.

 

Helen

Don't rely on me alone, though! There may well be others who have had a different experience. Maybe ask via the Facebook group started by Martin? Or perhaps try Copytrack? 

 

I do think that you can effectively rule out most developing countries though, wherever you seek to find resolution. 

[hsessions]

1 hour ago, losdemas said:

Don't rely on me alone, though! There may well be others who have had a different experience. Maybe ask via the Facebook group started by Martin? Or perhaps try Copytrack? 

 

I do think that you can effectively rule out most developing countries though, wherever you seek to find resolution. 

 

Never heard of Copytrack before; just checked them out.  Thanks for that, thanks very much for that! 

I don't have a Facebook account so might not be able to see what's posted in that group.  Not on any social media/network sites, just anti-social I suppose I know I don't have the greatest social skills either, just pretend I do

[Panthera tigris]

I tried Copytrack. After a year I just deleted my images with them. If you search their name in the forum you will find a thread with my experience with them.

[Richard Baker]

After 3 years I've just cancelled my ImageRights subs. In the first 12 months I made my annual fee back with UK and US theft but thereafter I increasingly found that of all the reports I gave them, very, very few found their way to any sort of conclusion. What became obvious over the last year was that virtually none were settled - hence my reason to cancel.

[hsessions]

15 hours ago, Panthera tigris said:

I tried Copytrack. After a year I just deleted my images with them. If you search their name in the forum you will find a thread with my experience with them.

 

That's disappointing, had high hopes.

 

6 hours ago, Richard Baker said:

After 3 years I've just cancelled my ImageRights subs. In the first 12 months I made my annual fee back with UK and US theft but thereafter I increasingly found that of all the reports I gave them, very, very few found their way to any sort of conclusion. What became obvious over the last year was that virtually none were settled - hence my reason to cancel.

 

I'm starting to feel I might be lucky to break even after a year, orworse could end up in a negative balance.  Was busy last night uploading more images.  Sightings are almost immediate but there are just pages and pages to go through and most are unpursuable.   I'll try it for a while see how it goes.

 

Thanks both for your input.

Helen

[Ollie]

I've been with Pixsy for 2-3 years.  I believe they allow you to upload 500 images free of charge.  (I was one of the original members so I'm allowed 5000 images free of charge.)  They can pursue cases in most European countries, including Turkey, but except for Japan don't seem to be able to do anything elsewhere in Asia, and nowhere in Africa or South America.  I have submitted about 24 cases to them and have received a settlement on one, for which I received $160 for an infringement that occurred in England.  One other case is still pending in the US.  They are fairly easy to work with, but you still have to be sure you know your image's sales history.  This can be time-consuming if you have the same image with more than one agency.  I'm continuing to work with them but have low to modest expectations.

[hsessions]

41 minutes ago, Ollie said:

I've been with Pixsy for 2-3 years.  I believe they allow you to upload 500 images free of charge.  (I was one of the original members so I'm allowed 5000 images free of charge.)  They can pursue cases in most European countries, including Turkey, but except for Japan don't seem to be able to do anything elsewhere in Asia, and nowhere in Africa or South America.  I have submitted about 24 cases to them and have received a settlement on one, for which I received $160 for an infringement that occurred in England.  One other case is still pending in the US.  They are fairly easy to work with, but you still have to be sure you know your image's sales history.  This can be time-consuming if you have the same image with more than one agency.  I'm continuing to work with them but have low to modest expectations.

 

Thanks Ollie.  I have four cases filed so far based on their sightings, will see what will come of that, I've only uploaded 45 images so far.  You are right about having to be careful not to file a case where there was a legit sale.  So I am not in hurry, doing lots of research on the found images.  One was easy the infringer put their own copyright on the image.  I'll give it some time, continue my subscription and then I will post an update if recoveries are good might even recommend them.  If not will be looking at Pixsy and others.

Helen

[Richard Baker]

17 hours ago, hsessions said:

.. there are just pages and pages to go through and most are unpursuable

 

That's the main problem. There are a hundred pages to sift through which means many hours spent isolating the real thorns. And then when you've found them there are very few which eventually lead to the legal agent taking it on - and then pursuing it to a conclusion. Yes, I broke even the first year but my theory is that it was at a time when infringers were more willing to play the game rather than refuse to engage with the agent as seems to be the case nowadays. So many of my cases were dropped because the toe-rags didn't reply to emails.

 

Infuriating.

[Paul Glendell]

Imagerights worked well for me for about a year, it also happened to be while I was getting  membership free through a third party.  I don' t think the fee aspect had anything to do with the subsequent decline of income from imagerights.  From memory they pursued about 15 cases for me and won maybe 8,  the rest appear to be going no-where inspite of at least one of them being with an american government department.  Payment has generally been £400 - £600 to me per infringement, so as far as I am concerned very good.   However what appears to be happening now with not just imagerights but also copytrack who I have switched to is that infringers simply ignore the information sent to them from the collecting agency and I suspect that unless its for a very large sum its  not worth the time going to court.  If your images are registered in the US - see imageright for details, then I suspect you are far more likely to get US infringers to pay up.  And to answer your initial question yes most of my payouts have been in the US. For UK infringers it may well be worth doing it yourself - assuming you are in the UK yourself. Its a lot of work initially but like so many other things in life get easier with practice I assume. I haven't done it myself though.  Best of luck 

 

[hsessions]

8 hours ago, Paul Glendell said:

Imagerights worked well for me for about a year, it also happened to be while I was getting  membership free through a third party.  I don' t think the fee aspect had anything to do with the subsequent decline of income from imagerights.  From memory they pursued about 15 cases for me and won maybe 8,  the rest appear to be going no-where inspite of at least one of them being with an american government department.  Payment has generally been £400 - £600 to me per infringement, so as far as I am concerned very good.   However what appears to be happening now with not just imagerights but also copytrack who I have switched to is that infringers simply ignore the information sent to them from the collecting agency and I suspect that unless its for a very large sum its  not worth the time going to court.  If your images are registered in the US - see imageright for details, then I suspect you are far more likely to get US infringers to pay up.  And to answer your initial question yes most of my payouts have been in the US. For UK infringers it may well be worth doing it yourself - assuming you are in the UK yourself. Its a lot of work initially but like so many other things in life get easier with practice I assume. I haven't done it myself though.  Best of luck 

 

 

Thanks Paul for sharing your experience.  Perhaps I had too high hopes when I first signed up.  It was from reading some of the success stories in the threads and one contributor praised and rated them quite highly.  Should have known better, infringements are not easy to chase and recover be it for alamy or ImageRights, how could they recover something from an infringer in China for example,  just impossible.  So I have only bothered Alamy a few times in all the 11 years .  Now I won't at all, ask them to chase anything; a waste of their time and mine.

 

Helen