If not renewing, how long do images stay with Alamy?

[chris_rabe]

I did contact support, but really, the answer wasn't very helpful. I did post this in other threads, but never noticed any direct reply.

 

My original plan was to only contribute here, but after the change in rates I have decided that all eggs in one basket isn't really ideal.

 

I will continue contributing certain types of photo to Alamy, but I am now on with two other agencies, and they will each be getting fairly different kinds of content from me for the most part. As a result, there are a few images I would like to remove from Alamy.

 

If I go the normal route, then I cannot get them removed before 6 months (though only visible 90 days after delete)

 

So I was wondering, if I did not agree to the new terms, would my images be tied in for the same 6 months/90 days? Or would they need to remove my content at the end of existing contract? Which I understand to be next month?

 

I'd prefer not to go down the route of ending contract and signing on again, but might consider it

[chris_rabe]

1 minute ago, spacecadet said:

...but be aware that doing this is a breach of contract, albeit one unlikely to have any consequences if you're leaving anyway.

If you terminate, you'll have 45 days' notice, term 20(3(1)) applies and images will be deleted straight away, but of course any licences sold prior will remain until they expire.

IIRC exclusivity of representation and exclusivity in licencing being two very different things was something what was discussed. The new contract is only about the former.

 

 

Cheers. Figured it would get them removed immediately.

 

As I have not been here that long and have not yet sold anything, I dont' have much to worry about. 

 

It just strikes me as odd that Alamy (going by the response I got from support), would rather have me go through that rather than simply remove some images. Oh well.

[Sultanpepa]

7 minutes ago, chris_rabe said:

 

Cheers. Figured it would get them removed immediately.

 

As I have not been here that long and have not yet sold anything, I dont' have much to worry about. 

 

It just strikes me as odd that Alamy (going by the response I got from support), would rather have me go through that rather than simply remove some images. Oh well.

 

It's not a case of , putting you through it, the delay is to protect customers who may have selected one of your images for a project but haven't completed the deal. It wouldn't be good for Alamy to have customers inconvenienced in this way. 

[chris_rabe]

1 minute ago, Sultanpepa said:

 

It's not a case of , putting you through it, the delay is to protect customers who may have selected one of your images for a project but haven't completed the deal. It wouldn't be good for Alamy to have customers inconvenienced in this way. 

 

If these images have not even been viewed, I don't see how it could inconvenience anyone.

 

I do get (to a point) them needing to keep images for a little while, but at the same time, they should be able to know if there is any possibility of this being an issue - if an image has not appeared in search or been viewed, then chances of anybody wanting to use it are slim to none.

 

It's not hard. Their devs could build queries against ID's of images and know whether there is possibility of use.

 

 

 

[spacecadet]

1 minute ago, chris_rabe said:

 

If these images have not even been viewed, I don't see how it could inconvenience anyone.

 

I do get (to a point) them needing to keep images for a little while, but at the same time, they should be able to know if there is any possibility of this being an issue - if an image has not appeared in search or been viewed, then chances of anybody wanting to use it are slim to none.

 

It's not hard. Their devs could build queries against ID's of images and know whether there is possibility of use.

 

 

 

You said you hadn't had any sales. Now you say you don't have any views. Very different.

Termination doesn't apply to any image which a buyer has already downloaded or put on his lightbox.

[chris_rabe]

5 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

You said you hadn't had any sales. Now you say you don't have any views. Very different.

Termination doesn't apply to any image which a buyer has already downloaded or put on his lightbox.

 

No, I have not had sales, but some of my images have had no views - my stuff hasn't been up all that long.

 

I'd happily go through normal process for those in lightboxes, or, hell, even just VIEWED, but for an image that has had no interaction?

 

 

[John Mitchell]

3 hours ago, spacecadet said:

 

IIRC exclusivity of representation and exclusivity in licencing being two very different things was something what was discussed. The new contract is only about the former.

 

 

Hope you're correct about that. One would assume that this will be the case, but we won't know for sure until the big reveal.

[Keith Douglas]

3 hours ago, chris_rabe said:

 

No, I have not had sales, but some of my images have had no views - my stuff hasn't been up all that long.

 

I'd happily go through normal process for those in lightboxes, or, hell, even just VIEWED, but for an image that has had no interaction?

 

 

How do you know the images have not been viewed? As I understand it Alamy Measures only includes data from selected image buyers.

 

I've just viewed all your images by the way ;-)  Buyers may well have viewed them too, without you knowing.

[chris_rabe]

13 hours ago, Keith Douglas said:

How do you know the images have not been viewed? As I understand it Alamy Measures only includes data from selected image buyers.

 

I've just viewed all your images by the way ;-)  Buyers may well have viewed them too, without you knowing.

 

I get your point. It may also not include distribution - which I would like to opt out of, but have to wait for April...

 

Though, if you are logged in as a contributor, I'd be surprised if they counted your views.

 

Maybe will just continue on. It's only a couple of dozen images, so perhaps I will just wait, even though they would likely sell better at other agencies. 6 months is long, but bearable I guess.

 

As stated, am happy to continue with Alamy for certain content, and exclusively for the images I submit - I consider this more of a "documenting things I see and places I visit" agency, rather than anything remotely artistic.

 

They will likely get some of my wildlife in time too, for things not accepted elsewhere - not rubbish, but not everything is going to be accepted at the places I am submitting.

[Matt Ashmore]

19 hours ago, chris_rabe said:

I will continue contributing certain types of photo to Alamy, but I am now on with two other agencies, and they will each be getting fairly different kinds of content from me for the most part. As a result, there are a few images I would like to remove from Alamy.

 

Maybe I'm totally misunderstanding here.. but doesn't this paragraph in the original post suggest you plan to stay with Alamy? .. in which case getting your account closed down probably wouldn't be what you want? And you say you will place different images with the other agencies.. so why not leave what you have on Alamy here? You apparently (at time of writing) have 299 images here which isn't a significantly large portfolio compared to some contributors here so surely leaving 299 images on Alamy isn't going to be a big deal?

[spacecadet]

15 hours ago, Keith Douglas said:

How do you know the images have not been viewed? As I understand it Alamy Measures only includes data from selected image buyers.

 

I've just viewed all your images by the way ;-)  Buyers may well have viewed them too, without you knowing.

AFAIK all views are recorded but not all zooms.

[Matt Ashmore]

5 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

AFAIK all views are recorded but not all zooms.

 

Not sure about that... if you 'view' your own images, do they show up as views the next day? ... I don't think they do.

[chris_rabe]

20 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

Maybe I'm totally misunderstanding here.. but doesn't this paragraph in the original post suggest you plan to stay with Alamy? .. in which case getting your account closed down probably wouldn't be what you want? And you say you will place different images with the other agencies.. so why not leave what you have on Alamy here? You apparently (at time of writing) have 299 images here which isn't a significantly large portfolio compared to some contributors here so surely leaving 299 images on Alamy isn't going to be a big deal?

 

I was simply hoping to get certain images released sooner - if I closed my account to get them off Alamy, I would sign up again, and resubmit those I am happy to leave here.

 

There is only about 20 or so images I want to move elsewhere.

 

Yes, my port is small. I stopped uploading once the new changes were announced, while I decided what direction I would take. As above, my original plan was to list here exclusively, but that doesn't seem wise.

[Matt Ashmore]

2 minutes ago, chris_rabe said:

 

I was simply hoping to get certain images released sooner - if I closed my account to get them off Alamy, I would sign up again, and resubmit those I am happy to leave here.

 

There is only about 20 or so images I want to move elsewhere.

 

Yes, my port is small. I stopped uploading once the new changes were announced, while I decided what direction I would take. As above, my original plan was to list here exclusively, but that doesn't seem wise.

 

Alamy probably wouldn't let you simply just sign back up again if they saw fit to ban you in the first place. If you close your account yourself, if doesn't remove your images from sale (as far as I know) until the 6 months has expired for reasons already covered in this thread.

 

Unless the agencies that you want to move these 20 images to demand exclusivity,  why not simply just accept that they will be on sale with two agencies for 6 months?

[chris_rabe]

13 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

Alamy probably wouldn't let you simply just sign back up again if they saw fit to ban you in the first place. If you close your account yourself, if doesn't remove your images from sale (as far as I know) until the 6 months has expired for reasons already covered in this thread.

 

Unless the agencies that you want to move these 20 images to demand exclusivity,  why not simply just accept that they will be on sale with two agencies for 6 months?

 

It just feels like you have not read much of anything I have actually typed... and what is this walk of banning?

 

Regarding your last sentence:

1) As above, they ARE EXLUSIVE

2) I have already said above, that in the end, I will probably continue and just deal with the images not being movable for 6 months.

 

So, truly, there is nothing else for you to reply to here.

 

 

[spacecadet]

51 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

Not sure about that... if you 'view' your own images, do they show up as views the next day? ... I don't think they do.

Well of course contributors are excluded so you can't game your own images. We've always known that.

[Matt Ashmore]

2 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Well of course contributors are excluded so you can't game your own images. We've always known that.

 

A contributor could also be a buyer. Anyone interested could equally test this by logging out of Alamy (so that Alamy doesn't know who you are) and searching for images. Or even use Google to track down an image.

[Cryptoprocta]

10 hours ago, chris_rabe said:

They will likely get some of my wildlife in time too, for things not accepted elsewhere - not rubbish, but not everything is going to be accepted at the places I am submitting.

Wildlife is the very thing I can hardly sell on Alamy. My wildlife files (which is by far my favourite subject) seem to have much lower rankings than my other work (which presumably means that a LOT of wildlife togs are ranked above me), and so get very few views, far less zooms. For one species, I noticed that I had more sales in a year on my other place than there were recorded searches in All Of Alamy in the same timeframe (and I wasn't viewed on that search term, though my files are there if you go past the couple of pages).

Of course, YMMV.

[chris_rabe]

14 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

Wildlife is the very thing I can hardly sell on Alamy. My wildlife files (which is by far my favourite subject) seem to have much lower rankings than my other work (which presumably means that a LOT of wildlife togs are ranked above me), and so get very few views, far less zooms. For one species, I noticed that I had more sales in a year on my other place than there were recorded searches in All Of Alamy in the same timeframe (and I wasn't viewed on that search term, though my files are there if you go past the couple of pages).

Of course, YMMV.

 

I used what was available to me on Alamy to try and determine the value of listing wildlife on here, and came to the conclusion I shouldn't bother - hence why I have listed none here.

 

Like you, wildlife is my favourite subject and the majority of my portfolio, but apart from a very few I listed on micro stupidly, they are not listed anywhere but my site. 

 

I think the one agency I have joined may be a good start, but they probably won't accept everything. I have been scouting for a 2nd place to list, before resorting to listing them on Alamy.