Contract Change 2021 - Official thread

[Marianne]

Not surprised. 

What else is there to say? 

[spacecadet]

16 minutes ago, ManfredG said:

all these people accepting such conditions.

We're like the frog in the pan of boiling water. It gets hotter, but never too hot, until..........

Edited May 19, 2021 by spacecadet

[OnlyFabrizio]

16 minutes ago, ManfredG said:

20 % WOULD be  a real kicker. I will never understand all these people accepting such conditions. All of my current other agencies split 50:50.

I would love to know more about this agencies, how can I contact you?

[Richard Tadman]

15 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

I would way rather have someone not connected with Alamy do the review.   Someone might have a lawyer friend who could do it pro bono.  Or we could take up a collection.

 

 

I totally agree. If selling your house you wouldn't ask the Buyer's lawyer to work for you. I still contend that a number of the new clauses have been inserted from the "Philadelphia Lawyers Book" of catch all terms and many are demonstrably unenforceable legally. That said I'm not enamoured with others which are so heavily weighted in Alamy's favour as to be oppressive and dangerous.

[Hanif]

Oops, my advice got deleted - from Alamy?

 

[MizBrown]

11 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

We're like the frog in the pan of boiling water. It gets hotter, but never too hot, until..........

 

Just sent my termination email.  The water is too hot.  I looked at Patreon and that might be a better fit for me given that I write and take photographs.  Been real, I suppose.  I will miss the camaraderie of the forum.  Mostly, y'all are wonderful people.   I'm OreInNicaragua on Twitter. 

Edited May 19, 2021 by MizBrown

[riccarbi]

29 minutes ago, Michael Photo said:

Would love to know what these agencies are.

Apart from my direct sales, I sell my photos (niche photos I don't sell on Alamy) also through another UK-based specialized photo agency. Split is 40(to me)/60(to them) for pictures in exclusivity; yet, the median gross revenue per picture I'm currently getting from them is £250 (so £100 net to me); furthermore, I have a dedicated content editor and their technical editors check every single photo I submit looking for the tiniest spot or hair I didn't notice before and kindly inform me consequently. What Alamy will do for the same 60% they suppose I'd give to them, in comparison?

Edited May 19, 2021 by riccarbi

[Thyrsis]

3 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

Just sent my termination email.  The water is too hot.  I looked at Patreon and that might be a better fit for me given that I write and take photographs.  Been real, I suppose.  I will miss the camaraderie of the forum.  Mostly, y'all are wonderful people. 

 

We should set up a 'Retired from Alamy' forum somewhere.....

[M.Chapman]

1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

Now, if anyone could tell me an easy way of getting the data from the Excel file into my files, I'd be really grateful!

EXIFTool.exe can do this automatically for all the jpgs in a folder using the Excel data, but unfortunately it's quite a complex program to use. https://exiftool.org/

 

Mark

[MizBrown]

17 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

 

We should set up a 'Retired from Alamy' forum somewhere.....

 

If I set up a Patreon page, I may rejoin FB.  Just edited Alamy out of my Twitter bio.  The good was being pushed to take better photos, but that push came from the other photographers, not Alamy.   I also am here, not in a US city or in the UK.   If I were in the US, say in Philadelphia, continuing might make sense, but I'm not. 

 

I have no doubt that Alamy will lose people and replace them with even more people due to the current economic situation world wide. 

 

Once upon a time in another century and country, I told people that they should set an end limit on trying to sell fiction, because so many people made stupid sacrifices long after it was apparent that they weren't going to ever either make money or get critical acclaim for tenure advancement.   I've given Alamy four and a half years.  I still have my cameras and lights, and can continue to try to improve my photography, but I'm 73 years old.   If Alamy doesn't have the stones to fire people after giving them a chance, then we should have the grace to remove ourselves.

Edited May 19, 2021 by MizBrown
editing

[M.Chapman]

1 hour ago, Jansos said:

I'll have a look and see if there is any obvious key field to use that links with original file. I very much doubt it though.

The original image ref (i.e. your jpg filename) can be used as the "key" (assuming you haven't renamed the jpgs on your computer since uploading to Alamy).

 

Mark

[meanderingemu]

24 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

Just sent my termination email.  The water is too hot.  I looked at Patreon and that might be a better fit for me given that I write and take photographs.  Been real, I suppose.  I will miss the camaraderie of the forum.  Mostly, y'all are wonderful people.   I'm OreInNicaragua on Twitter. 

 

 

sad to see great people like you go.  i will miss your insight and your stories of Nicaragua.  

[Stokie]

34 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

Just sent my termination email.  The water is too hot.  I looked at Patreon and that might be a better fit for me given that I write and take photographs.  Been real, I suppose.  I will miss the camaraderie of the forum.  Mostly, y'all are wonderful people.   I'm OreInNicaragua on Twitter. 

 

 

Good luck in the future with whatever you do.

 

So sad to see forum 'stalwarts' leaving.

 

John.

[Jill Morgan]

Let's face it, most contributors don't read the forum.  Many will see the change in commission and that is that.  And any joining from now on, will likely not read the contract (as many business count on) and be totally unaware of what they are setting themselves up for.  I'm still in limbo mode, but if no changes, will probably remove any images with people and only have cutesy RF wildlife images.  This of course will send me deep in to Silver mode, so then I will probably just go quietly in to the night.

 

Every contributor should have received not only the new contract, but notifications of where every change is from the previous one and what the means in layman's terms.  I have a number of companies I deal with online who do that.  Sometimes it is hard to find all the subtle changes in wording if you don't check hard enough.

 

Jill

[Jill Morgan]

Is anyone else having the forum crash periodically?  

 

Jill

[meanderingemu]

22 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

Is anyone else having the forum crash periodically?  

 

Jill

yes

[Keith Douglas]

23 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

Is anyone else having the forum crash periodically?  

 

Jill

Yes

 

[NYCat]

Yes, can't get in, or once in can't see posts. Error messages.

 

Paulette

[John Mitchell]

11 hours ago, AndrewP said:

I have lots of images of similar. Surely the buyers have to agree that they will only publish the image in a way that is suitable when there's no MR or PR in place. We can't be expected to be liable for the actions of buyers who should know better if they publish a store front as commercial and not editorial.

 

That has been my thinking as well. However, with the new contract, I'm no sure what's going on. Best to be proactive and start checking the "editorial use only box"? I don't know. I'm admittedly pretty naive about legal matters. It would be helpful if Alamy could give us a bit more guidance.

[Jill Morgan]

Wasn't this thread 36 pages before crash?

 

Jill

[John Mitchell]

2 hours ago, MizBrown said:

 

Just sent my termination email.  The water is too hot.  I looked at Patreon and that might be a better fit for me given that I write and take photographs.  Been real, I suppose.  I will miss the camaraderie of the forum.  Mostly, y'all are wonderful people.   I'm OreInNicaragua on Twitter. 

 

Sorry to hear that you're leaving. I've enjoyed hearing the latest from Nicaragua. If I'm ever back there, I'll drop by Jinotega.

 

All the best.

 

-JM

[Flash68]

3 hours ago, Cryptoprocta said:

On the Image Manager page, at the bottom of the right hand column, Download Your Data,

 

Now, if anyone could tell me an easy way of getting the data from the Excel file into my files, I'd be really grateful!

I've found a plug-in to Lightroom and Bridge that will export your data from Alamy, match the images in Lightroom and update your keywords etc in Lightroom - it does this directly, you don't even need to download your data. Free to try and only £25.  lightroom-plugins.com

[MizBrown]

49 minutes ago, Keith Douglas said:

Yes

 

 

Yes, but got back in minutes later.

[Jill Morgan]

2 hours ago, Paul J said:

 

Any Plans to implement a ONE CLICK to remove all images from being exclusive? Or is it a case of going through them for hours?

 

 

 

Took me 10 minutes, if that, to change all mine.  I just went to image manager, choose a bunch of submissions, clicked the exclude button to make them non-exclusive and save.  You have about a thousand more images than I do, so shouldn't take you much longer.  Those with huge ports will have to Alamy do it, or slowly go through their images 500 at a time.

 

Jill

[John Mitchell]

2 hours ago, OnlyFabrizio said:

I would love to know more about this agencies, how can I contact you?

 

There's a big Spanish one that still offers 50%. It has been around for ages. Sorry, can't mention their name. I still have a few images with them via a German agency (which also offers 50% but is not recommendable).

 

Fortunately, I don't think I'll have any difficulty (touch wood) staying at the "Gold" level. However, if I were stuck at 20%, I'd be making plans to get out of Dodge as well. As it is, other agencies probably wouldn't be interested in most of the images I place on Alamy, so I'll be hanging around FBFW.

Edited May 19, 2021 by John Mitchell