Alamy Infringement Team - any news?

[geogphotos]

Anybody have experience of the new improved Alamy infringement team reporting payments? 

 

Have you reported any potential infringements - and if so have they been treated successfully?

 

What are the fees like - an improvement on the previous system which seems to be essentially retrospective licensing?

 

At the moment I have labelled all images as non-exclusive so as to pursue infringement myself but am open to persuasion if the Alamy team is making headway.

[Sally]

Got a license today for very good $$$ for a magazine use infringement I reported to Alamy with these added details.
ordinarily a use like this would probably be about $20-$30 I think.

 Additional Details: Infringement. 

[spacecadet]

I reported one in July. Had an email last month to tell me that there was a backlog but that it was now being investigated. Still ex.

Edited December 16, 2021 by spacecadet

[Phil Crean]

I reported 1 in May which I'm still waiting on....

Also reported 1 in July, same image but different usage and they then came back referring to a sale in last September, despite first telling me they had no record for it!

 

Phil

[geogphotos]

Has anybody been contacted by Alamy about an infringement that they have found?

[Michael Ventura]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Has anybody been contacted by Alamy about an infringement that they have found?

 

Nope

[M.Chapman]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Has anybody been contacted by Alamy about an infringement that they have found?

Not yet. Maybe Alamy could give us all an update on progress? I've left the majority of my images as Alamy exclusive in the hope that it might generate some benefit, but if it doesn't I'll switch them all to non-exclusive to reduce admin required and to open up other opportunities.

 

Mark

[Mr Standfast]

Not even a Christmas card...😉

 

 

 

 

[meanderingemu]

3 hours ago, spacecadet said:

I reported one in July. Had an email last month to tell me that there was a backlog but that it was now being investigated. Still ex.

 

same experience for me.  

[Ace]

Alamy asked me about a photo they found and asked for permission to chase which I gave. No news since. 

So still waiting. 

[Ace]

This was dated 24th October 2021

[shearwater]

Alamy Infringement Team contacted me this week asking for more information about a couple of Unauthorized Forms reported by me on July. They are working on them now, so hopefully the backlog is starting to disappear.

[M.Chapman]

56 minutes ago, shearwater said:

Alamy Infringement Team contacted me this week asking for more information about a couple of Unauthorized Forms reported by me on July. They are working on them now, so hopefully the backlog is starting to disappear.

That's some backlog. Perhaps they've been busy with contributor infringements instead....

Mark

[meanderingemu]

Quick update on the one case I've had going:

 

I got confirmation last month from the Infringement Team that they had recovered payment for one image I had found to infringe- no idea $. 

 

However it seems they are having issues communicating with the accounting system, so that the entry they made last month never got reported in my numbers, service rep said i was actually not the only one that inquired.  They are now working with accounting to reprocess the entries. Service representative from the team really efficient in providing feedback but seems this is still a work in progress.

 

will update

[shearwater]

7 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

Quick update on the one case I've had going:

 

I got confirmation last month from the Infringement Team that they had recovered payment for one image I had found to infringe- no idea $. 

 

However it seems they are having issues communicating with the accounting system, so that the entry they made last month never got reported in my numbers, service rep said i was actually not the only one that inquired.  They are now working with accounting to reprocess the entries. Service representative from the team really efficient in providing feedback but seems this is still a work in progress.

 

will update

I think I'm one of the others that inquired

In my case, it wasn't an unauthorized use, but a "forgotten and not reported" use.

Hope they solve the communication issues and licenses and recoveries start to appear soon.

Best luck!

[Phil Robinson]

I have finally been paid for a book cover that I found last year that was published in 2011 after about a year of "any progress??" emails.
Needless to say the fee was a fraction of what a book cover would have got had it been invoiced at the time, and I got a smaller percentage.
Still waiting to hear about the front page of a national newspaper in October and two further uses of the same image which there don't seem to be any records of...

 

[sb photos]

7 hours ago, Phil Robinson said:

I have finally been paid for a book cover that I found last year that was published in 2011 after about a year of "any progress??" emails.
Needless to say the fee was a fraction of what a book cover would have got had it been invoiced at the time, and I got a smaller percentage.
Still waiting to hear about the front page of a national newspaper in October and two further uses of the same image which there don't seem to be any records of...

 

 

In many instances publishers are taking Alamy and its contributors for a ride. Good that you have been persistent in chasing but ethically wrong in Alamy invoicing at the current lower rate. Also interest should have been applied by Alamy.

Edited February 11, 2022 by sb photos

[geogphotos]

Pixsy found an old match in a UK magazine without any credit. Alamy confirmed that they were a client and had downloaded this image. But there was no record of payment. The image is non-exclusive so could have been sourced elsewhere. I asked Pixsy to negotiate retrospective usage rights and received a payment of c £250. 

 

The worry from the outset with the Alamy infringements system is that they would feel pressure to keep their client happy rather than push for the best resolution for the contributor.

 

I recently reported a 2021 book use credited to me/Alamy and as Phil says it gets 'passed on' but there is no system in place to keep track of this - no reference number assigned, so you are left hanging. Several times I have just ended up forgetting especially in view of the likely fee.

 

[spacecadet]

On 16/12/2021 at 17:15, spacecadet said:

I reported one in July. Had an email last month to tell me that there was a backlog but that it was now being investigated. Still ex.

I had an email today to say that the link was dead. I wasn't too surprised after 7 months, but I found it elsewhere on the site and I'm told a settlement request has been sent.

[shearwater]

On 28/02/2022 at 13:54, Sally said:

Got a license today for very good $$$ for a magazine use infringement I reported to Alamy with these added details.
ordinarily a use like this would probably be about $20-$30 I think.

 Additional Details: Infringement. 

I had one of those a few days ago for a magazine use I reported to Alamy months ago.

Nice $$$ (best ever) and Additional details: Infringement.

So it seems that the Infringement Team is working and catching up with the Unauthorized Use Claims 

Hope to see more of this!

[Sally]

2 hours ago, shearwater said:

I had one of those a few days ago for a magazine use I reported to Alamy months ago.

Nice $$$ (best ever) and Additional details: Infringement.

So it seems that the Infringement Team is working and catching up with the Unauthorized Use Claims 

Hope to see more of this!

Indeed. I’ve got several more in the pipeline including an unreported magazine front cover use. Beats me how a magazine could forget to report such a use and I look forward to seeing what it fetches. Should make these publications take more care.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Sally

[Ace]

On 17/12/2021 at 00:35, Ace said:

Alamy asked me about a photo they found and asked for permission to chase which I gave. No news since. 

So still waiting. 

 

Was told by Alamy that although there was an infringement it was in a country they could do anything about it !

So couldn't chase further.....

[meanderingemu]

Came to report that mine finally also went through accounting.  

 

Nice payout of low $$$ for a web misuse.  So this is a major positive for the team....

 

one thing of note, the payment is reported as other income, so it seems it does not qualify as a Licence fee in order to meet thresholds.  Not a major issue for me living in 2nd tier with no chance of ever reaching the top but just a note where someone on the cusp may have to do some contract interpretation. Might ask Alamy for a formal position on this. It also means it gets cleared immediately (in fact they nicely put mine with February even though accounting wasn't cleared until today)

[shearwater]

On 02/03/2022 at 11:41, meanderingemu said:

one thing of note, the payment is reported as other income, so it seems it does not qualify as a Licence fee in order to meet thresholds.  Not a major issue for me living in 2nd tier with no chance of ever reaching the top but just a note where someone on the cusp may have to do some contract interpretation. Might ask Alamy for a formal position on this. It also means it gets cleared immediately (in fact they nicely put mine with February even though accounting wasn't cleared until today)

My note: Mine is detailed as a regular license with only the additional details of “Infringement”, so it should qualify for the July threshold. Not cleared yet so.

 

 

[meanderingemu]

On 05/03/2022 at 14:47, shearwater said:

My note: Mine is detailed as a regular license with only the additional details of “Infringement”, so it should qualify for the July threshold. Not cleared yet so.

 

 

 

 

Interesting.  I did follow up with Infringement team, and they said they will issue a licence for an existing client upon settlement,  but someone off the street will have to pay the infringement cost and be asked to delete the image,  if they want a licence also they would need to go through normal process in addition.  So I guess this was the difference

[Phil Robinson]

On 10/02/2022 at 23:07, Phil Robinson said:

I have finally been paid for a book cover that I found last year that was published in 2011 after about a year of "any progress??" emails.
Needless to say the fee was a fraction of what a book cover would have got had it been invoiced at the time, and I got a smaller percentage.
Still waiting to hear about the front page of a national newspaper in October and two further uses of the same image which there don't seem to be any records of...

 

Update: still waiting.
I was told the front page would appear at the end of February. It didn't. The smaller uses did come through but the front page of the national newspaper seems to have slipped through the net.
I was told that the newspapers' self reporting system did rely on "an element of trust". It seems that trust is sometimes misplaced.
I was also told to be sure to report any more unpaid uses I find and they will look into them. I certainly will, but is that really my job? 
Almost time to chase up the front page of the Independent from December that has not yet appeared. 
I thought Alamy used to buy the daily newspapers and check them for uses. Either that has stopped or whoever does it needs to go to Specsavers.