Editorial sale despite restrictions?

[Skyscraperfan]

Although I have checked the "Do not sell for editorial" box almost all of my photos, one of those photos now was sold for editorial use. How can that happen?

 

Did anyone of you see also see an illegal sale of your images?

Those are the details of the sale:
Country: France
Usage: Editorial
Media: Book, print and/or e-book
Print run: up to 5,000
Placement: Inside
Image Size: 1 page
Start: 01 April 2022
End: 01 April 2027
France,Book, print and/or e-book
$ 36.53

If you visit the licensing page of that image, you can see that you can only select "Personal Use":
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-restroom-in-the-sky-170231150.html

 

 

[meanderingemu]

 

On 07/06/2022 at 06:48, Skyscraperfan said:

 
I once bought a week ticket for the metro in Vienna on a Sunday. I used it for five days and thought it was valid. Later I learned that week tickets in Vienna can't start at any random day, but always start on the Monday after you bought them. So technically I used the metro without a valid ticket on that Sunday. I still do not feel like a criminal though, as I still bought a full week ticket. If my ticket was checked on that Sunday though, they would still have had the right to impose a fine. So even if you have good intentions like paying for a whole week although you only use the metro for five days, you can still do something illegal. That's why I do not blame anybody unless there was a real intention.

 

 

still don't see where this breaks the law, but i am not fluent with Austrian laws. Where i am from this would not be a criminal offence, and you would not have a criminal record for it. I guess Austria is way more stringent. 

[Skyscraperfan]

6 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

still don't see where this breaks the law, but i am not fluent with Austrian laws. Where i am from this would not be a criminal offence, and you would not have a criminal record for it. I guess Austria is way more stringent. 

Technically it is a crime. At least in Germany. If you are caught without a ticket too often, you even face jail time. Not sure about Austria. However foreigners are usually not fined.

[Rebecca Ore]

7 hours ago, Skyscraperfan said:

100% of zero is better than 40% of something. What sense would it make to close my account?

 

That was an ironic Anglo-American statement.  I closed my account and earned nothing.  If you're licensing enough personal use photos to get the 40%, then more power to you. 

[Skyscraperfan]

12 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

That was an ironic Anglo-American statement.  I closed my account and earned nothing.  If you're licensing enough personal use photos to get the 40%, then more power to you. 

Not sure what I do if I even fall to 20%. When is the deadline? June 30th? Unfortunately Alamy does not allow all restrictions at the same time. The only thing I could do then is delete keywords.

I wonder how Alamy employees would react if they got the same pay cut as photographers.

[Dave Richards]

1 hour ago, Skyscraperfan said:

Not sure what I do if I even fall to 20%. When is the deadline? June 30th? Unfortunately Alamy does not allow all restrictions at the same time. The only thing I could do then is delete keywords.

I wonder how Alamy employees would react if they got the same pay cut as photographers.

You are going to fall to 20%. You aren't even trying, which is a shame because you have some nice images in your port. If you don't want to sell below 50% commission you may as well give up now because things aren't going to change.

[Skyscraperfan]

29 minutes ago, Alexander Hog said:

That's what I'm about to do is give up Been struggling for a while to get images up and to get enough Am going to be on the 80/20 split on the new contract Leaving the portfolio up though in case I can put more images on at a later date Going to look for a job 

The problem is that in order to get 40% again, you need at least $250 in sales for the last July to June period. So no matter what you do, you need will stay at 20% for at least one year and have to create sales for at least $250, from which you will only get $50, while Alamy gets $200.

I am not a fan of third party stock agencies, but if you sell photos of Alamy via a very popular third party agency, that I can't mention here, you will always be in the 40% or even 50% scheme, because all those are sold in a single Alamy account. That account will easily surpass the $250 per year required for 40% and likely even the $20,000 required for 50%. Of course that agency will charge 15% commission from that. So you would earn 34% or 42.5%, which both are far more than 20%. Still less than 50% though. That's why I might not join.

By the way, I contacted contacted contibutor support last Monday and after almost seven days they have not responded yet except with a response that my issue is forwarded to the responsible people. I am not in a hurry though. I think I will wait a month and then contact them again. Maybe it is a bigger issue that affected a lot of people and images and they are now trying to solve it, as I am sure they want to respect all restrictions that photographers put into place.

[Harry Harrison]

17 minutes ago, Skyscraperfan said:

So no matter what you do, you need will stay at 20% for at least one year and have to create sales for at least $250

Actually pretty sure you are switched to 40% as soon as you reach the $250 threshold.

[Skyscraperfan]

27 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Actually pretty sure you are switched to 40% as soon as you reach the $250 threshold.

That was not what they said when they introduced the new commission scheme. The rule was that the comission you get during the twelve months of the current cycle is based on the sales you had during the last cycle. A cycle runs from July 1st to June 30th if I remember it right. So even if you have $10,000 worth of sales this August, the commission will stay at 20% until June 30th, 2023.

[DJ Myford]

16 minutes ago, Skyscraperfan said:

That was not what they said when they introduced the new commission scheme. The rule was that the comission you get during the twelve months of the current cycle is based on the sales you had during the last cycle. A cycle runs from July 1st to June 30th if I remember it right. So even if you have $10,000 worth of sales this August, the commission will stay at 20% until June 30th, 2023.

Someone from Alamy did say on this forum that as soon as you made the 250, you would be switched back to 40%. Of course, what they say here and what actually happens are not always the same, as we have seen recently.

[Harry Harrison]

48 minutes ago, Skyscraperfan said:

A cycle runs from July 1st to June 30th if I remember it right. So even if you have $10,000 worth of sales this August, the commission will stay at 20% until June 30th, 2023.

That was just for the first year, because how else could they assess it?

[Skyscraperfan]

26 minutes ago, DJ Myford said:

Someone from Alamy did say on this forum that as soon as you made the 250, you would be switched back to 40%. Of course, what they say here and what actually happens are not always the same, as we have seen recently.

Oh, I just read the clauses:

Quote

1. 12.11. If you register for an Account after the 1 July in any one Revenue Year: (i) you will automatically be subject to Alamy Gold; and (ii) Alamy will not monitor your License Fees and clause 12.12 will not apply until the following Revenue Year.
2. 12.12. At the end of each Revenue Year if your total License Fees for that year, net of any refunds:
   1. 12.12.1.are less than $250 then the Alamy Commission for sales of your Content in the following Revenue Year will automatically switch to Alamy Silver as outlined in the Alamy Commission Table; or
   2. 12.12.2. are greater than or equal to $250 then the Alamy Commission for sales of your Content in the following Revenue Year will remain on Alamy Gold for that year, as outlined in the Alamy Commission Table.
3. 12.13. If you are subject to Alamy Silver and your total License Fees, net of any refunds, exceeds $250 at any point during the Revenue Year then the Alamy Commission will automatically revert to Alamy Gold for future sales during the Revenue Year. Should any subsequent refund take your License Fees below the $250 threshold as set out in clause 12.12, the Alamy Commission will revert to Alamy Silver.
4. 12.14. If you are not an Agency Contributor and your total License Fees for Content sales via the Alamy Websites in any one Revenue Year (starting 1 July 2020), net of any refunds, are greater than or equal to $25,000 then the Alamy Commission for the following Revenue Year for Content that is Exclusive to Alamy will automatically switch to Alamy Platinum as outlined in the Alamy Commission Table.

So you are right, it switches immediately from Silver (20%) to Gold (40%) when you reach the $250. Only the switch to Platinum (50%) not start before the current cycle is over. That also means that you will never lose more than $50 plus some change for the last image within a single billing cycle because of the switch to Silver.