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The final insult in the race to the bottom.


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I got one of those licenses too despite having already opted out of distribution to China after the first spate of sales for pennies last year . And, to add insult to injury, it's a file that has been licensed here six times in the past for up to $75 a pop, and one that continues to sell for me on the other A, so seeing it given to China, where copyright is an issue, just adds insult to injury. I have emailed Alamy and will see how they respond. 

 

I also got two Personal Use sales this week, one of which I cannot imagine is really for personal use. And because it's an editorial image uploaded when editorial photos were required to be RM, limiting my ability to license it elsewhere, despite Alamy licensing it however they please. 


Alamy just doesn't care as long as they are attracting customers and taking the lion's share, and now, with this bogus China deal, 100% of the earnings! 

 

I just drove halfway across the country in the last two days, shooting many new images. And, I came home to find 3 sales while I was away, for a total of 4 sales already this month, which should be encouraging. However, I am disinclined to upload anything new because I am so angry about Alamy's total disregard for the terms of the contract and our right to specifically opt out of distribution sales to China. Does Alamy realize the message it's sending? 

 

Wasting time ranting here instead of processing files is unproductive, but Alamy needs to get its act together. I get that it is a competitive landscape, but no one else is licensing images for such low prices (except perhaps G, which puts Alamy in the worst company). 

 

What is the point of the Alamy contract letting us opt out when our directives are completely ignored?. And how do they get away with taking 100% of the license fee - a breach of the contract?

Alamy's flagrant disregard for our directions and the terms of our contract is an insult and further erodes my trust. 

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51 minutes ago, Marianne said:

 

 

What is the point of the Alamy contract letting us opt out when our directives are completely ignored?. And how do they get away with taking 100% of the license fee - a breach of the contract?

Alamy's flagrant disregard for our directions and the terms of our contract is an insult and further erodes my trust. 

 

Based on what i read these sales were

Sold 2 cents

Distrbutor Commission 1 cents (50%)

Alamy Commission 1 cents (100% of Net Sale after deduction of Distributor fee or commission)

 

on Contract. 

First the Commission paid to the distributor is not part of our Agreement, something i mentioned when new contract was introduced and that Alamy has refused to address to date. So Distributor taking a 50% commission is actually Permitted under the agreement. In fact taking 100% would not breach.  🙄

 

The Alamy commission of 100% does appear to be in breach of contract.  The contract does allow Alamy to round up or down (at discretion), however it does not allow them to exceed 60% (80% for silver), which they are doing. (this could have easily been addressed had to written contract properly, and read it) 

 

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6 hours ago, MDM said:

 

 

I really feel betrayed by Alamy. If they would only allow us to set a minimum price on our images that could help to resolve things -- fat chance it seems. The only option if one wants to avoid this treatment appears to be up and go, but that would be cutting one's nose to spite one's face, given the amount of work it takes to prepare and tag images. Any feeling of loyalty towards Alamy, which at one time was a big part of the whole scene here on the forum, is well and truly destroyed for me. Does that matter to Alamy? Almost certainly not it would seem. What a shame!

 

 

And that is the most important point, and you would think it would matter.  The lack of partnership has a cost to Alamy, hard and soft costs, but that does not seem to bother them. 

 

2 hours ago, CinBrandon said:

I emailed Alamy, contributors@alamy.com, this is the reply

 

We're aware that the sales you have seen through distribution have been quite lower than normal – this is because of a deal we have made with the distributor in China to secure business away from competitors in that specific market area. This was for images in accounts that were signed up for both Distribution in China and Novel use.

We realise that once the commission has been taken into account, it has meant that the amount owed to you is very small. Therefore, we’re giving you the option to opt out of distribution in China and/or novel use early to avoid any future low sales. If you wish to opt-out of distribution in China, and novel use now (before April) please let us know.

Thanks,

 

 

Here is another example of lack of Partnership, when Russia Invaded Ukraine many of us asked to have Russian distributor removed immediately- and Alamy Refused saying they could not do so before April.  I ended up with a download from said distributor on March 31st, which of course has never and will never be reported nor paid.  Even more the image was also stolen after by someone else, and the Infringement team was unable to get anything for it. 

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So far the only answer from Contributor Relations is the boilerplate ..."we received your email....why not ask your helpful co-contributors for help..." Because they're too busy finding these exciting new sources of revenue (whereby we get absolutely nothing) to bother responding to our claims of breach of contract. Good call. 

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41 minutes ago, Marianne said:

So far the only answer from Contributor Relations is the boilerplate ..."we received your email....why not ask your helpful co-contributors for help..." Because they're too busy finding these exciting new sources of revenue (whereby we get absolutely nothing) to bother responding to our claims of breach of contract. Good call. 

 

They posted this on the top of page 2 of the thread "Sales To China":

 

In here they only address the sales of licenses of images from contributors who were opted out of novel use and/or distribution to China.  They avoid addressing the sales where the contributor gets nothing.

 
Quote

 

Hi All,

 

We're very sorry that due to a technical error on our part some of you who have opted-out of distribution are seeing image sales on your account via distribution sales.

 

We are aware of the issue that these sales shouldn't have happened for those opted-out of distribution, and we're investigating to establish what happened so we can resolve this as soon as possible. We'll be paying all contributors 100% of the commission from these sales. If you think you shouldn't have seen these distribution sales on your account, you can email contributors@alamy.com however we will be getting in touch with everyone affected once we have a clearer picture on the matter.

 

Thanks,

 

Alamy

 

 

I am wondering if so many people have opted out of distribution to China, that the offerings are few.  Always better to ask forgiveness after than permission before.

 

Jill

 

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9 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

They posted this on the top of page 2 of the thread "Sales To China":

 

In here they only address the sales of licenses of images from contributors who were opted out of novel use and/or distribution to China.  They avoid addressing the sales where the contributor gets nothing.

 

 

I am wondering if so many people have opted out of distribution to China, that the offerings are few.  Always better to ask forgiveness after than permission before.

 

Jill

 

It looks like those of us who opted out last year were effectively removed, so you may be right that so many people added the exclusion this year that Alamy decided to not tell the distributor. 

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23 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

They posted this on the top of page 2 of the thread "Sales To China":

 

In here they only address the sales of licenses of images from contributors who were opted out of novel use and/or distribution to China.  They avoid addressing the sales where the contributor gets nothing.

 

 

I am wondering if so many people have opted out of distribution to China, that the offerings are few.  Always better to ask forgiveness after than permission before.

 

Jill

 

 

Whoo hoo - 100% of 2 cents for a distributor sale I opted out of - that makes me feel so much better. 

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On 21/09/2022 at 18:00, Tony Collins said:

Two RF sales today for 2 cents each. My share a big fat zero.

I got one of those today too - also to China - and I have opted out of distribution to China,Russia and North Korea 

Alamy wrote telling me its a technical glitch apparently - more like a breach of contract

Edited by Foreign Export
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