Important Update - Alamy Contributor Contract

[John Mitchell]

12 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

Sorry for being dense but I still don't really understand this. Could you perhaps link to a website or App where this is in operation? 

 

What does the viewer want the images for, is it to licence them, browse through them, what is their purpose?

 

If our images are in this 'feed' does it open them to people copying them without getting a licence?

 

When they 'download the feed' what do they do with all those images?

 

Found this.

[geogphotos]

Thanks John though I need a translation for most of it

 

Optimise platform stickiness

Scale and proactively improve your product

Accelerate workflows to create a frictionless user experience

Boost engagement and improve customer retention rates

Edited May 11, 2023 by geogphotos

[John Mitchell]

16 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

Thanks John though I need a translation for most of it

 

Optimise platform stickiness

Scale and proactively improve your product

Accelerate workflows to create a frictionless user experience

Boost engagement and improve customer retention rates

 

Can't help you there, I'm afraid. My platform is too sticky as it is. 🙃

[Rebecca Ore]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Thanks John though I need a translation for most of it

 

Optimise platform stickiness

Scale and proactively improve your product

Accelerate workflows to create a frictionless user experience

Boost engagement and improve customer retention rates

 

First --  find ways to keep the customer engaged.

Second -- predict from user behavior what might be more engaging changes to make in how the display interacts with the client.

Third -- make sure the application doesn't take too long to load and that the customer can try photos and illustrations in own or model layouts.

Fourth -- Encourage the customer in whatever ways possible to find the application useful and helpful in bringing the customer back in the future. 

 

Or does that not make sense?

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

First --  find ways to keep the customer engaged.

Second -- predict from user behavior what might be more engaging changes to make in how the display interacts with the client.

Third -- make sure the application doesn't take too long to load and that the customer can try photos and illustrations in own or model layouts.

Fourth -- Encourage the customer in whatever ways possible to find the application useful and helpful in bringing the customer back in the future. 

 

Or does that not make sense?

 

Things sound so much better in plain English. 🙄

[geogphotos]

6 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

First --  find ways to keep the customer engaged.

Second -- predict from user behavior what might be more engaging changes to make in how the display interacts with the client.

Third -- make sure the application doesn't take too long to load and that the customer can try photos and illustrations in own or model layouts.

Fourth -- Encourage the customer in whatever ways possible to find the application useful and helpful in bringing the customer back in the future. 

 

Or does that not make sense?

 

 

Thanks.😀

 

 

[John Mitchell]

Where are Strunk and White when we really need them? 🙃

[Rebecca Ore]

1 hour ago, John Mitchell said:

Where are Strunk and White when we really need them? 🙃

 

Tech buzz words are a way to barricade an occupational specialty.  

[John Mitchell]

10 minutes ago, Rebecca Ore said:

 

Tech buzz words are a way to barricade an occupational specialty.  

 

That's an interesting observation. However, I'm not sure why techies would feel threatened. Most of us are incapable of understanding this stuff anyway. Terms like "platform stickiness" and "frictionless user experience" just seem pretentious (sorry) to me. But then I'm old-fashioned... 👴

[Rebecca Ore]

9 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

That's an interesting observation. However, I'm not sure why techies would feel threatened. Most of us are incapable of understanding this stuff anyway. Terms like "platform stickiness" and "frictionless user experience" just seem pretentious (sorry) to me. But then I'm old-fashioned... 👴

 

Sounding like physicists is pretentious in advertisers.

[Sally]

On 10/05/2023 at 15:39, geogphotos said:

I was sent this yesterday and I have asked where it is in my contract that Alamy has the right to take on infringements for images that are non-exclusive and could very well have come from other sources that are nothing to do with Alamy. ie) my website, my blog, Flickr, other agencies

 

1) Why should Alamy effectively have first rights to any and all infringements of my images? 

 

2) What if another agency also demands this?

 

3) What if the copyright tracking company also demands this?

 

"We proactively look for infringements on exclusive images only (as we need to ensure we get as many uses paid for our contributors as possible), but on non-exclusive images we still reserve the right to go after infringements as part of our contract with you.

 

You are obligated to tell Alamy about any infringements that you find so that we can elect to chase them."

Bringing this to the fore as I’d like a response from Alamy about these questions, too.

As an example, occasionally I license news images via another agency. But many of these are also put on Alamy as stock images (sometimes as news images too). If an image is licensed by the other agency and then copied elsewhere without any provenance details, why would Alamy reserve the right to chase this infringement (without even asking me when I could tell them it was copied from a non-Alamy use)? I think we need much clearer guidance that covers all eventualities rather than just the general statement quoted above in situations when we find infringements ourselves or when a 3rd party tracking site finds them.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Sally

[Alamy]

On 14/05/2023 at 09:50, Sally said:

Bringing this to the fore as I’d like a response from Alamy about these questions, too.

As an example, occasionally I license news images via another agency. But many of these are also put on Alamy as stock images (sometimes as news images too). If an image is licensed by the other agency and then copied elsewhere without any provenance details, why would Alamy reserve the right to chase this infringement (without even asking me when I could tell them it was copied from a non-Alamy use)? I think we need much clearer guidance that covers all eventualities rather than just the general statement quoted above in situations when we find infringements ourselves or when a 3rd party tracking site finds them.

 

We would only pursue a non-exclusive image if we are sure it came from us. It could be via a visible watermark for example or it could be for an image that has been downloaded from us directly by a customer but not reported / confirmed for use that we later find in an audit. 

 

This is not about us going out and finding usages for images that may have be supplied elsewhere and for us to then try and obtain a fee - we are only pursuing images that were sourced from Alamy.

[Sally]

10 hours ago, Alamy said:

 

We would only pursue a non-exclusive image if we are sure it came from us. It could be via a visible watermark for example or it could be for an image that has been downloaded from us directly by a customer but not reported / confirmed for use that we later find in an audit. 

 

This is not about us going out and finding usages for images that may have be supplied elsewhere and for us to then try and obtain a fee - we are only pursuing images that were sourced from Alamy.

Glad to have that clarified. So that presumably means that if a website copies an article from The Times, for example, that uses one of my photos (which are all non-exclusive), which credits me/Alamy, you would pursue it since they have used the image indirectly from Alamy?

Edited May 16, 2023 by Sally

[M.Chapman]

9 hours ago, Sally said:

Glad to have that clarified. So that presumably means that if a website copies an article from The Times, for example, that uses one of my photos (which are all non-exclusive), which credits me/Alamy, you would pursue it since they have used the image indirectly from Alamy?

I note the current Report Unauthorised Use webpage (https://www.alamy.com/registration/unauthorised-use-form.aspx) gives the following advice;

 

We can’t chase unauthorised uses on your behalf if your image…

• Has been reproduced on another website as a direct copy of an original article which has a license.

Which is a shame because this happens all the time. I was going to report some yesterday, but that advice stopped me.

 

Mark

Edited May 17, 2023 by M.Chapman

[Sally]

1 hour ago, M.Chapman said:

I note the current Report Unauthorised Use webpage (https://www.alamy.com/registration/unauthorised-use-form.aspx) gives the following advice;

 

We can’t chase unauthorised uses on your behalf if your image…

• Has been reproduced on another website as a direct copy of an original article which has a license.

Which is a shame because this happens all the time. I was going to report some yesterday, but that advice stopped me.

 

Mark

Yes, I know as Alamy often tell me they cannot chase a “lifted use” when I contact them about a specific infringement. But I’d like them to say so here that that is their policy and that it is an exclusion to what they have said above.

[Allan Bell]

14 minutes ago, Sally said:

Yes, I know as Alamy often tell me they cannot chase a “lifted use” when I contact them about a specific infringement. But I’d like them to say so here that that is their policy and that it is an exclusion to what they have said above.

 

Perhaps Alamy could let the originator of the image that was lifted Know of their findings so the contributor can pursue it.. It would help a long way to contributor loyalty.

 

Allan

 

[Alamy]

Previously, before we had a dedicated infringements team and infringement company partners, it was often simply not cost effective to chase the directly lifted uses which is why the advice on the form is there.

 

Given we now have a far more established operation for infringements now, we would pursue these if they are found in our crawling, but we only crawl for images that are exclusive to Alamy.

 

I'll look into getting this process updated for unauthorised use reporting after speaking to the team. Perhaps we could now start to also pursue these lifted uses as part of the unauthorised use process where contributors send us usages they've spotted.

 

Cheers

 

James A

Head of Content

[Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg]

has this been covered in thread?
infringement is pursued, it is determined image is allegedly NOT exclusive,

contributor is charged legal fee, how will contributor identify this specific fee?,
how will contributor be offered evidence if contributor questions fee because

contributor believes image IS exclusive?, e.g., possible scenario: infringer says

contributor's image was licensed elsewhere when it WASN'T;
what is typical legal fee for chasing? 
Thanks in advance.

Edited May 19, 2023 by Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg

[nicepix4u]

On 09/05/2023 at 10:11, Alamy said:

The Alamy contributor contract has been updated and we’re writing to give you notice of these changes.

The new contract is here and the key changes are listed here. The changes will come into effect on 23rd June 2023.

Most of the changes are small tweaks to general wording, but there are three key changes we’d like to highlight, with the full text to these available in the links above.

 

• In relation to Clause 2.10: As with the current Contract, if your Content is marked as Exclusive you give Alamy the right to chase third party infringements of the Content without Alamy having to consult you. However, if the Content has been found to be licensed through another licensing platform (and the Content is therefore not Exclusive to Alamy), Alamy will recoup any fees incurred in relation to the pursuit of any action taken, including legal admin fees. This does not include any sales you make directly to a customer via any personal photography service.
• In relation to Clauses 9.1 and 9.3: If you are opted in to Novel use, your images can be licensed to customers for Machine Learning purposes and when applicable, you will be entitled to payment for any Content licensed for these licenses. We have extended the Novel Use opt-out period to coincide with the notice period of the contract change should you wish for your images to not be included in the Novel Use scheme under this new contract.
• In relation to Clause 16.8: Where Alamy reasonably believes Content on a third-party website has been sourced from Alamy without a license, you grant Alamy the right to pursue any suspected or actual infringements of copyright of the Content without the need to notify you in advance.

 

Many Thanks,

Louise (Contributor Relations) 

How do i opt out of thes Clauses ? I do not agree with any of them .

[spacecadet]

1 minute ago, nicepix4u said:

How do i opt out of thes Clauses ? I do not agree with any of them .

You can't. Take it or leave it.

[Bob J]

Is there a way to ask Alamy to change all my images to non-exclusive or do I have to go through all the submissions one at a time ?

[geogphotos]

18 minutes ago, Bob J said:

Is there a way to ask Alamy to change all my images to non-exclusive or do I have to go through all the submissions one at a time ?

 

I did this. Just ask them.

[Bob J]

8 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

I did this. Just ask them.

Ah that simple!  Many thanks

[geogphotos]

If you currently have a mix if Ex and Non-Ex it might be wise to first download a spreadsheet so you have a record. Then ask for them all to be switched to No-Ex.

 

If all yours are currently Ex than it is a simple task of getting them switched over. 

[spacecadet]

2 hours ago, Bob J said:

Is there a way to ask Alamy to change all my images to non-exclusive or do I have to go through all the submissions one at a time ?

You can do it yourself in batches.. That wouldn't take too long with your size of port. Just click and drag a box over the centre pane in AIM until you have a couple of hundred selected- any more and it gets a bit slow. Then you can untick the exclusive box in optional.