Advice on infringements

[Jools Elliott]

Hi there

 

Just had an email from Alamy nearly TWO years after instigating one of their famous infringements saying that they will not be pursuing it.

 

Strange really as it's a RM image but in any case!

 

How do some of you chase them down? I'm all ears so I can send the "people" a nice bill

 

Thanks

 

Jools

[Phil Crean]

Just had the same....

 

The link they sent doesn't actually go to the infringing party and they can't provide any more info as they no longer work with picscout!

 

Frustrating, as there's now no way to find out who the infringer is and decide if it's worth pursuing.

 

Phil

[Jools Elliott]

You know what annoys me. It's exactly as you say. You ask for me details about sales of OUR images and you get the line "sorry but we can't tell you that."

 

I've got a payment that is now overdue. I asked who the buyer was as told "we can't tell you."

 

Seems to me that Alamy are forgetting that without OUR images they wouldn't have a business. I wonder if a FOI request would knock that on the head...

[spacecadet]

You know what annoys me. It's exactly as you say. You ask for me details about sales of OUR images and you get the line "sorry but we can't tell you that."

 

I've got a payment that is now overdue. I asked who the buyer was as told "we can't tell you."

 

Seems to me that Alamy are forgetting that without OUR images they wouldn't have a business. I wonder if a FOI request would knock that on the head...

NO.

In the UK FOI only applies to public authorities.

Surely Alamy will tell you what they know about the infringer? They did me. They knew nothing, as it happens , as it was a guest checkout, but they told me that.

[Jools Elliott]

 

You know what annoys me. It's exactly as you say. You ask for me details about sales of OUR images and you get the line "sorry but we can't tell you that."

 

I've got a payment that is now overdue. I asked who the buyer was as told "we can't tell you."

 

Seems to me that Alamy are forgetting that without OUR images they wouldn't have a business. I wonder if a FOI request would knock that on the head...

NO.

In the UK FOI only applies to public authorities.

Surely Alamy will tell you what they know about the infringer? They did me. They knew nothing, as it happens , as it was a guest checkout, but they told me that.

 

 

Apparently some clients want privacy and so we aren't allowed to know all the details.

[fotoDogue]

Hi there

 

Just had an email from Alamy nearly TWO years after instigating one of their famous infringements saying that they will not be pursuing it.

 

Strange really as it's a RM image but in any case!

 

How do some of you chase them down? I'm all ears so I can send the "people" a nice bill

 

Thanks

 

Jools

 

 

It depends on the infringer. I've had previous clients grab images from legitimate sites that licensed the image,  so I just send the infringer a bill. If it's a blogger on one of the major blogging sites like Wordpress, I'll file a DMCA form with the provider. When I find one on FaceBook I report it to FB and they'll remove it within 24 hours. You can see who owns the site with a WHOIS search but if they're halfway around the world there isn't all that much you can do.

 

I've recently found several sites hotlinking from my own website. In those instances I'll delete the image and replace it so it has a new URL Problem is, one infringer in particular just hotlinked it from Alamy when they could no longer get it from my site.

 

It's an ongoing battle.

[mickfly]

I've had successful payouts VIA Pixsy, with two outstanding (but I'm being kept informed).

A few personal settlements including Daily Star and a private website so far in 2017.

With ALAMY... no such luck, even being told there are no contact details to pursue, but I provided full details within 5 mins of looking!

 

Good luck.

[KWheal]

I've had no luck chasing infringements yet. They had one of mine for about a year before I chased it, only to be told the use I reported was covered in a previous license (which is another issue but I won't get into details here). In fairness though they did apologise and say it was down to a training error. So fair enough, these things happen.

 

More recently I've reported several, and Alamy have got back to me with 2 of them. Both times they've said that they have tried contacting the infringer but had no response, so they're closing the case, and I can chase them myself if I want to. I'm not sure what I can do though if the clout of Alamy isn't enough. So I find the infringement, look up contact details, fill out an ancient form (still no online reporting option that would take minutes to set up), and do Alamy just email them using the address I've found? Or do they do more than that maybe? I wouldn't know.

 

Geoff.

I had one where alamy said I was free to chase the infringer as they had tried and got no response. so they were closing the case. I tracked down and got a response in 2 days. Maybe alamy have taken on too much in trying to chase infringers in that there is so much of it going on that they haven't the time or resources to really go after these people in every case. And when they do, from what I understand, all they do is issue a retrospective license with no punitive penalty, although I stand to be corrected on that. It seems that if they get no reply then its taken no further so without some form of legal follow up there is no "incentive" for the infringer to reply to the initial contact.

kevin

[skylineboy]

i have just had a sale yesterday, of one which i am chasing an infringement with alamy.

 

Country: Worldwide
Usage: Commercial electronic, Websites, apps, social media and blogs (excludes advertising). Worldwide for 5 years.
Media: Website, app and social media
Image Size: Any size
Start: 14 March 2017
End: 14 March 2022

 

is this likely a co-incedence and this image has sold twice (it sold in December which is where i think it was ripped from) - or is this amount / sale likely to be alamy making the infringer pay up? OR does alamy add some sort of note to say "this is payment for the infringing image you told us about"??

 

tia

[cbimages]

i have just had a sale yesterday, of one which i am chasing an infringement with alamy.

 

Country: Worldwide

Usage: Commercial electronic, Websites, apps, social media and blogs (excludes advertising). Worldwide for 5 years.

Media: Website, app and social media

Image Size: Any size

Start: 14 March 2017

End: 14 March 2022

 

is this likely a co-incedence and this image has sold twice (it sold in December which is where i think it was ripped from) - or is this amount / sale likely to be alamy making the infringer pay up? OR does alamy add some sort of note to say "this is payment for the infringing image you told us about"??

 

tia

I had one show as a sale for the use Alamy was chasing the infringement, and the following day I received an email from CR telling me that the infringment had now been billed.

[Cryptoprocta]

Really fed up with Alamy's non pursuance of non-payments. I provided, as required, a long list of non-payments from former clients the DM and its subsidiary TiM. After a year, I emailled Alamy again to ask about the progress, and they said there had been some problem in that some of our claims had disappeared from their system. The number of infringements was a lot fewer than I sent them and that they confirmed now nearly 15 months ago, but even so, no payment has been forthcoming.

For another infringement, I got word that the infringer was not responding to their emails, so they were stopping pursuing it (pic since taken down) and at least one other infringment, from a US newspaper source (which was published on their website with the alamy watermark, but not an 'accident' as alamy said they hadno record of a sale) is over six months outstanding (since I sent the info, longersince it was published).

Seems like they're just not interested in pursuing even well-known, established entities.

[Cryptoprocta]

 

 

You know what annoys me. It's exactly as you say. You ask for me details about sales of OUR images and you get the line "sorry but we can't tell you that."

 

I've got a payment that is now overdue. I asked who the buyer was as told "we can't tell you."

 

Seems to me that Alamy are forgetting that without OUR images they wouldn't have a business. I wonder if a FOI request would knock that on the head...

NO.

In the UK FOI only applies to public authorities.

Surely Alamy will tell you what they know about the infringer? They did me. They knew nothing, as it happens , as it was a guest checkout, but they told me that.

 

 

Apparently some clients want privacy and so we aren't allowed to know all the details.

 

If they are infringers, they're not clients, but thieves. Why should be granted what they want (privacy) when we don't get what we want and are legally due (payment)?