This was the test post some may have seen but it is actually mine and the help has been great to get this posted. Hope this helps others.
I have monitored this site for years and this is the first time posting my experience. I learned much and did not play the extortion game. Waited out 3 separate image accusations within the same month from Getty, Picscout and License Compliance Services, all the same, and they went away after many unanswered emails, mailed hard copies and phone calls going unreturned. I went dark and remained dark, so I am not easily frazzled especially when I always play by the rules. The images in question were under old web designer whom let me know about these scams, and I simply could not get to removing fast enough since my site is huge in content and I was working on it daily, plus the time frame to find the right replacement images for my content. Long story short, have had a business site for over 12 years and changed web site platform and designer 6 years ago. Once I switched, I proceeded to repurchase and license all new images from iStock and Fotolia since I was leaving my old web designer using transferable licenses to create and develop my site. When I wanted something special for blog or content, I purchased my images myself.
A new issue has arisen of an Image I purchased through iStock before Getty purchased them. I have owned the image in question for 6 years. Image Rights Int'l flagged it and their emails have been going to a spam folder as I designated all types of these contacts as spam. I did not open the email and copied the link in the preview window and put it into search engine to see the image in question which has been declared a Rights Managed image now from an international photographer from a Scandinavian country on his own website. I immediately went to iStock to pull the original license and low and behold they have no files for any purchases before 2015 and a portion of 2014 which are not even when I made the purchase. It was much earlier so their records are all messed up. All my invoices are gone and only a few select images I purchased are visible to reproduce for proof.
Now I don't feel comfortable using any of those images before the date of ownership change. They have left a disclaimer stating for invoices or images before the said dates to contact them for assistance. I did, and they only recovered 16 out of 21 images after I sent them all the unedited images I bought. I have taken screenshots of those licenses. Based on their bad record keeping, I removed the image and repurchased at 123rf dot com a similar image, basically appearing almost exact but slightly different. But new image is up and has been since first contact.
Of course, now Adobe purchased Fotolia and all my licenses have been moved to Adobe with yet another disclaimer of no guarantee to continue to support my Fotolia licenses. WTH! I’m gathering by such a disclaimer that unless I become a paid subscriber, perhaps they will dispose of me in the future. I have safeguarded my purchases through taking screen shots of every image I own and purchased through Fotolia. Anyone that tries to tell you this is about supporting photographers’ rights is not understanding the larger game here. I abhor people that rip-off artists, but I am not nor never have been one. Trust me I feel the pain caused by thieves since my content has been stolen more than several times over the years. I respect artists and creator rights. But this low hanging fruit, extortion thing is out of hand.
I play by the rules and this person with Image Rights, once a week for 3 weeks now, keeps sending me the fated emails which in and of themselves do not bother me and I continue to ignore. In the emails she continues to insist the image has not been removed when in fact it has and under new license with 123rf. She escalated the 4th email and I am not fazed by her threats but angrier that she continues to accuse me of not removing it. I am not a mind reader so don’t know her game plan and I realize it is not my job to educate the scammers.
UPDATE: after the holidays, I guess she decided to check my site and now sees the new image is up and her escalated threat has been reduced to the niceties of her original email of please pay $300.00 for the license. What is comical however, is with each email she sends she only refers to the most recent dated contact, instead of the original date of contact. I am keeping copies of everything since it appears to be a ploy of going beyond the SOL with ongoing harassing emails. Since iStock/ Getty essentially have assisted in sabotaging my efforts to comply with old license proof, it makes one ponder, are images disappearing deliberately off of Royalty free sites to rights managed to screw people for free money?
Hope this info I have shared helps someone else that might be under the impression they owe any monies at all or maybe, just maybe you are being scammed. Any feedback as to this scenario is welcome as well. I appreciate you all!"
UPDATE 1/22/19 Keeping you posted in regard to worrying about imagerights. It is now over 3 weeks since her last email requesting I pay the $300.00. So this thing may be over already with them. Yep I may get another but the initial aggressive contacts have stopped, at least for now. Keep you posted as time passes.
Topic: ImageRights (Read 27349 times)