A Cautionary Tale.

[CT]

I had an e-mail from someone I know yesterday, the gist of which was "Isn't this one of your images on this web site? It turned out that it was one of mine on a newsy/wildlife type of site. I was properly credited with the image so I've no gripes about that at all, but intrigued, I did a bit of web scouring and came up with two other similar sites where again I was credited with the images, but one of these sites (which was foreign) was offering four of my shots for sale as stock images! I've little doubt that in each case they've come by these images legitimately in that they've probably paid for them, but I certainly haven't been! I've fired off queries asking how they've come by the images and I await replies - if any are forthcoming.

The thing is I only found these images because my name was still linked to them, and it begs the question - just how many sites in the world have these images which aren't turning up on a web search?

I hope I'm not being naive - I've no illusion about the fact that if you put images out there sooner or later you're going to get ripped off to some extent, but finding images you haven't been paid for being offered for sale as stock images, complete with adjacant shopping basket is just a bridge too far for me!

There's a limit to how much time I'm going to spend chasing this up - I've better things to do with my time - I await replies to my e-mails, but whether I get any or not, the erm.. middle man in this is certainly going to get this put right on his toes and I'll be interested to see the response.

Just a headsup.

 

[Scarecrow]

I wouldn't have bothered with an email, I'd have sent an invoice to the registered owner of the website.

 

[CT]

I wouldn't have bothered with an email, I'd have sent an invoice to the registered owner of the website.

It's not that simple unfortunately. I supplied the shots to an agency on a 50% of all sales basis. I've received payment for one sale which is the only sale the agency claim to have made. The agency were also the only possible source of these four images, so it doesn't need a lot of working out who the cuplrits probably are.

 

[ChrisMClark]

Maybe get your head together with the site that you have the agreement with? I bet they'll be none to pleased about someone selling on images that they're paying for. Let them do the running for you.