Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

subarashii21 · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 436 Location: Czech Republic

I believe people can be pretty inventive when it comes to cheating and in many cases its hard to prove that the image is actually a copy. Those people must have guts to make a business of it.. Mass production? yes, I have seen similar accounts too, no wonder shutterstock is overflown, probably full of copies of the best work.

Other thing which drew my attention is that many users add keywords to their images which have nothing to do with the content, like the popular ones concerning ecology or summer season, only to make their images appear in more search results. And the reviewers apparently dont care - instead of checking the keywords of submitted images carefully and deleting the non-fitting ones, they let everything through, then customers are complaining that the search is giving incorrect results and shutter comes with new way of search - Relevant search.. as if it could solve anything.. Instead they should limit the number of keywords to e.g. 40, check the keywords while approving images and disable the possibility to add new keywords later - but I guess that would be too draconic..

andrewmaling · Joined: 18 Jan 2011 Posts: 4

here's another images that came from different portfolio.

I upload the other image's thumbnail because when I tried to see the image again, it's already unavailable...

tell your opinion about this two...

subarashii21 · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 436 Location: Czech Republic

Well, this is very clear... to me its interesting that the one who copied it didnt even bother to change the colors of the splatter behind the circle.

It seems they dont even bother to cover it because they rely people will not notice or will not care.

If I did that, I would change the shape of splatter and its colors and replace the middle circle with something different then nobody could suspect me :P but I dont feel the need to copy someone elses work, I think I will just stick to my own scribble...

yienkeat · Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 101

The support doesn't seem responsive enough. Is been one month since I made my compliant. They just told me they will look into it seriously. But, I don't think it should take them hell lot of time to consider, I have made a demonstration file of how to get his with my working file, as simple as 1 click! I assume Shutterstock allows modified works, even encourages others to do so. :(

subarashii21 · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 436 Location: Czech Republic

Why dont you write to them again? I would just reply to their last email and simply ask about the status of my request - you have all rights to do so. They cant ignore the message, they must give you some information.

And if they ignore, I would wait for a week and then write again - we wont achieve anything by talking about it in this thread, I think support team doesnt read forum discussions or only very scarcely and only some specific topics. Emails must be sent to them, no matter how long time they took to handle the case, its your right to ask about the progress.

martinova · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 24

@yienkeat: Like subarashii21 wrote, send them a mail again. It is copyright infringement for sure. Normally they close the port immediately like every agency has to do.

yienkeat · Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 101

Yea guys, I have written in again and let see what the support have to say. Will share the result soon. Cheers!

martinova · Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 24

We wait with you !

yienkeat · Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 101

guys, breaking news. this fellow gallery has been taken off for investigation. all his images are temporary unavailable.

http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-641413p1.html#page=1

subarashii21 · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 436 Location: Czech Republic

Great!! That is truly breaking news. Now Im curious what will happen.

yienkeat · Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 101

rixie · Joined: 29 Dec 2007 Posts: 3434 Location: Hampshire, UK

yienkeat, it is worth you keeping an eye on other stock sites in case he start submitting elsewhere.

Glad to see the matter is now being investigated.

subarashii21 · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 436 Location: Czech Republic

I think such person knows the ropes and he probably publishes his images elsewhere already. I wouldnt think its worthy to keep chasing him down, it could poison your free time.

But if he is suspended from here, then it will be a good sign that there is some justice.

yienkeat · Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Posts: 101

subarashii21 · Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 436 Location: Czech Republic

I checked now the link to his portfolio, after a few days, and it says - there are no photos in this gallery.. so it seems all his images were removed. Thats how it should be dealt with, congrats to you, yienkeat, and thanks to Shutter support team for taking action.