As a licensor for contributors from all over the world, Shutterstock takes intellectual property rights very seriously. Copyright infringement not only hurts rights owners, but it harms the integrity of the digital content marketplace as well.
We’d like to share some information with you about Shutterstock’s legal status as a media licensor, what Shutterstock does to combat infringement, and what you can do to help if you believe another contributor is uploading infringing content.
Shutterstock does not control the type of content that contributors submit to Shutterstock
Shutterstock is considered an internet service provider under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). This means that Shutterstock is a platform for user-uploaded content, and it relies on the agreement with its contributors under the Shutterstock Contributor TOS that uploaded content won’t infringe any third party rights.
Although Shutterstock reviews content submissions for technical and quality issues, and for any known restrictions on certain subjects, it does not and cannot control the nature of content submissions.
What does Shutterstock do to combat infringement?
Since Shutterstock is a service provider that does not control what content contributors upload to Shutterstock, it relies upon notifications from rights holders to combat infringement on the Shutterstock website. Shutterstock complies with the notice and takedown requirements for infringing content that are required by the DMCA. Please take a look at Shutterstock’s DMCA Policy.
Shutterstock often receives questions about why it does not monitor the Shutterstock platform and accounts for infringing content. As a content platform, Shutterstock receives millions of content submissions every week from hundreds of thousands of contributors. Since Shutterstock does not own the copyright to the content, or hold exclusive licensing rights to the content, it cannot make assumptions about the ownership of submitted content.
Shutterstock does not take the copyright to contributors’ content so that contributors have the flexibility and freedom to license their content as they want. For example, this allows contributors to license their content through other agencies (including agencies that also submit to Shutterstock), or jointly own copyright with others (including to work that is submitted to Shutterstock). Shutterstock contributors are only allowed to upload content they are allowed to license (per the Shutterstock Contributor TOS), and Shutterstock does not make assumptions about the nature of submissions without receiving infringement notifications.
Additionally, Shutterstock does not have the obligation to compare submitted content against other content on the internet. This is compounded by the fact that we don’t have the full copyright history of any item of content submitted to us. Since we do not own the copyright to submitted content, we would not know if one contributor has given rights to an agency to license their content through Shutterstock, two contributors jointly own a piece of content submitted to Shutterstock, etc.
We err on the side of trusting our agreement with contributors, and being fair and reasonable to our community. This means that we will not disable accounts or remove content for infringement without a specific basis for doing so. As a result, Shutterstock relies heavily on notifications from rights holders or members of the Shutterstock community to be notified of infringing activity.
Notifying Shutterstock of Infringement
Please know that Shutterstock reviews every copyright complaint that it receives, though it may not always be able to respond to claims (specifically improper or non-specific claims).
The best way to contact Shutterstock for possible infringement is by filling out this DMCA Notice form. Our US-based IP Team carefully evaluates every claim it receives to ensure appropriate action is taken with the content and/or applicable Shutterstock account. The IP Team does not monitor forums or other sites for infringement complaints.
Shutterstock complies with DMCA takedown notices, and regularly reviews Shutterstock contributor accounts for repeated DMCA claims against their accounts and regularly disables accounts for infringement. However, please note that Shutterstock may also disable accounts abusing the DMCA notice process (e.g. contributors sending improper notices).
Please note that Shutterstock requires both sets of information (original vs. allegedly infringing) to investigate infringement issues adequately. We cannot fairly or accurately investigate problematic accounts with screenshots or account names alone; we require information to compare original content to infringing content specifically. Shutterstock only requires a few examples to assess problematic contributor accounts.
Shutterstock cannot provide an update for every claim it receives, but please know that Shutterstock evaluates and takes actions for claims, as required by both the DMCA and its own internal investigation process.
If you want to report a trademark violation or create a privacy request, please visit the Shutterstock Legal Center.