Author Topic: Shop on Etsy and Creative Market with images downloaded (Read 5160 times)

Bauman · « **on:** March 30, 2021, 02:32 »

Is it regular to sell on Etsy or Creative Market our backgrounds and skies downloaded from Shutterstock or Fotolia/Adobe Stock ?

They indicate © Shutterstock or Fotolia/Adobe Stock on the pages, but I don't think it is possible to sell these backgrounds with digital download on other shops ...

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MixPixBox (> 40.000 sales !)

https://creativemarket.com/MixPixBox

Sorry for my english

Noedelhap · « **Reply #1 on:** March 30, 2021, 07:18 »

Only if they have an Enhanced License, then someone can incorporate photos in a template for sale or distribution.

In most cases the Etsy seller doesn't have the correct license (Standard licenses don't allow this use) so you might ask the seller if they have paid for the correct license for each photo in their templates.

Bauman · « **Reply #2 on:** March 30, 2021, 07:38 »

They have a 1000 Skies Bundle from Shutterstock and Adobe Stock at 49$.

https://creativemarket.com/MixPixBox/4182585-1000-Sky-Overlays-Pack

In Europe pack of 25 extended licenses is 1699 € ... therefore the cost of 1000 extended license is 68.000 € ...

Do you think they paid 68.000 € for 1000 extended licenses ?

Noedelhap · « **Reply #3 on:** March 30, 2021, 08:35 »

Quote from: Bauman on March 30, 2021, 07:38

They have a 1000 Skies Bundle from Shutterstock and Adobe Stock at 49$.

https://creativemarket.com/MixPixBox/4182585-1000-Sky-Overlays-Pack

In Europe pack of 25 extended licenses is 1699 € ... therefore the cost of 1000 extended license is 68.000 € ...

Do you think they paid 68.000 € for 1000 extended licenses ?

Highly unlikely unless they have a special deal with SS. But still, why not ask them? Then you can use that opportunity to educate them or DMCA them (if it's your photos they're selling.)

lark · « **Reply #4 on:** April 07, 2021, 01:06 »

For Etsy:
You can ask the seller what kind of licence do they have.
1. If they do not have the proper license ask them to remove listings with your content from their shop.
2. Report this shop to Etsy. Etsy is taking this very seriously and at least will deactivate these listings. If it is not the first copyright infringement complaint they can close their shop. Etsy acts only if there is a complaint.
It is important what is your purpose. If you want to close the shop and prevent using other people content in this way - report to Etsy. If you only want to protect your content - the seller will remove only a few listings and will continue to do the same with other people content.

If you do not take any action tomorrow you will see ten more shops doing the same. Because the new sellers will think that if other people can do this it means that it is OK.

For CM it is possible that the seller will not respond at all. If you are 100% sure that they do not have a proper licence write DMCA letter. CM will probably remove only some products. I haven't heard that CM is closing shops.

In any case TAKING ACTION is extremely important.

Bauman · « **Reply #5 on:** April 07, 2021, 01:56 »

I haven't checked all of their images (there are thousands !), but I haven't seen any of mine

But the problem is: bundles like these kill the business. This Etsy shop has made 40,000 sales in 5 years. And for every pack sold they sell hundreds of skies, gradients, textures ...

I believe that Adobe and Shutterstock should also move against these license abuses.

lark · « **Reply #6 on:** April 07, 2021, 02:43 »

I think in this case that this shop can be reported to Adobe, Shutterstock, Fotolia, to check if all these images were purchased with the proper license.

The other option is to find who is the authors of this content and contact them. I know that it is time consuming but it worths to do it.

You can also try to report it to Etsy although you are not the author and you do not have evidence that the seller does not have the proper licence. You can explain that Extended licences are very expensive and that you think that the seller does not have them. You can ask Etsy to check if the seller has proper licenses to sell these products. Etsy takes it very seriously. I think that they will take action.