Quote from: dingles on February 13, 2015, 19:07

There is no excuse for those just giving the stock images away for a price.

However those performing graphic design on Fiverr and utilizing paid stock image in their work for a client are not necessarily doing anything wrong. In fact there is no difference than doing freelance work for a client project and using stock.

They are in the wrong if they use the same stock design.template on multiple jobs, as many of them do. They'll buy some stock logo templates, for example, and then just crank out tons of the same logo just with different text.

I agree, but that isn't the norm. That is folks cheating the system and I agree Fiverr does nothing to stop it, which is certainly upsetting. I have to say there are some hacks taking advantage, but there are others offering some real services.

As a side note: The whole $5 thing is a gimic as most services start at something very basic for $5, but the rates quickly go up.

Mike, as your images have been used, have you taken any illegal use up with the agencies? I know that iStock is reluctant to do anything unless the actual artist contacts them, rather than anyone who happens to find a mis-used image, and from what was written above, SS seems to be about as bad.

The only use I know for certain is the graphic they use in the T-Shirt category header image, which as far as I know might be a completely legal use. Nothing I can do about it.

Fiverr does take the stance that the copyright holder needs to be the person reporting the infringement. So even though anyone can click on a gig and see that someone is reselling Shutterstock images, unless one of your images appears in the gig preview there's nothing that anyone else can do about it.

Which surely is intentional, taking advantage of the legal loophole in the DMCA that allows them to keep illegal gigs online despite them being reported, if they're not reported by the actual copyright holder or a legal representative of the copyright holder.

As insane as it sounds, I think it would take a revision to DMCA laws to force Fiverr to do anything about this. Until they can be held responsible for leaving infringing content and gigs online after a 3rd party report of infringement, they really have the law on their side. They know about the gig I mentioned in an earlier post, but it's still up right now, because legally they have no obligation to respond to a report from me when my content isn't explicitly used in the gig.

Worse yet, my content could be resold in the gig, but I'd never know it. Because the gig offers buyers the choice of whatever images they want from Shutterstock, and no specific images are mentioned as being offered, Fiverr allows it to go on.

I did contact the owner of the image shown in the gig, as they might be the only person who can do anything about it. But who knows if they will actually report it.

Cant believe that this crap is still open...
https://www.fiverr.com/search/gigs?utf8=%E2%9C%93&source=top-bar&locale=en&search_in=category&query=royalty+free

What tha F...?

I can't believe it too, it's been years. I find it difficult to believe that ss couldn't put a stop to this if they contacted fiver.

I recently wrote about fiver and other sites which allow illegal downloads of our images.

Are Sites which Steal or Resell Microstock Images Helping to Diminish your Earnings?