Recently Alamy sent me a generic letter without any specifics. It has charged US$250 Exclusivity Administration Fee (EAF) on my sales.
But it doesn't bother to tell me which image(s) were in violation.
I have been an Alamy contributor for almost 18 years. Initially, there was no such thing as exclusive to Alamy. Since I became exclusive, I have always been careful to mark my submission to Alamy with a special code. Could there be a mistake somewhere? If there is, it would be an advertent error.
But my images have been stolen many times. Is it possible that someone stole my images and sell them through other agencies?
I sell prints through FAA. But it is permitted, according to my understanding.
Alamy should have the decency to give me the specifics so I can assess the situation. Maybe it is wrong and I can help find the thief.
The following is the email from Alamy:
Hi There,
Exclusivity Admin Fee on your sales report
Were adding an Exclusivity Administration Fee (EAF) on your sales report due to you incorrectly marking images in your account as being 'Exclusive to Alamy'
This is a fee that is charged in one of two scenarios:
We have found a potential infringement, and we've opened up a legal case to make a claim but then had to close the case because the image has been incorrectly marked as being exclusive to Alamy ($150 charge)
We have searched for a potential infringement but the image is found to be available on another stock site so the image has been incorrectly marked as being exclusive to Alamy ($50 charge)
The reason we are adding this fee to your account is because there is a considerable investment in looking for infringements, whereby each exclusive image we search for incurs a cost.
As the image has been incorrectly marked as being exclusive we are now passing on a proportion of the cost already spent to your account, as outlined in the contributor contract:
2.10. Notwithstanding clause 16.7, by marking Content as Exclusive, you grant Alamy the right to chase third party infringements of the Content without Alamy having to consult you. Where pursuing such infringements if it is found that the Content is available on another licensing platform, Alamy has the right to recoup any fees (including reasonable administration fees where escalated to legal action), that Alamy has incurred in the pursuit of any action taken.
An image should not be marked as exclusive if:
o Its available on another stock agency site
o Its an exact reproduction (in all or part) of a work of art (this does not include having additional unique or incidental features in the image, for example a person standing in front of a painting. The general rule of thumb is that to be exclusive an artwork cant take up any more than 1/3 of the image frame.)
o Its not protected by copyright
o Its in the public domain (for example, copyright has expired on a photograph from 1880)
o Copyright ownership is unknown
For the image(s) which should not be marked as exclusive we have added the Exclusivity Admin Fee to your account and have removed its exclusive status.
Its important that your images are marked correctly we'd prefer to work with you so that these costs are avoided in future, and we can help you claim for images that are genuinely exclusive to Alamy.
To avoid further charges being made on exclusive images being incorrectly marked, please can you now review and check whether all the other images in your account should be marked as exclusive. Please remove the exclusive status if you find that they should not be marked as exclusive according to the terms outlined above.
If we find new cases of images being incorrectly marked as exclusive incurring further costs, after two months from the date of this email, then we will apply the corresponding fees to your account and we will also remove the exclusive status for all the images found in your account and remove any default settings for exclusive status.
If you need more time to amend your images, or if you have any questions about this please contact
[email protected] Thanks
Alamy
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