Hello,
I was a contributor of Shutterstock fo about 6 years and I posted there about 266 vectors.
Last week I received a mail from them where they wrote me this:
Shutterstock, Inc. ("Shutterstock") has discovered
that an image or images in your portfolio appears to have
elements that are copies of another individual or
entity's work and, therefore, belong to that individual
or entity.
Currently, we have suspended your Shutterstock account.
Prior to taking any further steps, we are inviting you to
respond to this claim.



At the minimum, please let us know:



a) where, when and by whom the image(s) in question was
created;



b) how you obtained the idea for the image; and



c) what program, if any, was used to generate or modify the
image(s)



If it turns out that the claim is without merit we will not
take any further action and your account will remain
active.



Please respond to this email within three (3) days. If you
fail to respond by said date with the information we outline
above, your Shutterstock.com submitter account may be
closed.

My response to this was:
Hello,
I am VERY surprised that after 4 years you consider that my images are not original.

Regarding your questions, here are my answers:
a) my image was created by ME, in 25.01.2013, on my computer
b) my gallery is full of silhouettes of very different animals, in different postures; I think that is a good ideea because they can be used isolated in many compositions, so they are very usefull; they are inspired by photos of real animals
c) my images are all created in Adobe Illustrator - in time I used different versions of this software

I am sure that my sillhouettes look alike the ones that you send me, because are the same animals (bulls), but they are not the same drawings. Because my sillhouettes were created very long time ago, I don't remember exactly were from I saw them.

And know, after a week, look what I received:
Pursuant to Paragraph 14(d) of Shutterstock's Submitter Terms & Conditions, when you became a Shutterstock submitter you warranted and represented that: "the Content and all parts thereof are owned and/or controlled by you, unencumbered and original works and are capable of copyright protection in all countries where copyright or similar protection is available�.

We discovered serious copyright infringement issues within your portfolio of images. Specifically, your image 126231425 originally found here:

<http://phan-tom.deviantart.com/art/The-Aurochs-164868105
<http://phan-tom.deviantart.com/art/aurochs-cow-263718979>

Based upon our investigation, we have determined that you made a material misrepresentation to Shutterstock.

Paragraph 4 of the Submitter Terms & Conditions gives Shutterstock the right to terminate any existing account " . . . for fraud, intellectual property infringement, violation of a third party's rights including those of privacy or publicity, artificially inflating downloads, submission of material that is obscene in nature, violent or that might be construed as defamatory, failure to comply with Shutterstock's guidelines as may be amended from time to time, or for any breach of the terms of this or any other agreement that you have with Shutterstock.�

As a result of the foregoing, Shutterstock has terminated your account.

If you have earned commissions at the time of this closure, you are not entitled to these earnings per the Shutterstock Terms & Conditions you agreed upon when you became a Shutterstock contributor.

Paragraph 9(d) of the Submitter Terms & Conditions states that "If your account is terminated for a breach of the material terms of the TOS, in addition to its other rights at law or in equity, Shutterstock shall have the right to retain any royalties and/or other compensation otherwise payable to you hereunder as liquidated damages."

Consider this matter closed. Your account will not be reinstated and you do not have permission to create a new account. If you try to open another account, our system will automatically reject you.

What can i do???
I have worked for all my images and know I have no account.
What can I do?

Please help me!
Thank you,
Alexandra

Did you create your silhouettes based on those illustrations? They're not photos...they're photorealistic illustrations of an extinct species.

I looked at your silhouettes and the work on Deviant Art, and it does seem that they have caught you red handed. 

Are you suggesting that you created all those silhouettes without having seen the Deviant Art images?  They are exact.

"they are inspired by photos of real animals"

"Because my sillhouettes were created very long time ago, I don't remember exactly were from I saw them".

Ay, there's the rub.

On a side note: there are an awful lot of non-aurochs in the SS search for 'auroch', and some of the 'related search terms' - hyrax, aura and horse make no sense. SS's search used to be far cleaner, and the more relevant images were generally found at the top.

i do not see a posted link to alexandras portfolio. 
How you know?

Quote from: stockmarketer on May 18, 2017, 18:13

I looked at your silhouettes and the work on Deviant Art, and it does seem that they have caught you red handed. 

Are you suggesting that you created all those silhouettes without having seen the Deviant Art images?  They are exact.

Do a Google image search for the shutterstock image number in the ops post  and the file still comes up.

Should go without saying, but if you have these images on any sites other than Shutterstock, I strongly suggest you remove them. Not just because you risk getting your accounts shut down there, but so you're no longer infringing the rights of others. Might be worth going through the rest of your portfolio as well, double check there aren't any other images that you can't remember exactly what imagery you saw that 'inspired you' to create them.

Caught red handed. And this is why I always see stay away from those CC0 licenses or any kind of free resource available on the internet. You never know when they will change their terms and ask for the claim.

Use 100% your content, it may take a little time but it will be your forever.

Gosh, how hard can it be (to not use other peoples' work)? Ive managed perfectly fine so far using my own creations.

the fault is shutterstock.

clearly tracing a photo is a derivative work and falls under "Fair Use" and is not a copyright violation.

this is very very clear in copyright law and has been upheld again and again and again.

tracing a photo is "fair use". "fair use" is a legal term that is specified in copyright law.

you created a new creative work and only used a minimal amount from a previous work. this is 100% legal and falls under fair use.

the fault is shutterstock.

clearly tracing a photo is a derivative work and falls under "Fair Use" and is not a copyright violation.

this is very very clear in copyright law and has been upheld again and again and again.

tracing a photo is "fair use". "fair use" is a legal term that is specified in copyright law.

you created a new creative work and only used a minimal amount from a previous work. this is 100% legal and falls under fair use.

you kidding?

you said: " Who wants to waste time and energy on a potential court case, even if you might win?"

you are completely wrong, and this is a nonsense argument.

any manufactured product in the world, by the definition of the ignorant, is 'copyrighted and trademarked', and therefor it would be illegal to sell any photo with any manufactured product. which means all legal photos would have to be naked people and nature.

the original poster was within his legal rights and an educated stock agency is better than an ignorant stock agency.

We all sign off on the contract saying that all work uploaded is our own and not copied/ traced. What you think the law is is irrelevant here.  I for one wouldn't be uploading to an agency that accepts work traced from other people's work. It's out of order, whatever the law is.