Hello my friends,

I have been using shutterstock since about 5 months. They asked me some questions about of my work. They sent me this email.

Dear F. OZCAN,

We have discovered that you are submitting content, or elements in your content, to which you may not own the copyright.

The original image(s) are located at:

<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Atat%C3%BCrk_TBMM%27den_%C3%A7%C4%B1karken.jpg>

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:

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

2) how you obtained the idea for the image

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


Then i answered their questions like this.

1) I got this picture from the Atat�rk archive. I don't know when time this photo took. But older than 79 years. Because of ATAT�RK died in 1938. The copyright is 70 years in Turkey. You can check these links "https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telif_hakk%C4%B1" "http://www.telifhaklari.gov.tr/Telif-Hakki-Kac-Yil-Sureyle-Korunur"  so I thought it would not be a problem.

2) I thought of the idea myself.

I made such a study based on official sources at hand. If it's a problem, I can delete these works.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,

Then they sent me this email

Dear F. OZCAN,

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 729587650 originally found here:<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Atat%C3%BCrk_TBMM%27den_%C3%A7%C4%B1karken.jpg>. 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.

Regards,

By the way they have terminated my account. But i answered their questions. Copyrights is 70 year in Turkey. It happened 79 years.  I sent them link for about these copyright. They're saying me "you stole photo from wikipedia" İt couldn't impossible. Cos there was no Wikipedia at that time. Wikipedia couldn't take this photo.

What can i do now? I want to use every way. Do you have any suggestions to me? I want to back my account back.

Please help me this subject!

Best Regards,

Copyright law states that a work becomes public domain 70 years after the artist's death. If Turkey signed the convention they may have the same law. The people portrayed on the picture have nothing to do with it because most of the times they do not have the copyright over the images.

For example, if the photographer had 20 years in 1938 when he took the photo and died 60 years later (1998), that means that the image will only be public domain in the year 2068.

The fact that it's in Wikipedia means nothing. There's a lot of stolen images there. I found some of mine, for example.

By the way can't i do nothing for this? I'm really sorry for this. I don't know that. Actually i interested with photos. I saw some people selling like this works. Then i thought may be i can create liğke this works for my country. It was really fault. It was my first works. Then i created another works for national day.

Quote from: Zero Talent on December 07, 2017, 12:22

You can't just take photos from the public domain and make money out of them.

You can.  You just have to add value and make it your own.

It may have been the case at Shutterstock in the past, but not any more. Cut and pasted from the above

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�.

Ah well... you live and learn.

I already learn. I can't do nothing now. I liked this stock site. I gave withdraw before this termination. Will they sent money?

Quote from: Zero Talent on December 07, 2017, 12:22

You can't just take photos from the public domain and make money out of them.

You can.  You just have to add value and make it your own.

And SS still doesn't take found photos or PD photos or photos where I'm not the rights owner. Add value can be a problem when it's us vs them. If you meant add value by composite, or background, and alter I think it can get very dangerous on SS. Other places will take those same files, SS does not allow any according to their article.

Read this https://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/articles/kbat02/000006656



    You must own or control the copyright to all content you submit to Shutterstock. This means that you cannot submit work obtained from other sources (e.g., online image search results or websites), or incorporate such work into your content submissions, unless you have permission to do so.

    Public domain content cannot be submitted under any circumstances. If you do not have complete rights to the content, you may not submit it.

Quote from: Artist on December 07, 2017, 13:04

copyright is copyright, but it sometimes feel sad that your one mistake and entire years of hard work can be ruined.
I hope you have learnt the lesson.

I absolutely learned many things. I like take photograph. I wish I did not this work. Isn't there a way to back this stock site? isn't it?

I don't think there is a way to get back to the website, though shutterstock have some warnings section too but I don't know how it works.

Is the accumulated money in the account sent to the my payoneer account?

Quote from: fozcan on December 07, 2017, 13:17

The rules are really heavy. They can cancel all my winnings. I don't care.

The problem is that if they don't pay attention, they can be held liable for a much larger amount than they can possibly recover from any particular person. Hence the slash-and-burn policies.

I understood. It was really bad experience for me. I really liked this stock site. I will look another stock sites. Bu it will not like shutterstock i know this.

Quote from: niktol on December 07, 2017, 14:18

Quote from: fozcan on December 07, 2017, 13:17

The rules are really heavy. They can cancel all my winnings. I don't care.

The problem is that if they don't pay attention, they can be held liable for a much larger amount than they can possibly recover from any particular person. Hence the slash-and-burn policies.

I understood. It was really bad experience for me. I really liked this stock site. I will look another stock sites. Bu it will not like shutterstock i know this.

It's a setback but not the end of the world. There are many other places that you can contribute to. Read their TOS more carefully this time.

This sucks and is clearly an honest mistake (assuming of course the rest of the portfolio is "clean"). They only changed the policy recently. One frequent contributor to this forum has a whole portfolio made up of public domain image scams.
Seems very harsh to give an outright ban over this given how hard we have to fight to get blatant thieves removed from sites.
I guess that's a product of how little stock sites care about people stealing from contributors vs stealing from anyone else.

You asked about this on the Shutterstock forum, and were told not do to it.  You did anyway.

Even if you think a stock site is being stupid about something, it DOES NOT WORK to try to make them change their mind by doing stuff you know they don't approve of.  You won't change their mind, you can't force them do to something just because you want it.

Any site, not just Shutterstock.

Seriously, using anything from wikimedia commons is just asking to get booted.

Interesting!
I can't find that topic. Can you share a link?

You asked about this on the Shutterstock forum, and were told not do to it.  You did anyway.

Even if you think a stock site is being stupid about something, it DOES NOT WORK to try to make them change their mind by doing stuff you know they don't approve of.  You won't change their mind, you can't force them do to something just because you want it.

Any site, not just Shutterstock.

Seriously, using anything from wikimedia commons is just asking to get booted.

Oh right that changes everything. I didn't realise he was directly going against what SS told him. Pretty dumb. Was it actually ss staff telling him? Do you have a link?