Options

Smugmug Images labelled as Free Stock Photos

Mike HarberMike Harber Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
edited December 23, 2007 in SmugMug Support
I don't know if you guys are aware of it, but at another photo site we found that www.pixsy.com were listing all our images, taken of the RSS feed, as being "Free Stock Photos". I notice that there are now a whole lot of Smugmug images going on there as Free Stock Photos, and felt that your members should be aware of this.

As a result of yesterdays row with Pixsy, the "Stock Photo" front page no longers says free, they changed the heading in the box to "Latest Images", but if you click on the bottom link where it says "more stock images" ... the next page shows the uploads from Smugmug, and the header is "Free Stock Photos.

Have a look here: http://www.pixsy.com/stockPhotos.aspx

Then click "more stock photos" link in the right hand box headed Latest Images and you will see what I mean.

We found this unacceptable on our site and demanded that Pixsy stopped using our RSS feed until the matter was rectified, with the result that Pixsy had to spend all yesterday removing all 500,000 of our images that they were listing as Free Stock.

If you guys are aware of this already I apologise, but as I said, we found it unacceptable that our library was being marketed as a "Free Stock Photo" library. I don't know how widespread this problem is within Smugmug, but for us they had used our entire catalogue.

CEO of Pixsy is Chase Norlin, email : chase@pixsy.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mike

Comments

  • Options
    cdonovancdonovan Registered Users Posts: 724 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    eek7.gif
  • Options
    entropysedgeentropysedge Registered Users Posts: 190 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    wonder if anyone whose pics are showing up are aware of this? eek7.gif
    L. St.Romain
    www.fastcatstudio.com
    www.fastcatstudio.net - blog
  • Options
    SparkySparky Registered Users Posts: 104 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    A quick search found some of my pics from one gallery show up. When you click on them it redirects to my site. I have right click protection and watermarking, are my files safe?
    Kevin
    http://wowmephotos.smugmug.com/
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    Sparky wrote:
    I have right click protection and watermarking, are my files safe?
    Yes indeed. You could turn off external links, that's the last measure.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    entropysedge wrote:
    wonder if anyone whose pics are showing up are aware of this? eek7.gif
    it's not altogether different than a search engine - they are just displaying things in a different manner.

    I need to research this more and find out what they're all about.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    Mike HarberMike Harber Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited November 22, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    it's not altogether different than a search engine - they are just displaying things in a different manner.

    I need to research this more and find out what they're all about.


    The Thing that got us was that they were showing the thumbnail images under the heading of FREE Stock Images, giving the impression that our images were there for the taking. Other then that they are just another search engine, only one that tries to give your photos away... My images are certainly not FREE for the taking as they were suggesting.

    Mike
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    Mike Harber wrote:
    The Thing that got us was that they were showing the thumbnail images under the heading of FREE Stock Images, giving the impression that our images were there for the taking. Other then that they are just another search engine, only one that tries to give your photos away... My images are certainly not FREE for the taking as they were suggesting.

    Mike
    Yeah, we've seen this before, too :( Of course your stuff's not free... we get that, I wish sites like this would, too.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    So, if you go here:

    http://www.pixsy.com/stockPhotos.aspx

    and you search for "bodiam" you get this on page 3
    bodiam_-_image_and_video_search_by_pixsy-20071122-085640.jpg

    Click the thumb, and you are taken here to my site:
    http://www.moonriverphotography.com/gallery/634937/5/138586521#138586521

    which is on my site at SmugMug.

    From what I know now, they're not pimping my photo as "free stock" which is good. Still playing around with searches and stuff there....
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    entropysedgeentropysedge Registered Users Posts: 190 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    I did notice that if you filtered the search by Free Stock Images and then SmugMug, 42 pages of images came up, including the Bodiam castle one.
    L. St.Romain
    www.fastcatstudio.com
    www.fastcatstudio.net - blog
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    entropysedge wrote:
    I did notice that if you filtered the search by Free Stock Images and then SmugMug, 42 pages of images came up, including the Bodiam castle one.
    I'm looking for the words "Free Stock Images" and can't find them - can you show me how to replicate this?
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    carolinecaroline Registered Users Posts: 1,302 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    I'm looking for the words "Free Stock Images" and can't find them - can you show me how to replicate this?

    pixsy-20071122-150201.jpg
    Mendip Blog - Blog from The Fog, life on the Mendips
    www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+

    [/URL]
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    caroline wrote:
    pixsy-20071122-150201.jpg
    OK thx Caroline - well they sure bury that don't they:
    http://www.pixsy.com/search.aspx?&catid=12&sf=pid:69

    I think I'll contact them.
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    carolinecaroline Registered Users Posts: 1,302 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    OK thx Caroline - well they sure bury that don't they:
    http://www.pixsy.com/search.aspx?&catid=12&sf=pid:69

    I think I'll contact them.

    Thank you Andy.
    Mendip Blog - Blog from The Fog, life on the Mendips
    www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+

    [/URL]
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    caroline wrote:
    Thank you Andy.
    I just emailed their CEO, he replied with this:
    Chase Norlin wrote:
    > Hi Andy, thanks for the note. We mislabeled that section and are fixing it right now.
    >
    > Regards,
    >
    > Chase
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    SheafSheaf Registered Users, SmugMug Product Team Posts: 775 SmugMug Employee
    edited November 22, 2007
    I'm glad they are fixing this. But just so there is no misunderstanding, Pixsy is not out to sell your photos or anything. Their business is indexing and offering search capabilities for multimedia, specifically photos and videos.

    It was unfortunate how the photos were labeled, but for Pro's looking to sell their photos every bit of exposure can be beneficial. This is essentially another Google Image Search, but performed in a different manner.
    SmugMug Product Manager
  • Options
    fireswamifireswami Registered Users Posts: 1 Beginner grinner
    edited November 22, 2007
    Pixsy Response
    Hello SmugMug members:

    This is Chase Norlin, CEO of Pixsy Corporation. I've recently become
    aware of this issue and we appreciate the concern you've all expressed. Here at Pixsy we're big fans of SmugMug and their great service.

    So everyone is clear, Pixsy is an image and video search engine and we
    only index thumbnails from across the web and provide a service to
    content providers by driving traffic to them, very much like Google.

    In this case we made the mistake of labeling the category "free stock photos" instead of "stock photos" or "photos".

    We've since updated that on our site and are in the process of tracking down all references to "free" on our site and removing that as well. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

    Best Regards and Happy Thanksgiving.

    Chase Norlin
    CEO, Pixsy Corp.
  • Options
    carolinecaroline Registered Users Posts: 1,302 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    fireswami wrote:
    Hello SmugMug members:

    This is Chase Norlin, CEO of Pixsy Corporation. I've recently become
    aware of this issue and we appreciate the concern you've all expressed. Here at Pixsy we're big fans of SmugMug and their great service.

    So everyone is clear, Pixsy is an image and video search engine and we
    only index thumbnails from across the web and provide a service to
    content providers by driving traffic to them, very much like Google.

    In this case we made the mistake of labeling the category "free stock photos" instead of "stock photos" or "photos".

    We've since updated that on our site and are in the process of tracking down all references to "free" on our site and removing that as well. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

    Best Regards and Happy Thanksgiving.

    Chase Norlin
    CEO, Pixsy Corp.

    Hello Chase,

    Thank you for posting here on Dgrin and setting the matter straight. I'm speaking as an individual SmugMugger who initially was concerned about the "free" word - your response is impressive :D and much appreciated.

    Caroline
    Mendip Blog - Blog from The Fog, life on the Mendips
    www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+

    [/URL]
  • Options
    AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited November 22, 2007
    fireswami wrote:
    Hello SmugMug members:

    This is Chase Norlin, CEO of Pixsy Corporation. I've recently become
    aware of this issue and we appreciate the concern you've all expressed. Here at Pixsy we're big fans of SmugMug and their great service.

    So everyone is clear, Pixsy is an image and video search engine and we
    only index thumbnails from across the web and provide a service to
    content providers by driving traffic to them, very much like Google.

    In this case we made the mistake of labeling the category "free stock photos" instead of "stock photos" or "photos".

    We've since updated that on our site and are in the process of tracking down all references to "free" on our site and removing that as well. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

    Best Regards and Happy Thanksgiving.

    Chase Norlin
    CEO, Pixsy Corp.
    I like the fact that Chase was available, 7am local time, on Thanksgiving Day when I contacted him. clap.gif
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • Options
    AngeloAngelo Super Moderators Posts: 8,937 moderator
    edited December 23, 2007
    Andy wrote:
    I like the fact that Chase was available, 7am local time, on Thanksgiving Day when I contacted him. clap.gif

    and Andy too clap.gifclapclap.gif
    www.angelo.smugmug.com

    Moderator of: Location, Location, Location , Mind Your Own Business & Other Cool Shots
Sign In or Register to comment.