Smugmug Images labelled as Free Stock Photos

[Mike Harber]

I don't know if you guys are aware of it, but at another photo site we found that www.pixsy.com (http://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

[cdonovan]

:huh

[entropysedge]

wonder if anyone whose pics are showing up are aware of this? :huh

[Sparky]

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?

[Andy]

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]

wonder if anyone whose pics are showing up are aware of this? :huh
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.

[Mike Harber]

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

[Andy]

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]

So, if you go here:

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

and you search for "bodiam" you get this on page 3
http://myskitch.com/awilliamsny/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....

[entropysedge]

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.

[Andy]

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?

[caroline]

I'm looking for the words "Free Stock Images" and can't find them - can you show me how to replicate this?

http://myskitch.com/carolineshipsey/pixsy-20071122-150201.jpg

[Andy]

http://myskitch.com/carolineshipsey/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.

[caroline]

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.

[Andy]

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

[Sheaf]

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.

[fireswami]

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.

[caroline]

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

[Andy]

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

[Angelo]

I like the fact that Chase was available, 7am local time, on Thanksgiving Day when I contacted him. :clap

and Andy too :clap:clap:clap