I searched one of my images with tineye today, it came up with this:
http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/f/fi/fishmonk/880385_yellowrose__3.jpg
I thought it must be old, but even though I refreshed the page it still seems to be there. My account is cancelled & has been for some time.
Anyone here have any thoughts on this?
Yes I know. I am fully aware of that. My account was canceled by SXC, but all my photos are still online. For instance this one:
http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/j/ja/jazza/1129531_old_wood.jpg
I think that the large image format is still there too.
I sent an (not so very) polite e-mail to SXC, but they never replied. Of cause the did not reply. SXC/ do not own this photos. The photosare owned by the photographer. I think they need to delete those photos, but I have no clue what to do.
They did that to me, but for a couple of days only. I contacted the publicity person there. I'll see if I can find the address. I told them I was going to start charging them a hundred dollars, per image, per day as they no longer had any right to host my images. Is there a forum anywhere to give negative feedback about websites?
Got this reply today from them:
Hello Dan,
Thank you very much for your email.
We have to store your images for a certain amount of time after your account is closed. This is a legal requirement, and nobody has access to the files. Your files will not show through a search query or a file number query.
Thank you.
Darek
iStockphoto Team
Any thoughts on what the legal requirement bit means?
Lies? Get them to quote the law.
I sent them a message again, using the contact form on SXC. I asked them th remove my photos within one week. Otherwise I will be charging SXC, just like you said (@3). Maybe it helps
For those of you who are reading this thread and want to avoid this situation, remove the images yourself before you close your account.
You can just remove your images and leave the account open too. The images will not appear to be gone immediately. You will have to wait for their data base to refresh before you see the images are gone from the gallery.
They aren't any help protecting the images over there and there is no communication in the forum. It's like having your work on a dead site where lots of people are open to pick through the images and download them as they like.
Cris, I had removed the images. I only had one left when I closed the account...
Though I do recommend removing images from a site which seems to have no input from contributers or admin. Even the "images online" number hasn't moved in six months or so.
I remembered you being one of the first to remove your gallery Dan. Apparently they are not very thorough about getting them all and don't care about cleaning up their data base.
Regardless of whatever law they are citing, 14 months after you closed your account should have met the time factor they require.
"We have to store your images for a certain amount of time after your account is closed. This is a legal requirement,"
Perhaps they were talking in units of years?
I removed my gallery as soon as Lynne was kicked out.
My images are still there & show up in searches. Not sure of what legal action to take but ready to go for it.
If you could afford a solicitors letter, that would be great. Failing that, search for their publicity address - Getty or IStock - and try getting huffy with them and charge them by the day. Send a copy of your email to the FBI or something Federal. LOL Might do no good, but what a cackle!
I have the same. My images are still there too. I wrote to them by filling out the contact form on the site and they did not response.
Arrogance and theft. From a corporation that makes so much money annually. I hope good people boycott them in droves.