Flickr Marketplace

[unpopular]

so I logged into my Flickr account after forever to upload a photo of manaheim with his cat on his head when I noticed that Flickr sent me a very flattering email about how my catalogue has been "selected" to participate in some kind of commercial stock photography program they're offering. At first I figured it would be some kind of scam run not by Flickr, but it all seems legit and they're ofering 51% royalty payments ... Which is like outrageously high.

has anyone else been given this "honor" or is it something they are sending out to everyone?

 

[Raj_55555]

umm.. I think I received a similar email a month back, could have been a scam(not necessarily the same one as yours) but never really put much thought to it as I don't think my work is good enough to be out there yet!
BTW can we see that cat on manaheim's head photo..

 

[unpopular]

Well, I am pretty sure that this was not a scam.

Flickr - Photo Sharing

I am really surprised that this has not come up more often, and I am really surprised that I was selected. I'm not a bad photographer, but I don't consider my work to have a lot of mass market value.

They've selected 31 images, of which one was optioned to license as exlusive and 30 as royalty free. One was of my child and was not comfortable releasing it, and excluded it from the license.

This is crazy. Has nobody else been invited?

 

[pixmedic]

nope. we're not worthy

 

[tirediron]

Don't have a Flickr account... but I think someone else posted about this (MSnowy? Coastalconn?) a while back.

 

[spiralout462]

51%? I thought 500px offers 70%.

 

[vintagesnaps]

They seem to be doing what sites referred to as 'photo rights grab sites' do - they want site users' photos. Even if many of the photos are amateur, or maybe not the best quality, cell phone pics, etc. sites like 500px and now Flickr can apparently license enough of them to make money.

I think they target site users that don't know enough about it to realize what they've agreed to, or feel flattered that someone wants their photos, etc.

Read the Terms & Conditions - or at least look at them! Often there will be phrases like 'use, reproduce, modify, transfer, sublicense' etc. I don't see the Flickr terms for licensing, at the bottom of their main page it goes to Yahoo terms, but look at #9 Content.

I think usually one of the worst things a photographer can do is to allow royalty free usage. Often there will be a one time payment for the photos while the website has use of the images from now on... so can license and make money from a photo over and over and over again.

 

[unpopular]

I did read the terms.

Flickr - Photo Sharing

They state that I can opt out, and I do retain ownership. It's not a "rights grab". I don't know about reselling, but that seems weird to me and I do not think that would be the case (I don't think that a stock agency would want to sell to their competitor).

I know that there are a lot of scams out there. I've had offers from them, and I've turned them down. It makes sense for Yahoo to want to get into the stock/microstock industry being that they have a huge library already.

They're also selective about what images are to be licensed, and, apparently anyway, who is invited to join. They have "curators" who went through my catalog and choose 31 images that they liked, of which I licensed 30 of. The process though of which images to chose is a mystery to me. It does not seem random exactly, but I don't understand their selection process (they really like blurry pictures of yucca spears). In particular the one image they opted for rights managed licensing was an image I wouldn't even say was particularly good or bad - just kind of "meh"

I'm kind of thinking someone already has a use for it? But at the same time, this image, which I think is probably one of my most valuable images was completely ignored:

 

[coastalconn]

so I logged into my Flickr account after forever to upload a photo of manaheim with his cat on his head when I noticed that Flickr sent me a very flattering email about how my catalogue has been "selected" to participate in some kind of commercial stock photography program they're offering. At first I figured it would be some kind of scam run not by Flickr, but it all seems legit and they're ofering 51% royalty payments ... Which is like outrageously high.

has anyone else been given this "honor" or is it something they are sending out to everyone?

I got the email in late November. I started a thread here.. Talk to me about Royalty Free Non Exclusive licensing Photography Forum There are some good responses in there.

They picked over 300 of my images. I never got around to re uploading them at a higher resolution without a watermark...

 

[KmH]

You have to provide Yahoo 120 days in advance written notice of your intent to withdraw content.
You waive all moral rights.
Yahoo, it's Affiliates, and any 3rd party Distributors Yahoo authorizes can sub-license your content.
You agree that you will not make an exclusive use agreement with anyone else for any of the content you provide to Yahoo (Flickr)

Basically you give Yahoo the whole enchilada (all rights).

Where is their use license?
How do buyers find your photographs?

 

[unpopular]

Thanks for your input KMH. I withdrew my images from the collection and will be opting out of the program.

Another term that bothered me is that if yahoo uses the images then they compensate me according to "their discretion" and are not subject to the 51% rate. This seems unconscionable to me, and is a complete conflict of interest.

 

[KmH]

It is all set up to provide maximum financial benefit and leverage to Yahoo, and to leave the photographer in a position having no leverage.
Yahoo banks on the expectation a vast majority of Flickr users have little or no business acumen and are not equipped to recognize a bad deal even as that bad deal is ripping cash out of their wallet right in front of their eyes.