Today I was reading Ian Murray’s Geographyphotos blog, where he reports on his 88,000 Alamy-exclusive portfolio July earnings and noticed something interesting. Ian earns more than 3x going after infrigements, with the help of four copyright enforcement companies, than actual royalties from licensing his images.

In a time when there is widespread image theft while royalties, on average, are depressed, I must beg to wonder whether Ian is onto something as a viable business model. Let’s discuss!

How widespread is copyright theft?

You just need to browse for five minutes at Shutterstock to begin spotting some of the literally thousands of stolen images by hundreds of contributors. One hallmark is the same image popping up in multiple accounts – how their software doesn’t detect similars is beyond me.

Keep up the great work, Antonio Gravante!

Antonio Gravante is doing a great job of tracking and helping Shutterstock “wack those moles” using the DCMA mechanism. The problem is that new ones pop up.

This problem isn’t isolated to just Shutterstock. Anyway, I don’t want to discuss any futher Shutterstock. It’s been 5 years since I went after thieves and there has been little progress.

Which Copyright Enforcement Companies does Ian Use?

On his blog, Ian mentions that he uses four different copyright enforcement companies which use reverse image search technology to find matches with your images in use on the internet. I’ve outlined their key features below:

Service	Pricing	Commission-Based Recovery	Key Features
Pixsy	Free plan available; paid plans starting at $19/month	50% of recovered claims	Advanced image recognition, legal assistance for claims
Copytrack*	Free to start	30%-50% of recovered claims	Comprehensive service, user-friendly platform, no upfront costs
Visual Rights Group	Membership fee: $100 to $500/year	30%-40% of recovered claims	Monitoring, legal services, annual membership for extensive support
Copyright Agent	Subscription plans starting at €49/month	20%-50% of recovered claims	Automated monitoring, claim management platform, legal support
Pursuing infrigements yourself via the Money Claims Service (UK only)	Free	100% of recovered claims	More administration

*NOT RECOMMENDED DUE TO UNPROFESSIONAL AND LIKELY UNLAWFUL BUSINESSES PRACTICES – SEE BLOG POST HERE WHERE THEY ARE DEMANDING ME MONEY!

From Interview Series to Legal Battle: YAY Images and Copytrack Come After the Brutally Honest Blog

Don’t bother tracking microstock images for infrigements

I’m afraid that going after infrigements from images uploaded to microstock agencies is fruitless. From experience, they’re usually stolen by small-time thieves based in south Asia which are practically impossible to track and trace.

Then there’s the issue that Royalty-Free licences terms are so broad, combined with multiple agencies with some that offer unlimited downloads that you’ll lose too much time with little guarantee of compensation.

These agencies want to go after the big fish

I don’t even think that these agencies listed above would go after them as just not worth it for them. They want to go after the big fish, i.e. corportations with deep pockets.

Therefore, if you do consider using one or more of the above services it would be recommended that you’re an exclusive contributor at a non-microstock agency, such as Ian is at Alamy.

In my case I could potentially try out these services

In my case, I could begin tracking my 500+ images that I have exclusively via Robert Harding (I have spoken with a Robert Harding contributor who has successfully pursued many claims) as well as my 4,500 images that I have exclusively at Arcangel as Rights-Managed. I also have some 3,000 exclusive images at Alamy. I can’t rely on these agencies to go after the thieves themselves as perhaps they don’t have the adequate time/resources, although I have read that Alamy has paid out contributors on infrigements that they’ve succesfully attacked.

How much can you earn, on average?

Tracking infrigements takes time as it usually means, once an image is identified, giving the opportunity for the defendant to provide evidence of the correct use of license. Many letters back and forth. Then there’s a chance to offer an early settlement where they may purchase the correct license. If those options don’t work then more time will be consumed pursuing the claim in small claim courts. In total the whole process may take many months with no guarantee of settlement/payment.

Using Ian’s efforts as an example

Supposing that you do get paid, how much can you expect to earn, on average? Well it depends. Ian doesn’t publish his earnings results every month and when he does he rarely discusses payments from infrigements. In his blog post he mentioned:

“I received 4 payments from different sources during July for a total of £1313. I had payments from Pixsy, Copytrack, Visual Rights. Also, an out of court settlement for one I pursued myself through the Money Claim system. This was after one of the above mentioned had closed the case after being to unable reach settlement. The Money Claim system is an amazing resource for photographers – even large corporates can be made to pay up.”

I don’t know whether the ~$1,500 net earned is average or not but supposing that it’s an average month then it may be wortwhile for the average contributor with let’s say 10,000 images (such as myself) to earn some $300-400/month. Not bad and the agencies are doing most of the work. I’ll certainly discuss this “additional revenue option” in more detail if I do sign up to those above-mentioned companies.

In the meantime, if anybody reading this could give some insight on their own experiences it would be great – until next time!

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About Alex

I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. I’ve devoted ten years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model while shaming scammers.

I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly (although it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE – here is the story), which I’ve upgraded to a Mini 3 Pro and the Air3.

I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography