The perils of micros stock

My friend and mentor passed this on to me today so I thought I'd share it.
Great read.
http://fairtradephotog​rapher.blogspot.com …ld-reputable-company.html
Be sure to read the follow up article at the end of this one.

I love the first response.

"How do we find non exclusive imagery?"

I wonder how many of these companies really care?

Given the great diversity of industries AND geography represented in which this same image was found, I wonder how many customers would ever find even two or three of them, let alone all of them? In normal browsing habits, I mean. And even if they did, I wonder how many of those customers would really care?

Sure, there's this 'tineye' website, but again, how many people will know to look... or even care to look?

Most of the comments and complaints in the article seem to come from photographers and pretty much nobody else. This seems to be an issue where photogs complain to each other... "preach to the choir", so to speak... and the rest of the world just yawns and goes about it's business anyway.

I don't think that most people actually believe that the photos they see of people on corporate websites are really employees of that company. At least not sanitized-looking shots like this. I believe that most people know it's a not-so-creative license and is simply advertising... nothing more.

I wish I had taken that photo.

Yeah, you would have made a whole $3 from that blogger.