The moment I found out who sent a copyright claim against my site, I went to their site to see where this image was.  Admittedly, I was baffled when I saw this was the company that filed a copyright claim against a fair use image. Not once, but twice.

Their company focuses on celebrities, mine nostalgia, and feel-good content. This is from their About page:

Recognising the growing importance of paparazzi style imagery, WENN developed an international pool of paparazzi photographers which includes some of the world’s most talented and tenacious photojournalists.

If you look at my list of false claims with Wenn,  Other than Pitpass and a Twitter user, as of this date, they do not look like what is on Wenn’s photo dump site.

Copytrack.com False Claims – *In Progress*

Wenn.com is a Stock image site?

Not in any traditional sense.  I want to call it a paparazzi dump site due to what I see once you get past the home page.  The only clients I can confirm they had are:

1. MTV
2. BBC
3. ABC
4. Komsomolskaya Pravda – A Communist newspaper that closed down in 1991

*I am going to come back later and update this article.*

The FAQ has likely not been updated since, dare I say it, the ’90s. The design as well.  They don’t even have all of the images available, a key difference between them and other stock image providers.

Q Can all WENN images be found online?
A There are over 200,000 images available online and many more in our analog collection. If you are unable to locate the photo you need in our online database, you may contact your account manager to assist you with your search

The only approval I have ever needed from any stock image site was via my credit card company.  Generally, most prices are by the image or other arrangement, like a specific number per month (like IStocklphoto).  But there may be special cases, like, you want the science image to be put on a shirt or a coffee cup; you might have to contact them for special pricing.  But here, you have to talk to an agent.

Q Can I buy photos online?
A Once you have been approved for an account you can download pictures in high resolution from this site and publish them. Your WENN account manager will have a report of the pictures you have downloaded and will be available to discuss payments with you.

While there are differences in the places I get stock images, the one thing you do not know on Wenn.com is how much any image is.  To that, their FAQ says

Q Where can I find licensing information?
A A Many factors are considered in determining the license fee for any photograph, such as exposure of the image, duration of use, image source, size of use etc. Your WENN account manager is available to discuss terms with you.

Again, I call it a photo dump site.  As the public, you get to see what they got.  But there is not much point to the site if you don’t have a sales rep. Value is likely not assigned until someone shows interest in what you see.

This search rules out any chance I would buy from WENN Rights International Ltd.

The search function can easily lead to dead ends; unlike most sites, if I give them something that they don’t have, they still give me results.  Like ‘Dog with Banjo.” zero results on wenn.com

But going through our company account with istockphoto.com, and I was not disappointed.

I would post more, but then I might have to upgrade the account, and my staff might wonder what I am doing. But if they happen to be reading this, hi guys!

What is the deal with the home page of Wenn.com?

Unlike many sites, I am treated by this message the moment I go to the home page.

I figured I would try Archive.org to see if I could pinpoint when the day of the attack.  It looks like this attack happened on January 31, 2022.  Almost 2 years ago.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220131165322/http://wenn.com/

The message takes up the whole browser. It feels like they are trying to say they are open; pardon the mess. It’s odd the message has been up this long.   This is the only place I can find anywhere that mentions the attack.  While this company was under my radar before Copytrack, other media and tech media outlets should have something on the attack.  But nada.  As I explored who this company was, I came to learn another word associated with this company: paparazzi.

I decided that I would email them… before realizing I had no idea questions what to ask… so I went to ChatGPT for help…. 9 tries later, I had a response ready: Clearly asking it to write in my style while sounding professional was too much to ask,  I don’t want to think about how much time I tried in that experiment.

What I sent:

Inquiry Regarding Cyber Attack for Article Research

Dear WENN.com Team,

I am currently conducting research for an article and came across the mention of a significant cyber attack on your website that is impacting your photo archive. This event is particularly relevant to the focus of my article, and I am interested in gathering more details.

Could you provide additional information about the attack, specifically:

1. The timeline and extent of the cyber attack.
2. How it impacted your services and client relations.
3. The recovery process following the incident.
4. Measures implemented to enhance security and prevent future incidents.

Your insights on this matter would be greatly valuable for the article and could help inform others in the industry about cybersecurity practices.

Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Benjamin V. Spider

I doubt they will respond, but I will share their response here if they do.