Is this a SPAM or free advertisment of mine (and other P5 artist's) footage?

I noticed on YouTube that my Pond5 clips are published by other people. In the 'Comments' there is correct link to my clip but 'ref' points to the other Pond5 artist. I guess that idea of such 'business' is collect some money from referrals?
Example: https://youtu.be/bxsIoX8iwNo?list=PLCGG10The-vpofQuP5CSp4vAfEivnZdKe


SPAM / free advertisement?
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/107637/time-lapse-pink-zinnia-flower-growing-4.html

Any ideas would be good to hear!

I believe it is theft. They are using watermarked clips they downloaded from P5. Then they use free watermarked clips to make them referral money. P5 should ban these people and return all referral money to the artists the clips belong to.

YouTube should be told to remove these videos under copyright violation. P5 can make such videos because it's in the contract, no one else can use sample downloads for anything other than internal testing. P5 should be able to determine who downloaded the samples and ban them.

No it is not ethical

There are other sites linking to shutterstock as well. Example: http://stock-clip.com/video-footage/fatty

Some are "official" affiliate sites that link back to the originating agency. I do not trust agencies like ClipDealer that actually sends the files to other affiliates to sell.

Need to ask P5 and SS which if any of these are official affiliates or if they are using Artists clips for personal benefit such as referrals.

The Shutterstock link is an authorized affiliate. When selecting a file it links directly back to SS.

So any answer from P5 on them using water market P5 clips?

this is an interesting, something i would not have thought of doing. BUT i just noticed if you scroll down below any footage you will see a note saying

Refer & Earn!
Share this royalty-free footage using our Affiliate Link,
and earn 5% of all sales purchased through it.

so i clicked on the link and this came up
http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/687893/kids-rolling-down-hill-park.html?ref=Couchpot

so its a clip by micjayger (randomly chosen while checking AD3000) i dont know the person from a bar of soap but i can use the link to advertise them and earn 5%. I guess its just advertising and will benefit all. Perhaps the bottom line is flood You Tube with your watermarked clips with your own links before others do - and while doing so contact me so I can add my music to it with my own link.

Still waiting for P5 to answer. For an Artist or "interested person" to use someone else's watermarked footage for referrals is just wrong. P5 can use any of our footage it wants but any "joe" should not be using watermarked footage.

Would be nice to hear a ruling from P5 on this one.

if he gets me a sale I don't care what they do with the watermarked footage.

he wont get any referral money anyway because it's broken. I've tried it with a friend when I was shopping for music and footage here on P5. My friend saw the referral views but didn't get any money at all.