Starsphinx

Technically we would also need to know how many total files SS had then and now, and over all sales numbers then and now. It is perfectly possible that everyone is having a shit October because sales have disappeared full stop - and that it would be shit even without the changes to payment calculation,

Yep you get a whole free chunk of Red Leicester. Its when you need the Cheddar, Brie, Stilton and Edam to go with it that you hand over money. Of course you could go and buy everything at a different shop - but you are more likely to but at the shop where you get one cheese free. 70,000 sounds a lot - but is not a drop in the bucket of the total number of stocl images in most libraries. Dont SS say they get over a million new images a week? If I were adobe I would choose the images for the free section carefully - yes high quality outstanding images but of subjects that are not so muc

What is 70,000 or even the eventual 100,000 as a percentage of their library? Bearing in mind that the said 70,000 includes photos, vectors, illustrations, and videos. How do you think a 70,000 library competes with normal sized microstock libraries? Say the free collection includes one image of a COVID virus. Say the first 2 dozen searchers all use this free image - so it becomes seen everywhere. This results in 2 things - a large number of people know it was free, and the general public stop noticing it. You come along, you use a couple of other free images of other subjects so you

Why would SS get more downloads when it has made no changes to front end pricing? IF the reductions in contributor payments had been caused by a lowering of front end prices then increased sales would be a possibility - but SS did not do that. It kept the prices the same while changing - for the most part reducing - the amount it paid to contributors, so there is no reason for sales to change.

The way I read it is certain contributors were asked to provide content for which they were paid or "compensated" enough for them to say yes. Obviously we do not know how much they were offered but ask yourself what fee you would agree. OK new buyer comes along to adobe - not sure if they are going to suit or not. Searches for "lemon" and gets 5 to 10 free alternatives offered. Takes one, finds it works well, comes back and searches "fruit bowl" and finds 5 free alternatives - all of which have been used by so many others they are "over exposed" as it were. Following the 5 free fru

I have been able to load twice in 24 hours.

Not sure what you mean by traitors who kiss up to SS. Please remember there are going to be a lot of contributors from developing countries who have absolutely no financial safety net whatsoever for whom 10c can be the difference between eating and not. People upload for various different reasons and it is totally unfair to insult and attack those who decide for whatever reason that uploading still fits their intentions.

Indeed it seems like having grown up in years where people worked towards and celebrated having everyone as one big human family these days all the work is to put people back in isolated boxes apart from one other. You are a woman - get in that box. You are disabled - get in that one. Caucasion - that one. Everything from who you sleep with to how you worship is used to separate you and then once there are no more boxes to divide you into you are told what is being done for your "group" because that is what your "group" must want based on its "unique characteristics" without anyone stopp

However the term "black skin" does appear in the keywords of some. If anyone wishes to explain why "brown skin" is unacceptable when "black skin" is acceptable I would love to hear it.

I would really not be sure if that is the reason - as the link above shows it is a search term that returns lots and lots of results. I think it is a valid descriptive term and not just for certain ethnicities "the old man had tanned wrinkled leathery brown skin after many years of working outside" is found in descriptions of just about all ethinicities. If it is that term and it has been picked up by AI it is going to cause quite a few problems - old coffee gone cold with a brown skin on it, various animals with brown skin, tree bark, roast potatoes, leather, nuts - the list of things th

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/brown+skin?kw=shutterstock&c3apidt=p11180842815&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwOz6BRCgARIsAKEG4FUNJYidZO669RK7UIa0kEzMx_n9i4QqnhjOvHoG5-IhCDvffBkvxZcaAtY9EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

How do SS know that the email I have given them and the person opening and filling in that part is the person in the photograph? That is my concern. For the unscrupulous it makes it much easier for them to decide that as Jack Brown will not sign the model release they will get their mate John Smith to claim it is them and sign it instead. Yes this could have been done before but it is more difficult with signatures being witnessed - there is something about signing a piece of paper to state you witnessed someone state they were the model and sign it that feels a lot more heavy and serious t

I had to go back and double check then but can confirm that AS have accepted images with people in that are not identifiable, and those same images have been rejected as commercial here. I must admit I too have some questions - namely what is to prevent a person not shown in the image as claiming it is them and signing the release fraudulently? OK no honest sensible photographer is going to do this but consider some of the behaviour shown regards image theft and tell me that it is not going to happen.

I have decided with the the changed payment schedule and general faffing about I will only resubmit once only - if it gets rejected a second time then SS do not get the opportunity to make money from it. Despite having far fewer images on Adobe month on month earnings are comparable, and they are not rejecting images for daft reasons.

Had an email about this new thing from SS. The link in it leads to https://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/articles/en_US/kbat02/What-is-a-Shutterstock-digital-release?l=en_US Now I have not ever used model releases or models - cant afford to pay and my family have a habit of running and hiding - but I am wondering if this is a good thing or bad thing if I do happen to trip over someone willing to sign a release for their hand or out of focus backview? Opinions from those who use these things please