what they figure they can't afford to pay their photographers as it is now so maybe if they lower their prices they will be able to somehow .. smooth move crestock.
they never paid me to the point I finally made them remove all my images .. and I'm still waiting for a payment. I'd have to check my logs to see how long it's been but it's been forever.

they paid me this week I requested a payment in September and 6 months later (from the first request) lo and behold there's my money (to give them credit they paid me my November and January requests at the same time)

Its a good move for cash flow though. Get large sums of money in advance, so they can fix problems now. Seems to be exactly what they need to do, but personally I think the damage is done.

I stopped uploading mid last year, now my port can sit untouched until they die or whatever, collecting its $0.50 a day that may one day get paid, might as well keeping it going to the end rather than putting the work in to remove it.