"Yuri is not our saviour. He had so many chances in the past to be it and always took the step back."

Which is what is happening here.  Nothing has happened that will affect any of us.  He has in fact taken the easy road, getting in bed with the 'evil empire'.  Don't expect any 'change from the inside', as we know how that ends, not that there's interest in doing it anyways.  Toe the company line and the cash will be paid. 

"I really don't see it the way you do and I don't think you understand the business that we (our images) have created. Do you really think that the optimal price for those images is a 300USD/mth subscription? Am I the only one see this? And yes. It starts by somebody like me saying no thanks."

The hubris of this statement still dazzles me.

Btw, my question about the IS press release lie was never addressed .

No, I mean that the entire collection will still be posted at peopleimages (which undercuts IS).  That contradicts the IS press release that IS is, and I quote:
"... now the only site where the Arcurs Collection of photo, video, audio and vector elements can be found."

Sean state's the truth in that what iStock said is an out right lie. If they said you can only find his content on iStock and our partner sites that wold be true. You see Getty bought peopleimages, now the crazy thing here is Yuri keeps 100% commission at peopleimages?? Whhhaaat! So I need to start a site, sell it to Getty and I still keep 100% of sales for me :-), Now that is a good deal!! Fact is people Stocksy is still the most honest and fair place for photographers to sell at!! I am exclusive and not on Stocksy but it is what is needed here. Still can't figure out why Stocksy dose not get more hype here. Yuri is for Yuri and that is fine, he won't do anything for me and if he thinks he is so special to Getty he will have a hard lesson to learn. That goes for anyone and any job, there is no one person that is so special, trust me if you quit today the industry will still be fine without you that is just life.

Two good things Yuri has done: 1. Not supporting anymore the disastrous (in my humble opinion) cheap subscription model, true origin of many of our troubles. For me, subs it's not micro, but "nano-stock".  2. Putting his images at PeopleImages at respectable prices.

About Scoopt... I don't think it really will work, the same that I don't thing that Connect will, but that is just again mi hunch. I've been wrong imn the past and I will be in the future.

I wont't say nothing on the rest. Just say that I'm taking abback seeing the change of attitude of many of you towards Yuri... it seems, mostly by the fact that he has gone exclusive at IS.

I don't know why so many people ignore the fact that Getty/istock are experimenting with true nanostock.  We have all these huge threads that usually aren't worth reading while this one, that I consider to be the most important in recent years had hardly any attention.
http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/interesting-times-in-which-to-live/

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on July 26, 2013, 06:37

No, I mean that the entire collection will still be posted at peopleimages (which undercuts IS).  That contradicts the IS press release that IS is, and I quote:
"... now the only site where the Arcurs Collection of photo, video, audio and vector elements can be found."

He answered that one too, but only once he'd sat through iStock's "change the meaning of the English Language 101" course:
Sean Locke Photography:
"So, iStock is lying when they say they are the only site hosting your images"
Yuri:
"No. They are not. Exclusive does not mean Istock only. It means partner sites as well. This can't be news."

Which I took as meaning, but in iStockNewSpeak, who knows what anything means, that somehow PeopleImages is now an iStock Partner Site. At least in some way iStockLawyer thinks will keep off misrepresentation lawsuits.

Come on now Sue, this cant be news, Dreamstime is an Istock partner site. 

...Nothing has happened that will affect any of us...

Bottom line, for me. This is not the most significant event in microstock history, contrary to what Yuri thinks. He'll point to the stock price dropping around the time he left SS, but really he hasn't changed anything. One person just does not have that much power in this business. Yuri himself proved that when he failed in his world tour of stock agencies in his effort to get them to change their ways.

It's been mentioned in this thread that we should be embracing this opportunity to talk to him about the business, get some insight from him. I would have been all for that if he didn't have to inject his ego into this and make it all about him. If he genuinely came here to make his announcement and talk shop for a bit, that would have been awesome. Instead he made it all about him, how important he is to himself, and how lame everyone else is for not doing what he wanted. All while making sure that we all know that he thinks of himself as the most important thing in microstock, ever.

Any value there would have been in any information we could have gotten from Yuri was lost the minute he posted that fluff article on his blog and stroked his own ego to the point where nothing else he could say would be meaningful in a real discussion about the business.

This change has no impact on my business or anyone else's. I can think of a dozen events in recent years in this business that had a real impact on every one of us.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on July 26, 2013, 06:37

No, I mean that the entire collection will still be posted at peopleimages (which undercuts IS).  That contradicts the IS press release that IS is, and I quote:
"... now the only site where the Arcurs Collection of photo, video, audio and vector elements can be found."

He answered that one too, but only once he'd sat through iStock's "change the meaning of the English Language 101" course:
Sean Locke Photography:
"So, iStock is lying when they say they are the only site hosting your images"
Yuri:
"No. They are not. Exclusive does not mean Istock only. It means partner sites as well. This can't be news."

Which I took as meaning, but in iStockNewSpeak, who knows what anything means, that somehow PeopleImages is now an iStock Partner Site. At least in some way iStockLawyer thinks will keep off misrepresentation lawsuits.

I'm not talking about the company being exclusive.  I'm talking about the representation that IS is 'the only site'.  That's just a lie.

Lets' stop creating all this hype around him.

I actually just came to watch the circus.

Quote from: XPTO on July 26, 2013, 03:02

Lets' stop creating all this hype around him.

I actually just came to watch the circus.

And did you see the chimps?

Quote from: gillian on July 26, 2013, 02:57

oh, maybe he's going to take them down, from the inside

Three minutes before to read your post I was thinking exactly the same.
Maybe he acts as a Trojan Horse, to better destroyed his main enemy from the inside

(I refer to the Story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse not to the virus  )

My first thought last night when Yuri said "to wait 6 months and look back - he can't reveal all" [paraphrased] that he was making a deal to manage iStockphoto or to get investors to help him buy it out.

Unfortunately it was overnight for me so missed the chance to join this conversation - an opportunity to question Yuri about his predictions for the future is not to be missed whether you agree with him or not!

I too strongly dislike the subs model at such low royalty rates, nothing has done more to commodify photography. I know some of you do well at SS, but I imagine diminishing returns are just round the corner.

Unfortunately I cannot place the trust in Getty that Yuri has done, even though they are my agent. Their actions towards their exclusive photographers have never been positive since they bought iStock, from the Vetta royalty rate cut, the RC system that's designed to limit the number of artists receiving semi-reasonable royalties, destruction of the referral system, flooding the library with wholly owned content and making new uploads worthless by skewing best match.

I guess Yuri may have negotiated a deal that overcomes some of these obstacles to success there, so good luck to him.

The real problem in this industry is low royalty percentages, they should be up at the 70-80% mark as they are in the Apple App Store to make a sustainable, healthy business and profits for everyone, agencies and copyright owners alike.

I'm not as sceptical as some of you about phone cameras. If tech-change over the past decade has shown us anything it's that disruption and amazing advances can and do happen. Who'd of thought I'd be shooting with a 36mp D800 a few years ago?

Seeing a great image, controlling light and being in position are pro photographer skills that are never going to go away, irrespective of the camera used and I for one would be grateful if I didn't have to carry 7kg of kit up Himalayan peaks any more!

I completely agree. If app store has 70% (because they want good content, Steve Jobs), then something is out of balance in our industry. Will it stay that way? Let's get a proper discussion going.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on July 26, 2013, 06:37

No, I mean that the entire collection will still be posted at peopleimages (which undercuts IS).  That contradicts the IS press release that IS is, and I quote:
"... now the only site where the Arcurs Collection of photo, video, audio and vector elements can be found."

He answered that one too, but only once he'd sat through iStock's "change the meaning of the English Language 101" course:
Sean Locke Photography:
"So, iStock is lying when they say they are the only site hosting your images"
Yuri:
"No. They are not. Exclusive does not mean Istock only. It means partner sites as well. This can't be news."

Which I took as meaning, but in iStockNewSpeak, who knows what anything means, that somehow PeopleImages is now an iStock Partner Site. At least in some way iStockLawyer thinks will keep off misrepresentation lawsuits.

I was thinking of iStock becoming a property of Yuri. But I think you are closer with this comment. Getty/iStock has bought Yuri, including his stock sales site and his collection. It certainly would be the Getty way to buy an agency and bring it under their roof. But as we see with iStock, the control of the collection, and especially the site, gets hammered by the eventual Getty management style. Yuri may be grabbing his money and getting ready to run - much like Bruce.