Checking March income statement for espgetty I see that I have made about 20 dollars from various items reported in connect summary statement.

Most of it comes from items under fixed usage fees. 

Connect.txt reports these sales one by one and I have about 4000 sales there (all or most of my portofolio in iStock).  The data in each of these 4000 sales is the same: Getty, California, 0.02683, 0.15000, 0.00403. 

So Getty has sold all my images as fixed usage for 2.7 cents and I am paid 0.4 cents per image totaling about 17 dollars. 

There is no information about the buyer nor have I found any explanation for the term "fixed usage fee" or the nature of these sales. 

I was under the impression that connect sales were view based royalties from embedded images.

I have not been active in espgetty for a year and might have missed some info about these fixed usage sales. 

I wonder what this is all about.  Anyone else having similar fixed usage sales?

Checking March income statement for espgetty I see that I have made about 20 dollars from various items reported in connect summary statement.

Most of it comes from items under fixed usage fees. 

Connect.txt reports these sales one by one and I have about 4000 sales there (all or most of my portofolio in iStock).  The data in each of these 4000 sales is the same: Getty, California, 0.02683, 0.15000, 0.00403. 

So Getty has sold all my images as fixed usage for 2.7 cents and I am paid 0.4 cents per image totaling about 17 dollars. 

There is no information about the buyer nor have I found any explanation for the term "fixed usage fee" or the nature of these sales. 

I was under the impression that connect sales were view based royalties from embedded images.

I have not been active in espgetty for a year and might have missed some info about these fixed usage sales. 

I wonder what this is all about.  Anyone else having similar fixed usage sales?

Fixed usage is like a very micro RM. Somone who used to post here regularly said these could be for as little as four hours, but I don't know where s/he got that information.
We aren't allowed to post direct links to their forum, but if you go to their forum > iStock discussions > iStock Royalties - published April and read the OP, you'll find a link to some info about Fixed Usage/Connect.

Thanks ShadySue

I found that piece of information but all it says is that fixed usage fee means that a customer pays a fixed price for a high volume of files and makes the content available to their users for a defined use. 

So there is a customer who wants to use my images and buys them all and I am paid 17 dollars or 0.4 cents per image.  But the rights of use is not limited to the customer who bought my images.  The customers of the customers ("the users") also have the right to use my images - for a defined use.

For me this reads like my whole portfolio is now in public domain. 

Maybe this is just Google paying to Getty for "reasonable use" and photographers receiving a one-time payment for the use of their portfolio.  So 17 dollars...

I think it's pay-per-view, e.g. Pinterest, but it's really difficult to find any concrete info about the scheme (unless you sign up as a buyer). And their legalese always seems to allow them a lot of wiggle room/variety of interpretation.

This is apart from stuff like Pinterest and apart from pay-per-view stuff.   I have lots of those also reported in connect.txt. 

This is 0.4 cent sales of every image in my portfolio (4000+ images).  My connetc.txt file for March has about 5000 lines, one for each sale.   

Every file? For sure I'd take out a support ticket (good luck with that: some tickets just 'disappear' without being answered.)
I have a very few small value sales listed as 'RF Image' sold to buyers in South Korea or China

I wish Getty would explain stuff like this. 

Wouldn't that be nice?
There is such a lack of transparency over there, I can't make my figures in iS, TodayIs20 or Deep Meta balance, and all the explanations for why that is so raise more questions than they ask.
They've always loved obfuscation, or at least all the 13 years I've been on there. But since ESP, it's been much worse.

Here is a part of what Getty explains about Connect statement and "Fixed Usage Fee":

"Connect is a solution we offer to customers that allow them to embed Getty Images content, metadata and search functionality directly inside their tools, products and services. For example, through Connect we can collect royalties on views of Getty Images content.
Because of typical high volumes and unique usages of Connect, your royalties on your Connect (.txt) statement may be reported as fractions of a cent, to 5 decimal points."

"Fixed Usage Fee :
You will see this in your statement when a customer makes the content available to their users for a defined use.
The customer pays a fixed price for a high volume of files. We determine the price per file by dividing the customer�s fee by the number of files they used.
Typical customers of this Connect usage are technology companies that provide internet-related services and products."

Uncle Pete,

0.00403 per file.