Quote from: Atwim on March 10, 2011, 13:41

It is not easy to sink the Titanic, but once a hole is made you can be sure that it will sink unless you repair it quickly. You won�t notice much at the beginning, it will just slow down a bit, loose a bit of heigth, then slow a bit more, water is closer to the board, the ship stops, bow gets closer to the water, now the bow is in the water, glup.

Great analogy.

+1

Is that a string quartet I hear playing...?

Emails have been sent out. Check your inboxes. Reports are starting to show up on the IS thread just a few minutes ago. Go luck to everyone.

Quote from: Blufish on March 10, 2011, 17:41

Emails have been sent out. Check your inboxes. Reports are starting to show up on the IS thread just a few minutes ago. Go luck to everyone.

Just had mine. Looks like their going to screw me for another $45.

Lovely. That's just wiped more than 5% off my January total (from AFTER the time we were told it had all been sorted out).

Can we assume that one download in every 20 in Jan was therefore fraudulent? That's incredible! It would surely mean millions of files being stolen. I think this demands something more than a nonchalant "we're not planning to do it again" from HQ.

Lovely. That's just wiped more than 5% off my January total (from AFTER the time we were told it had all been sorted out).

Can we assume that one download in every 20 in Jan was therefore fraudulent? That's incredible! It would surely mean millions of files being stolen. I think this demands something more than a nonchalant "we're not planning to do it again" from HQ.

Very, very similar % for me too. It is starting to look as if about 5% of Istock's 'earnings' in January were in fact fraudulent. The situation is truly dire __ not just the fraud but how much the genuine sales have actually dropped. The word 'tailspin' somehow comes to mind.

$11.40 from me. I'm just relieved that it wasn't the EL that rescued my Feb from total disaster.
Sorry for all those who have been hit; but I fear some will have lost really significant amounts, as happened last time.

Was it this thread where we were discussing a lack of criticism from Black Diamonds?

As I said, Sean is the most willing to speak up and out, but others absolutely do chime in from time to time.

Like now:

Wow, I have to look forward to a $786.64 deduction next week... [sarcasm] Thanks istock! [/sarcasm]

What type of proof do we have that these are fradulent downloads that occurred other than istock's word which really doesn't mean much these days...

That was nico_blue here:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=312142&page=18

And here's sodafish on page 17:

Seriously iStock. You are the one that should protect out work, that's why we pay you more than 60%. You failed and now WE have to pay for it? This will not be forgotten very soon.

And duncan1890 on page 19:

Could not even total it up for us pathetic

Looks like I will get hit for $1851.70 (if I added it up correctly) thats miles more than last time.

Currently have no trust or confidence in istock

And sdominick on page 22:

Wow.  $1259.98.  This...is...just...wrong.

And 4x6 on page 24:

I too have been here since 2002 and also briefly worked for istock. I too like this place better back in the old days when Bruce was around.

And jhorrocks on page 27:

RE: $3,008.36 clawback. Could be worse.  I could be Sean. Yes, very serious indeed.  This has got to stop.  Every passing week gives me less and less motivation to shoot and upload.  Alpaca farming sounds pretty good right about now.

And tell me the old Kelvin's tone (sans badge) would not have been entirely different from this:

Only $40 here to pay back, but comiserations to everyone who got hit.

Looking at some of the huge amounts people are losing, I just can't understand how these fraudulent sales over a long period weren't being noticed.
Have none of TPTB at iStock or Getty got any shame at all. They aren't taking any hits in their paypackets, I'll bet.
:-(

What assholes. Seriously. They send me an email with long 3-page list of "unauthorized" downloads that they gonna charge me back for and don't even give me the total!!! What is it - too much work to calculate how much money you're going to deduct from my earnings? Sh*theads. I am so pissed. One more thing like that and I am out of there. Screw the money.

I thought it was just me.  I have to total up that long list myself?  The e-mail says there will be a total, but not on mine.  Complete BS.

I got my letter today and I don't even have a port anymore! Where are they going to take the money from??
I was telling my brother about what happened and felt that it was just amazing what they are doing to their bread and butter. I said either Getty is making a deliberate effort to scuttle iS, or iS is just as stupid and greedy as they appear. I can only assume that they think because they are the number one microstock site, no one of any consequence is going to defect, so f**k the ones that do. Well, that will work only to a point. I don't think Calgary has come to that realization just yet. When they do, it will probably be too late.

If you still have your account open, it will show as a negative. I left my account open and only have 5 pics in my port now and after the first round I was in the hole for a while. I sold an image which put me back in the positive, but now I am in the hole again.

Got the deductions as well. Only my best sellers were downloaded...

This is how we should reply to them:

Hello iStockphoto
(Your Name) has recently been affected by an unusual amount of verified, unauthorized credit removals. These are instances where credits have been removed using credit card fraud as an excuses, which iStockphoto will not or cannot verify to the suppliers. Due to the nature of Internet-based business, iStockphoto is responsible for securing my intellectual property, and has failed to do so.

We will be taking the step of charging back to iStockphoto royalty amounts  resulting from loss of business associated with the theft of our images.

On March 17 we will send to iStockphoto a bill for the estimated loss of future royalties attributed to the theft of our intellectual property that occurred in November, December 2010 and January and February 2011.

Below we have included a list of the files that were part of these verified thefts (as provided by iStockphoto), the date they occurred, as well as the total estimated future royalties lost. This billing will take place on March 17, 2011.

If you have any questions about the methods used to compile these figures, please contact us in Contributor Relations, at (your e-mail). The amount involved, we will be due and payable at the time of invoice.

Thank you,
(Your Name)