I only uploaded 10 images to SV in the beginning, but since it took them months to come up with a decent watermark I deleted 7. The remaining 3 were easy to remove when I got the email that the my 3-image "portfolio" wasn't moved to Veer. So I have 0 pictures now on SV, that's the same as "account removed".

I don't think I will upload to Veer. Their requirements sound too special, like 250 as highest level, and models birthdays on releases. I heard the royalties are only 30%, in fact 20% since they are US based. I want to hear first from contributors here.

Quote from: melastmohican on May 30, 2009, 06:12Anything new? I still cannot see data from Shutterstock...

I predicted this scenario long ago. The only app that will keep working is a desktop client app, not a net app. I didn't check lookstat in ages. Without SS, it's pretty useless for me.

Quote from: AaronBooth on May 29, 2009, 19:46Veer will continue to include the requirement for the model's birth date on the Veer model release and we strongly prefer model releases to include the model's age, however, we will accept third party model releases (ones from other companies) that don't have the model's birth date or age provide that it states "Model represents that they are age 18 or older".

"Other companies", does that included our own generic releases?
To play it safe "they are age 18 or older" is not enough. Some countries have provisions that some 18 year olds can't legally sign releases. I have that clause in my personal generic release.

QuoteThe Model is not a minor, and does have the legal age or status in his/her country to sign this Agreement and is 18 years of age or older on the Photographs session date(s).

No need for birthday then I guess.

Quote from: AaronBooth on May 29, 2009, 19:46We need to make sure that the model who signs the release was an adult at the time they signed, otherwise the guardian would need to be signing on behalf of the model.

Of course. All releases in microstock, generic or site-supplied take care of that. A minor has to sign a different releases co-signed by the parent/guardian. This has all been settled in microstock for years.

The birth date of the model has no meaning for a buyer if he doesn't know what date the picture was shot. He only needs the assurance that model was in a legal condition to sign himself (major), or he needed a permission at the time of the shoot (minor) from a guardian or parent.

Quote from: AaronBooth on May 29, 2009, 19:46And of course, providing accurate ages in your metadata is also much appreciated.

No way. An image is going to lead its own life with embedded metadata. I don't put name nor birth day in my metadata, just a code for the release form. I don't want my models to be subject to identity theft or harassment since it's easy to obtain a person's data with name and birth date. It's against the model's privacy.

Another thing occurred to me. Is Veer a US based operation and will they also implement the 30% IRS tax on all payouts to non-US contributors? Or will they move to Ireland formally, like SV did?

Quote from: stockastic on May 30, 2009, 22:58I can't wait for Google's free stock image service. Am I kidding? Not really.

Watch out, Google is US-based. The IRS will ask you 30% of the income. Kidding? No. Some states of the European Union of Socialist Soviet Republics/Kingdoms devised a tax on income you "could have had" but avoid it by giving it away for free. Never underestimate the creativity of government to find new ways to tax you.

On topic: after finding out that my Net was choked by the 1h 20min long presentation (I'm on 150Kbps), and after watching the first totally boring guy for 2mins with his lame presentation jokes, I just killed it.

Quickly over-reading all this some logical issues popped up in my mind.

1. Taxes have to be paid since buyers deduct their costs from their own taxes. The problem is with non-US buyers that deduct the costs from their government's taxes but that's not a contributor's issue.

2. By taxing gross income and not net income, the IRS denies the costs involved in making the images. For many contributors, costs are probably higher than their income. The IRS considers royalties as "passive" income. It's not. The right way should be that contributors are taxed in their own country where they also have the means to deduct their costs.

3. The red tape involved in all this is huge, depending on your nationality, place of residence and fiscal status. SS could help by negotiating a group deal with the IRS where they handle all the red tape themselves, after collecting passport copies (certified or not).

Quote from: Magnum on May 28, 2009, 19:08

Quote from: epantha on May 28, 2009, 19:04
The CEO rant post has been removed.

That´s hilarious

Perhaps he was banned 

Quote from: tan510jomast on May 29, 2009, 15:28And can I ask them just to go to my DT port instead of posting the images on their forum?

It might help if you suggest you work for the IRS 

Quote from: fotografer on May 29, 2009, 16:14I-m really sorry to see that you were banned from SS forums.  You were giving Bichon a run for his money as being the funniest person on the forums. I hope they let you back soon as your posts will be missed by many. x

Ah, this sounds interesting. 
I have been banned on some forums too for my big mouth but not here yet. Yeah, Bitchon... I like him on SS. About India, well all I remember is rain.

Quote from: Whitechild on May 29, 2009, 13:07Let's give them a chance. No need to leave the same minute they introduce subs... Wait a bit, it doesn't hurt so much.

That's how you make a frog boil without screaming and jumping out of the bowl. Just cook him on a very slow fire. A cent less per day keeps the sorrows away, and then one day you find yourself on PhotoXpress, working for a datamining shark. FP used to be great, now they left their previous business model.

Quote from: Whitechild on May 29, 2009, 11:46I just started to sell at FP. I never stopped to submit there because of their easy upload system

Try Flickr then. Easy upload, no releases, and a lot of wows and badges.
Relying on the FP widget for the port on my site was a very big mistake. That will teach me a lesson. Only rely on yourself. Per month I make much more on DT than I ever made on FP in 3 years from when they started, although I always supported them. If they go through with the 0.35 plan for full size shots, I'm gone.
If you sell a lot, good for you. I don't any more. Guess I fell out of the grace of their search engine.

Quote from: Lcjtripod on May 29, 2009, 11:52My 2 Cents.

That's what those sub-marines will be selling your shots for, if you let them. If the trend will be 0.35$ per image, I'm out of here. I have better things to do.

Quote from: MAF on May 28, 2009, 19:56I currently have the d200 but have heard great things about the d90

The D90 is much more advanced than the D200 technically but its build is like a toy. Here in the tropics with very high air humidity and temperature, I had 3 "toy" cameras broken down. The ruggedized D200 still hold very well. Three days ago I fell from a rock with it and a corner hit the rock but everything still works fine. I had it dumped in a swimming pool for about  0.5 sec and nothing happened. If the environment where you want to use it is not hostile like a studio in a normal climate, go for the D90.

Quote from: m@m on May 29, 2009, 04:14Is there a difference between IS money and that of other smaller sites?

On a sidenote, I made more at IS since my last payout (April) than I ever made at FP, with 1/3 of my port. Sure, a few sales are 0.19$ at IS but they are xtra small size and probably just used for a sidebar. Nothing wrong with that. I just don't feel that I can justify for myself selling full sizes at FP for 0.35$ when those same shots are on Zymmetrical for 20$. You could mention SS but I don't upload full size to SS. Also, I have my doubts about customers that need 9150 full-size pictures per year. That's pure leeching or stockpiling.

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on May 28, 2009, 16:44Come join me at the other sites I would love to stay in touch.

Stay here too please. Batman and Old Hippie are gone. I enjoyed every post here and with the featured thing on DT, we can finally link a port to the posts.

Things are changing at Featurepics. We all supported it for the option to set price and license, and for the 70%. This seems all to be gone soon. The thread at the FP forum is (too) long and confusing, but Madelaide is quite busy there.

The intention of the site is clear though. Site owner's quote:

QuoteFor buyers: 12 months $2275 - any size image for as low as $0.25 or up to 9150 images
$0.35 goes to Authors.

Sorry but not another subscription site, no no.
We won't have the possibility to opt out and they're going to pick the "gold images" (whatever that is) themselves. No thanks FP, not another Crestock.

Another site owner's quote:

QuoteI know that customers are leaving for a better deal.

If indeed customers want 10MP+ pictures for 25 dollarcents (2275/9150), they can go shoot those images themselves. Nobody needs 9150 images per year, except CD-resellers, leechers and Heroturko. If a serious company is that big that it needs 9150 pictures per year, they can very well afford the right price, and that ain't 0.25 cents.

Quote from: goldenangel on May 28, 2009, 03:51It's actually pretty simple here. Notary offices are everywhere and they do it for $10.

I just found out I will have to fly to an area North of Manila (Angeles) 950km North from here, and queue there for an appointment. Flight 150$, taxis, buses, hotels another 250$. Since official offices in the Phils are notorious for their many days off and long waiting queues (you can avoid those by 20$+ if you're lucky) under the table, and the Philippine mail is not an option (corrupt, fraud) that joke will cost me a week and let's say 500$. Just because that IRS is a bunch of red-taped dinosaurs that want snail mail and can't handle their business online, apparently, and that in a global business environment, with contributors from all over the world.

I can't also deduct my costs from that 30% tax, and my costs are a large part of my microstock income. The IRS treats it as pure profit. No taxation without representation, remember?
Shutterstock can try to strike a deal with the IRS where they obtain a global exemption of the snail mail red tape, or they can start an offshore operation e.g. in Ireland like Snapvillage did.

Whatever, but I'm not going to spit out 500$ and lose a week for SS's IRS. I'm not going to put extra time in special edits (less noise, popped up colors) for SS if a sale brings only 33cents - 11cents = 22cents. If SS wants to be an all-American operation, so be it. I don't pay taxes to a country that supported Bush and his neocon morons for 8 years and that brought us the credit crunch.

I got the mail too. I need to go to Paris or Frankfurt to get my paperwork certified, as Belgian citizen but living in the Philippines. No thanks. After many hours shooting, sweating, reducing noise, uploading, paying my internet - this is what you get. I can't do their TIN or whatever Red Tape physically. So my earnings on SS wil go down from 0.33$ to 0.22$ by legal theft. If they go through with this, I'll cancel my account too. Since I didn't upload to SS since last March, my monthly income there went down by 2/3 and I'm roughly at the same income as 2-3 years ago with half my port now. Sad to say, I'd better flip hamburgers or go on with commissioned.

Quote from: Stitcherladyxx on May 26, 2009, 13:54Where do I email to?

Scorn Judge Whatever on their forum, then scorn those idiots here on MSG. Then they will cancel your account. They never reply to email. The site is run by one monkey that has a finger on the reject button and the other one on "mail delete".

Thursday was Ascension in Europe. Friday is an extra holiday. Most people take Monday off they have a 5-day holiday for the first warm trip after Winter. I said that in another thread. May and September were always my favorite months when I still had a regular job. There was May 1 and still Pentecost to come. 

Quote from: sjlocke on May 26, 2009, 02:59Are you asking me or lephotography?

You, since you seemed to imply that in order to stay creative, you'll have to pay (models?). Perhaps I misunderstood.

Quote from: sjlocke on May 26, 2009, 02:59BTW, I told a model the other day that I am not able entertain the "percentage of sales" model, sorry if that means we can't work together.

The TFP model is still very workable for beginning or aspiring models.

Quote from: mantonino on May 26, 2009, 01:47Whoa, you have prices?  You're ahead of me!  lol

Prices are on their front page. Not very clever: 1 GBP = 1 EUR = 1.5 USD. Buyers will buy by the cheapest currency, varying with the rates. If they take 50%, the fee will be 0.5 EUR or 0.65 USD.

Quoteto meet this aim we offer one format, at one price, at the highest possible quality/resolution. no matter which image on our site you wish to use, it will be at the same cost.
one.price: it's easy, that's why you'll love it.

QuoteWith fair, simple, pricing and liberal fair use rules including embedding relevant images from the pixel.catalogue in your blog for free we aim to meet the demands of both stock buyers and creators in a manner that is compatible with the marketplace of the 21st Century.

They want to play Santa Claus with our  images. No thanks. Go shoot stock yourself guys. 

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Quote from: RacePhoto on May 26, 2009, 05:41I'm to the point of I don't care anymore with DT. Just waiting for August to remove everything.

Why? Just stop uploading so your AR is frozen, and cash in those 70$/month 840$/year. Forget them and take the cash. After all, it's business, not love. 

Quote from: Pixart on May 26, 2009, 02:1715 subs - others 1 - 6 credits.

My question was about image level, but I had 10/20 subs.

Quote from: sjlocke on May 25, 2009, 20:13So, how do your sales turn out, not paying anyone and being creative?

What's your arrangement with models? Is there any fee beyond the usual in TFP (transport, food, drinks)? I know some people work with a percentage of sales only, to keep the model motivated.