This isn't news. They've been accepting images from iPhones for at least six months.

"We may select one of your images to be featured for free on the homepage. This helps showcase your portfolio. Please note that you will not earn commissions on the image that is selected during that week."

So we help promote their site and they want us to provide free imagery with the tiresome promise that "it'll be good exposure for your port"

Does anyone have any positive stories to tell out of doing this?

Quote from: bhr on July 28, 2012, 07:46

Carlyle, CVC, TPG weigh final bids for Getty - Reuters

Quote

Three private equity firms, including Carlyle Group LP (CG.O) and CVC Capital Partners CVC.UL, are weighing final bids for Getty Images, as the auction of the digital media company enters its last leg, according to people familiar with the matter.

TPG Capital TPG.UL also remains in the auction and is considering a final bid for Getty, the people said. The largest supplier of stock photos, video and other digital content could be valued at as much as $4 billion, they said.

Final bids for Getty Images are due on August 6, they added.

Other buyout firms that had earlier taken a look, such as KKR & Co (KKR.N) and Charterhouse CHCAP.UL, have dropped out of the process, the people said.

A sale would come more than four years after private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC bought a majority stake in Getty in a $2.4 billion deal.

I wonder who people familiar with the matter actually are.

The sad thing is that it's another equity firm who will likely acquire them.  With all the debt Getty has resulting from the H&F leaches, another private equity firm isn't going to sit back and say, "lets nurture our contributors since they are part of the backbone of this business".  They are going to say, "we want our money and we want it now and in this volume."  It will use simple business principles: cut commissions and raise prices........AGAIN.  For Getty/IS, the RC system was a brilliant move since it is a living, breathing, expanding, contracting target.

I was never in it for the simple life and the million dollar income. I could stop tomorrow and never have to work a day in my life, but then why do I keep going?
To be honest, the only thing I really care about is creating content that is mind-blowing and give buyers a "wow" experience. I want the most consistent, perfect, excellently executed collection everywhere I sell my images. I also want it to be available on the simplest, most intuitive and fastest platform thinkable. If I cared only for the income, I would not have students, neither would I do conferences nor interviews. I would only go for the "low hanging fruits" kind of images (and I know what they are)�
You can claim it na�ve, obsessed, or even stupid (as done here), but you cannot deny that if you were to spend your own money buying images, you would care a lot about these qualities. We are at a turning point, rather you like it or not or perhaps have not even seen it coming.
In the midst of the masses of microstock, there is a growing frustration being built up, and it will not be solved by us just adding more content. Passion will prevail!

Yes, I'm thinking of quitting and getting a job at Target.   It doesn't change the game.  It's a nice site with perfect looking people.  If you want 80k images of the same thing, you know where to go.