The watermarked images indicate that they didn't pay for the images, and apparently the watermark doesn't bother them.  However, as a thinking person (minority, these days), I wouldn't attend whatever function or buy whatever they're selling because if they'll steal from the stock site and the photographer, they'll do that or worse to you and me.  Displaying stolen images like that only serves to broadcast their lack of character and integrity, and their stupidity.  So since they're not likely to accomplish anything significant and become a major player, buying lots of images, I think it would be a waste of valuable time and resources to pursue any kind of action against them.  On the other hand, the owners of the images might be doing the culprit a favor by teaching him that theft is wrong and choices carry consequences (or benefits).  Too many people don't understand that these days.

Although SS has the lowest download average, it has the highest volume for me.  And the majority of my photograph downloads (as opposed to video downloads) are 33 cents.  (I wish it were the 55 cents that Lightscribe indicated.)  Nevertheless, even though DT is at the top of the list of average commission per photo, I see daily sales at SS, but I'm lucky if I get a sale per week at DT.  The bottom line is that I make more money by far on SS because of volume.  The exception, of course, is Alamy.  I've had one sale at Alamy, for which I received a commission of $40.  It would take 121 sales at 33 cents each on SS to do that.  But I can count on regular activity at SS.

I sell videos on IS, but I'm not uploading any new material there.  I haven't been accepted as an IS photographer, and still haven't decided if I want to pursue it or not.  I hate their keywording system.

I have sales every day at SS, but I'm doing good to have a sale every month at FT.

Still a nonperforming site for me.

Are lightboxes on SS public?  If not, do we have the option of making them so?

Same here.  I find it annoying, too.  I work around it by opening searches in a seperate tab.

I get more sales on SS in one day than I've gotten on BS the entire time I've been a member there (since April of last year).  381 files on BS with six sales totaling $4.00.

I expected rejections because, although I may be new to Shutterstock, this ain't my first rodeo.  I've had entire batches rejected for the lighting/shadows issue, and the majority of others accepted, using the same lighting setup with the same subjects (model headshots).  I'll be the first to agree that the inspection process seems to be lacking any rational thought or following any predictable pattern, which makes it impossible for us to shoot anything specifically according to Shutterstock standards.  The primary reason I still upload to other sites is to get all of my material available somewhere.  (I have the highest acceptance rates at CanStockPhoto and Alamy.)  However, I now have the distinct pleasure of a new morning routine - entering sales from the day before into my personal database.  So notwithstanding the need for improvement in the inspection process, Shutterstock is still leaving all other sites in its dust.  

(BTW - Warren:  that's "en masse."  Just thought you'd like to know.   )

EDIT:  My acceptance rate at CanStockPhoto just took a nose dive.  I got a message from them a while back instructing me to avoid putting model's names in keywords "for privacy reasons."  The models are working every day to get their name and face in front of as many eyeballs as possible, and anyone with half a brain knows that.  But since it's their site and they make the rules, I comply and delete the model's names (it's uploaded with the IPTC info.)  I recently forgot to do that with a batch, and instead of allowing me the opportunity to edit and resubmit, they summarily rejected them.  And since the site is performing poorly anyway (for me), I'll probably just stop uploading to it altogether.  So Alamy takes the lead for highest acceptance rate for me.

I continue to be very impressed with Shutterstock, and it just keeps getting better!  Every day has seen downloads in the double-digits, with the exception of Sunday, and I just got an extended download which netted $28.00 for me.  I've never seen anything even close to this kind of action on any other site, and it's so far ahead of the other sites that they're not even worth my time!

I certainly agree that the rejections on SS seem to be irrational and unpredictable, but it's hard to be too critical because the ones that do get approved are selling pretty well, and I really like their new content editor, which makes uploading and keywording a breeze.

It's a jpg file, just under 1 mb.  The last release I uploaded was 1.3 mb, and I had no problem with it.  Maybe I'll try using a different browser.

EDIT:
The other browser worked.  I was using IE without success.  I switched to Firefox and everything worked as it should.  Go figure.

Is anyone else having problems uploading model releases to SS?