Here's my "What do RC's mean" page;

http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=1090

That's a year old - it's the 2011 rates for determining 2012 royalties. They dropped those to 35K at the end of 2011

Nope, no boost for me.

Btw, what do you mean "the 35K threshold for 18%"? According to the numbers on my page the 18% mark is at 40K RC's.

I see 18% as my rate and this is the page I found that says 35K

I think I got somehow into the group that got a boost - as a diamond? based on closeness to the target? because I'm kind to small animals?

I expect at some point they'll realize it's not right, but I'm going to let them figure that out on their own and take the money back if they can ever figure out how to run a script to do it

Still haven't finished the details, but December was good. I was up 103% on December 2011 (not much of an achievement as i was still working my way back from leaving exclusivity in June and IS was in the toilet) but more importantly was up 14.5% on December 2010. Dec 2012 is my second best month ever.

2012 as a whole is up 10% on 2011, so given the trends in the last half of the year, I'm cautiously optimistic for 2013. The caution comes from whether IS continues to slump or figures out how to fix things; what 123rf will be like and whether SS will continue to see the growth in non subscription downloads that has made the earnings there such a pleasant surprise.

Last month I had calculated that 67% of my income came from IS (including PP) and SS+BigStock. So lots of eggs in a rather small pair of baskets.

ETA: I can't do whole year comparisons to 2011 by agency as I was exclusive at iStock until early June 2011, but here are some interesting stats

Comparing Dec 2012 to Dec 2011:

SS was 100% up , DT was up 6.7%, 123rf was up 43% and IS was up 61%. PhotoDune was up 184% - but Dec 2011 was my first full month there, so that isn't a fair comparison. Dec 12 was up 37% over Nov 12 though, so it was a good month there (not counting the bundle sales in the November total though).

December is always lower than November for me - typically by 10-30%. This year December dropped 16% - middle of the range, but (a) November was very strong and (b) December beat October by 6% where typically it's lower. In my benchmark year, 2010, December was 11% lower than October. Both IS and SS were up in December over October 2012.

I'm sure the December thread is going to make depressing reading, compared to previous Decembers.

It's already been started by KelvinJay and it's pretty dire - except one exclusive wrote that his income was up $50K over 2011!! If that wasn't a typo, I'm guessing some Vetta Agency E+ images must have taken off for him.

It's a whole heck of a lot easier than DT, which is literally one by one, but as I recall from having done it in 2008 - and the interface looks identical now - you have to check one box for each image on a page then click the "Save" button at the bottom. Obviously filter the page to show only accepted images first.

It went pretty quickly as I recall - there's only one refresh per page and it is typically the wait times for the site that are the killer in doing these things one by one. You could always write to support to ask them if they'll do it for you - worst is they say no

5 credits for an XXL - or in your case 3 for a large - is a lot less than either IS or DT, so yes, 20 cents royalty per credit as a floor is nothing to get excited about.

In looking at sales over the last few days I saw an XXL (JPEG) sale, 5 credits, for a larger amount than if they bought the most expensive credits from the site - my royalty was $3.125, meaning the buyer paid $1.25 a credit. I assume a partner site sale.

I think the highest royalty per credit that I've noticed was one in November - $6.50 for an XL (4 credit) sale, which meant the buyer paid $3.25 a credit. I assume it's a partner site, but we have no information on 123rf about which sales are partner sales. Perhaps I should be happy there's a partner that's selling at higher prices than 123rf does, but I can't check accuracy on anything when I have no idea about who's selling it and what the prices to the buyer are.

We need at a minimum indication that it's a partner sale in the stats. It'd be preferable to see the site (a code for each perhaps) and a sale price.

Taking a break when needed is a fine thing to do. Whenever you're up to resuming here, I'm sure most of us will still be here

Have a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year

I don't mind there being licenses that grant extensive rights, but I do believe the price should be higher the more rights are granted.

If someone wanted to create an extended license to permit backgrounds, I might consider it if I were a photographer who couldn't do composites to save her life. As I can, and I use my own photos the way this person uses other people's, I wouldn't want to.

The big problem with Envato's EL is the price is ridiculous. A secondary problem is that they don't seem to be very eager - they've had to be pushed - to enforce copyright when it's sellers on their own other marketplaces that are the violators. I think that's because the bulk of their money comes from those guys, not PhotoDune.

But back to the main point. When we upload to reputable sites, they require us to state that we own the copyright to what we upload. Even if Envato allows people to sell things that include other people's work, it doesn't allow them to claim copyright for it when it includes someone else's copyrighted work.

So I think the lousy Envato EL is a red herring - even if that's where this guy bought the backgrounds, he can't claim copyright to the result so his port should come down from FT, SS and anywhere else he's uploaded the work.

I think this scale of violation probably deserves a total ban rather than removal of the offending works and a promise to do better next time

Quote from: Pixart on December 28, 2012, 22:04

Arent EL's on photodune like 5 cents or thereabouts - maybe he purchased them legally 

Just asking, does EL's normally include the right to use the image as part of your own work and then sell it (without any recognition), passing it off as your own? Is there a license like that? I thought it is only to use on things like T-Shirts etc. for reprint, but not giving away your full copyright for such purpose?

There is no EL that permits what this guy did - making your own stock images using someone else's work as a part.

Even for a reference for an illustration, this isn't permitted.

You can buy the copyright from someone, but that's probably not what happened as the original owners are still selling their work.

I had one that had some numbers on a photo of a door frame. Sometimes I try those; usually I just click the button to get another image that I can decipher.

I hate these. If I promised never to use any screen scraping programs,I wish they'd give me an option never to have to see one again.

They moved the table here - I don't think there are any links to it on the site. Alex told us in some thread here.

...FWIW as an independent taking this business more seriously if it wasn't for this site I find I-Stock a good site. Sorry for being a heretic!

It's not being a heretic, but a matter of how you see the site - a relatively new contributor with a small portfolio and 50 downloads - versus how others do who have seen the site do much, much better than it is doing today. When those losses look like an own goal, it's pretty tough to take.

Please understand it's not that being new doesn't entitle you to a view, but it does mean that you don't have any insight into why those negative views exist. What I do suggest you take to heart is that a lot of previous promises have been broken - promises to people who could become exclusive to get a grandfathered royalty rate as but one example.