The only way to get out of the hands of these companies is to start our own site. Its not impossible...

I am an exclusive contributor to istock. I will go from 40% to 35% most likely (at least if sales keep up). But I for one would like this to really hurt for istock. They have stabbed me in the back. I put my trust in them, and this is what they do! Unfortunately Im too dependent on the money since its my main income, otherwise I would leave immediately. Now it has to be a more long term goal, but I will work towards it.

There are few things I hate more than greed, and I feel this is motivated by nothing but pure, ugly greed. H&F want some more money on top of the pile they already got. I hope buyers leave by the thousands. That's the only thing that will really hurt them. And I hope all non exclusive contributors that are not dependant on the money will leave as well. 15% is an insult! Don't let the remaining 85% go to Getty/H&F.

Unfortunately I don't think the other microstock companies that I have checked out seem like such great ones either. I hate subscriptions, and it seems on most of them you cant opt out of that. We should get paid reasonably for our work. If I were to start a site there would be no subscriptions. The contributors would get a fair royalty and a good percentage of the profit would be given back as bonus to the contributors at the end of the year. I really wish there was a site that was focused on representing the contributors/artists in a successful and sustainable (real world sustainable, not H&F/Getty greed sustainable) way rather than focused on making the most possible profit.