So the deal seems to be as follows:
1. there is no mechanism to identify or prevent duplicate images coming from 123rf and directly submitted to pond5. Pond5 does not physically store photos from 123rf, they are displayed via API. pond5 will review and approve photos based on their individual merit only
2. As a photographer, you can opt out of 123rd's partner sales and start submitting directly to pond5. The problem is when opting out, you are opting out of all partner sales, not just pond5
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I think sooner or later pond5 will have to address this issue in a better way. particularly if buyers searching for photos start seeing more often the same photos pop up twice in their search results and priced differently

My apologies, I did not mean this to be a thread of bad mouthing shutterstock. I will send a note to the administrator to see if this thread can be deleted as it does not seem to produce much productive discussion.

Race, this happened about 2 months ago. No I don;t have anything against Shutterstock, they are running a business and doing what they can. I'm a little bitter about the lack of communication and professional conduct but that's something you see just about anywhere these days. if I ever get an update from them ( like a letter from my dead uncle...) i will post it. I am also curious to see what's going to be on my 1099s from Shutterstock and Bigstock. Of course if it is incorrect I probably won;t bother to try and contact them.

I started contributing in 2006 and wanted to share a disappointing experience. Not to spread any negative publicity about shutterstock but to make my opinion known. earlier this year I had a 4000 strong portfolio, mostly photos and illustrations. Shutterstock one day removed 1500 files from it due to 'non creative content'. This was because they thought images rendered using the filterforge plugin did not represent any creative content. I was disappointed but somewhat agreed with them because many contributors were using filterforge to create massive amount of similar renderings.
 In a following submission I included two more filter forge files as I thought they were somewhat original and took some time to create. Apparently shutterstock  did not like it.

The following day I received an email notice that my account has been suspended and I need to contact shutterstock. Well i tried to contact them. By email...no reply. via the site..no reply. via fax..no reply. via US mail..no reply
This was the part that really dsiappointed me as unprofessional conduct. if you need to close an account of a contributor that's fine. but not replying to communication that is just purely unprofessional. For example, I needed a confirmation that my account is permanently closed and I can make my photos exclusive on another site. Well...no way to get any communication from shutterstock. That was followed by account closure in BS which is now owned by shuttertock.

My communication did not dispute the action to close my account, the terms clearly state they can choose to do that at any time. The terms interestingly also state they can keep any accrued royalties, which I had about $500 worth. Well, now I will owe taxes on money that shuttesrtock will keep. That's not that big of a deal but the real disappointing part was the lack of communication. Any account closure anywhere (bank, investment, etc) is always done in writing. Any formal action against a contributor should also be done in writing. not at shutterstock...what a disappointing experience. thanks shutterstock!