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Topics - Charlene

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1
99.99% of the digital files in Etsy are stolen and resell at Etsy.

And boy, these thieves sold ten of thousands sales per account and each sale is about $3-$5 on average, not to mentioned many of them bundle up and sell it for $20 per download.

Problem is, Etsy pretend to care, but actually they don't and allows the criminal activities to flourish because they earn money from the listing and took a percentage from the sales.

I hope we can setup a class action lawsuit to sue Etsy for this.


2
iStockPhoto.com / How to change password at iStock?
« on: November 16, 2020, 02:16 »
How to change password at iStock? Can't find the option anywhere :(
Any help would be appreciated.

3
https://www.polygon.com/2020/8/14/21368705/fortnite-lawsuit-apple-google-epic-games-tim-sweeney-indie?fbclid=IwAR3MdwMfKJ1gUkMX2xpv58aJk4IFlOZF-vrveCx1GrPcMn1T5PuXVsTKsvs

Fornite vs Apple and Google Case is similar to us. No no no. Our case is much worse.

For our case, Microstock agencies lower our commission however they want. iStock took 85% of the cake. Shutterstock took way more than 85% since they took all the unused downloads as well. I suppose our case here is very similar to that of Fornite (but way worse). Fornite is suing Apple/Google for anti-trust and monopolies. If Fornite win, we might have a case here as well.

4
Dreamstime used to be the highest RPD agency. I used to get big sales from Dreamstime, but it plummeted somewhere in year 2015. My sales drop 1/3 and never recovered. I think 123rf, Canstockphoto, and others plummeted as well during that time and never recovered as well till this day. To save their own skin, 123rf implemented the new royalty structure which cut our commission greatly. Canstockphoto also increase vector price from $10 to $12, but still continue to pay vector artist $5 commission, instead of $6, and keep quiet about it.

The reason why Dreamstime (and other agencies) plummeted was because of this. https://www.shutterstock.com/press/12352

However, Dreamstime continue to keep its promise to us. Dreamstime is perhaps, the truly honest and trustworthy one. As far as I know, they have not took our commission underhand through fishy affiliation programs. For all these years, Dreamstime have not reduce our royalties as well. So, I kind of love Dreamstime even though my earnings has dropped 3-4 times over the years.

Many contributors leave Dreamstime because the agency is no longer giving good return and focus on Shutterstock, instead. Dreamstime (and a couple of other agencies) are a victim of Google search ranking manipulation that favors Shutterstock and Getty.

For facts, please read the below:
https://casetext.com/case/dreamstimecom-llc-v-google-llc
https://legalnewsline.com/stories/512617650-google-unsuccessful-in-escaping-monopoly-lawsuit-over-stock-photo-search-results


5
Shutterstock.com / Big studio is set to lose the most money
« on: June 03, 2020, 04:31 »
After seeing all the 0.10 cent streak, I think big studio producer are set to lose the most money among us.

From a steady $0.38 to a steady $0.10, it is a lost of 73%.

If you are only earning $0.25 before this and getting a $0.10 now, you are only losing 60%.

Before we see these $0.10 to $0.20 streak, we've always thought that a Level 6 could cover it back with bigger sales, but it seems that bigger sales could be far less than we thought. And so, being a Level 1 or Level 6 doesn't make much difference since we are getting these much of $0.10.

Big studio producer have invested a lot (in models, equipment, etc) and they may have not cover back all these yet. This sudden cut is too drastic, and big studio should be the one that get the most impact.

However, this is only the 3rd day, so we may have not see the full picture yet.


6
I am a Level 6 and I estimate it will takes me 6 months to reach Level 6 again after reset.

But looking at my stats as a Level 6 now, I could immediately sees that this is going nowhere. There's definitely no increase even for a Level 6 so the email about rewarding performing contributor is quite a "lie".

I can imagine how much less I will be getting after the reset.

So, from now on, I will be removing links from my sites and directing those links to much higher RPD sites like Adobe Stock. I will be directing my customers to other sites. I will also halt uploads.


7
Dear Mat Hayward of Adobe Stock,

Can you explain the step by step guide on how to create an affiliate link to direct customer to my portfolio at Adobe Stock?

I have registered and have successfully verified my site through https://www.adobe.com/affiliates.html

However, now that I am inside the affiliate consoles, I cannot find what to do and how to do it. It is very complex compares to other referral/affiliate program.

All I need is an affiliate link to direct customers from my website to my portfolio at Adobe Stock.

Please help.

8
General Stock Discussion / To start a Microstock Union
« on: May 28, 2020, 20:39 »
To start a Microstock Union so that we don't get bullied by stock agencies.
I cannot do it. You cannot do it. We cannot do it.
However, here's what we can do.
Someone should create a site, and start gathering the contact details (email, name, link to portfolio, etc) of the top 5000 microstock artist of photographer, videographer, and vector artist. Lower rank contributors are also welcome to join, however, the priority is the top 5000. We need a leader, raise some funds together to build this site. I will definitely donate to build this union.

Get all of them together under one site so we could easily communicate with each other. We may not defeat Shutterstock today, but this will be a long term strategy to counter future harassment.

With this long list of easily communicable and accessible contributors, new and other stock agencies will be able to contact all of us easily. This way, we will create more channels for ourselves and stop the monopoly by big agencies such as Shutterstock.

We can defeat stock agencies harassment if there's no monopoly.

If Shutterstock give us 15% commission, and other agencies can give us 70% commission for the same package they sell to customer, then we will definitely support the 70% one.

There's many advantages of having a full list of top 5000 contributors contact details. The biggest problem right now is that we are all too unorganized and new emerging agencies are unable to contact us.

Let these new emerging agencies contact us easily so that we can create more competition.

The list of the top 5000 contributors should also be verified as a genuine contributors (and not thieves). That way, new emerging stock agencies could easily approved all the content we submit to them without having to waste their money and resources to review the content.

With this super list, big corporations like Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, Apple, or other big fishes can start another microstock site easier if they wanted to.

Again, the idea is to stop the monopoly by making ourselves accessible.














9
iStockPhoto.com / Can we still deactivate photos from iStock site?
« on: November 17, 2016, 20:53 »
Can we still deactivate photos from iStock site?
If yes, how?
If no, what can we do?

(Please don't ask me to close account, this post has no intention to do that)

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