I closed my account on istock (deleting images) more than 3 years ago and left one telling image (Picture of a dead cockroach), and watched how royalties were dripping in after the images were deleted. Not much, not many, but still. That must mean that they still sold my images via afiliates or somewhere, God only knows.. That is a copyright violation!

So now today, after at least two years of not looking at my istock account, I retrieved a password and took a look.
And there was no nothing.
That means that they have not only sold my pictures after I deleted them, but they have also stolen what meagre earnings I had.

Not only do they violate my copyright, they also steal.

What a filthy and unworthy business, istock. Shame on you!

and yes, I will continue to spread the word.

not working here

Is it possible?

Yes, just like it is possible to earn a living as a painter.
Still I wouldnt recommend it, because it will only work for a short period of time and only if you are very good.

There are some qualifications you need to have.
You need to have some kind of unique visual talent.
You need to have above average computing and technical skills. (global parameter)
You need to have above average language skills. ( It helps if you are a native English speaker, but you are better off being bilinqual and have a good knowledge of other languages)
You need to have above average business skills.
You must have a knowledge about legal issues and terms.
You need to have excellent photoshopping skills.
You need to have excellent communication skills.
You need to know about trends in the global market of photographty, and you need to be able to produce state of the art Photos, or above.
I will not recommend it, because no matter how good you fare, when all your time and talents are at work, after a short time (five years) you are being outcompeted and you will loose your position and your sales.
The nature of microstock is predatory, and when the agencies have sucked all the blood out of you, there will only be a skeleton left.
Been there done that, we are a few.....

istock has a a strange business ethos of their own. I have never seen anything like it. I detest it.

They are like a predator and a parasite at the same time.
They have no limits to what they do.

If in periods of economical growth when they can sell pictures, they prey on the customers.
If they cant sell pictures they prey on the contributors.
When there is competition they do both and also  become parasitic. They redistribute content through obscure channels, and noone knows WHO get royalties or not.
They do not keep their shop clean of burglers and shoplifters but instead claw back money from their contributors.
They do not persue copyright issues for their contributors.

They misinform you about everything. They live in a cobweb of spin in an alternative world.

Istock is not a normal business that wants to make profit on the net, they are much worse. They compare to high school bullies, standing on boats, flexing muscles at spring break, and planning which innocent girl they can take on an exciting nightly ride.

DO not upload to them!

I got that email as well.

A million dollars worth of cakes to the hungry people (Maria Antoinette) is not much, and 15 % for the artist is still an abusive share.

And as usual istock is very good at making simple things complicated and counterproductive.

Istock dont deserve more than 50%. They are not good, they are not fun, they are irritating, arrogant and abusive and not a good business partner.
My port there consists of a picture of an appropriate dead cockroach. The rest has been deleted, but still earns money, despite deleted, because of their copyright violations.

I have been a shutterstock contributor sinde 2006.
I was not very good but I was challenged and did my best, so I managed to excell in a nische, but not generally.
but there was supercompetition, meaning ever more images of better quality.
I tried to compete. It lasted a couple of years.
My nische still sold, following the market.
but I was not able to expand or grow my downloads, despite whatever I came up with, more nische nische stuff or more general things.
Nothing worked. Not new files, not better files, so I gave up and left it to die in silence. It was hopeless and I lost motivation.

So now it  has died. It took more time than I expected for my shutterstock income to dry out....
5 years or something. My good earners lasted long, they went through a down load frenzy when they were new, back in the days when new content sold, and they kept giving me downloads.

Until recently, now they are fading. My income has been on a steady decline since a couple of years ago. Thats natural, when you dont upload anything new. But why should I upload new stuff that never sells, to just keep my sellers in shape. its not worth it, and it is a long time since I have found other sources of income, and stockphotograpy is not at all inspiering anymore.

This article is relevant:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun

bad things can happen with a picture with an offset quality of light and a camera induced WB.
In other  words  you loose wavelengths, meaning colour depth, when you  play too much with leds and camera wb.

Quote from: JPSDK on June 28, 2016, 09:40

Im not.

Sorry to hear that.  Are you adding new contents?

No, I have hit the wall many years ago.

If you do not produce a higher number of pictures than you did before.
If your pictures are not better than before.
Means, the wall.

Mixrostock is in a state of super competition, you are not competing among the tribesmen in your village ( like to see WHO can run fastest to the carcass of the cow), but against an ever rising part of the global population and an ever rising impact of digital technology.
Means the wall exponentially. You, no matter WHO you are, or how good you are (Yuri), you can only take part for a period, then you are swallowed up by the beast.
So there is only so much you can do, even if you are very good.

But you can take that hard earned knowledge, and make it profitable outside of the area of supercompetition.
Like... you as a (former) microstocker, will have a competitive edge in the local web designing environment.

Hurrah! Greetings from Denmark.

I vote no to anything EU-ish when I have the chance. More union, common currency, more EU. I vote NO!. � of us here do that every time we can.
Because we dont like the laws that come from the  Ivory Tower Down there in Europe some place. They are not in touch with the people, they have a scary underlying agenda of crude capitalism and a really wierd human ethos of blind humanity with no practical and economic sence.

Im convinced that EU is there to make things easy and profitable for a few very rich people.

I do believe in, or find a trade union practical, but nothing more. Let us reduce the EU to a common market, and only that.

Good wind to our Brittish friends, and dont believe the doomsdays prophets.

Same problem here.