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Messages - drugal
76
« on: May 22, 2012, 16:54 »
He hasn't uploaded anything to shutterstock for more then 6 months... maybe even 8-9 months, as far as I could see.
77
« on: May 22, 2012, 14:14 »
"is working with Goldman Sachs (GS) and JP Morgan (JPM) to examine a possible sale or IPO of the business which was taken private four years ago"
they ringed up two other, bigger thieves with bigger knives to help carve the carcass up.
78
« on: May 22, 2012, 13:30 »
I know full design studios that only have a subscription to SS and that is it. They would and could easily spend about 10 times more on stock images, but they don't need to, because they got most of their demand covered with their subscription. SS has lured the customers in on a simple "as is" kind of business model. Now it is time to make the real money. They are sitting on a gold mine. I predict that if SS opens the opportunity for exclusive content in a premium subscription package they just doubled their revenue in a year or two's time. And further more. I will bet a that this will happen. Anybody want to bet?
I'd take that bet. SS are winning the greater share of the microstock market by not making the same mistakes as others (as Drugal also pointed out). 'Exclusivity' of images or artists has little or no value to most buyers and they'd prefer not to pay a premium for it. SS's business model does not allow for different price levels without destroying the simple formula that has proved so successful. Note that FT seems to spend most of it's time trying to reverse or minimise price differentials.
The 'acquisition' referred to in the IPO can only be targetted against either FT or DT. Any other lesser agency could be bought with existing cash. With Istock positioning themselves at the 'mid-stock' price level it should ensure that SS will enjoy total domination of the true microstock market. They don't need to do anything drastic as they are bound to win by default.
In microstock an image is only worth anything if it keeps piling up the sales. That means it's subject and appeal has to be as broad as possible - that means generic content with little exception, and that means exclusivity is mostly pointless. Look thru istock exlusive stuff, you can find basically the same thing on SS anytime. Pointless. Yuri is the best proof: his stuff, by far the most appealing to customers, is everywhere.
79
« on: May 22, 2012, 13:20 »
gimme a break...
Good idea. You need to take a break.
+1
+2 Have one on me.
I took a break, and now I'm back full of positive energy!! freedom, america, f!* yeah!!
Sadly, I don't think they can see your posts anymore. I may as well join them. A few more ignores and you'll be deleting your account and re-emerging with a new one. That's how it goes, right?
Nah, I don't care that much at all. I made my point pretty clearly that the place is loaded with ignorant ppl, and they keep providing the proof for it with their ignore buttons. That ignorance got them to their constant-whiner level, and they keep pressing it. Good luck 
80
« on: May 22, 2012, 05:55 »
Who cares? That was then and this is now. The past is frankly irrelevant in what was a developing industry and analysis of it is no guide as to what might follow. Now and the future is all that matters.
With that attitude, we would still be living in caves.
81
« on: May 22, 2012, 04:46 »
So it boils down to a question of brand loyalty. In microstock marketplaces I would say it's medium towards strong with most customers, they will only leave if there are real price hikes, but then they leave en masse. Jon's subscirption model is an excellent combination of math and basic psychology, he knows what he's doing.
82
« on: May 22, 2012, 03:27 »
"I'm not taking sides but..... if I were to cu tan image out of a magazine and pin it up in my home on a pinboard, am I infringing copyright? effectively this is just people collecting and sharing beautiful imagery on a pinboard that is digital, they aren't using images to sell anything, or trying to steal images. We aren't losing any money, because the pinners aren't in the market to buy images. If the site is shut down then that'll be it, we won't suddenly find these people buying our images."
Sorry, this is the kind of nonsense I read over and over.
A: by buying a magazine, you are allowed to modify its physical appearance. Cut it up, whatever. Pin it on your fridge or wall. Copying someone else's work freely to a third party server as you see fit for redistribution is not at all the same. It is also irrelevant whether the thief is making money or if they are 'collecting beautiful imagery'. It is the copyright holder's right to determine where their work is used. Not yours.
" there is no widespread illegal redistribution of content happening."
The entire site is nothing but illegal redistribution of content.
I've got several more articles on my blog for thought.
If it's such a clear case, how come you are not suing them?
83
« on: May 22, 2012, 03:20 »
As I and others have said, that's hardly the issue. The target market is women in the 20s and 30s...
Ouch, you ppl are effed. Women of that age (or somewhat older too) are the cult sacred cows of western society. The prime consumers. Anything they do in mass is labeled cool and justified, and if you have anyhing against it you are a sycho jerk. They will change laws anytime for that crowd.
84
« on: May 22, 2012, 03:06 »
gimme a break...
Good idea. You need to take a break.
+1
+2 Have one on me.
I took a break, and now I'm back full of positive energy!! freedom, america, f!* yeah!!
85
« on: May 22, 2012, 03:03 »
Did a quick read and just want to say for everyone to remember this!
IPO is a "SALE"!
Rudy said it already and they had it on the news this morning about what an IPO is because of Facebook going public and they said no matter what an IPO is a Sale.
First time offer to sell to the public.
Founders and Early investors are cashing out.
and it is a sale.
Here is what some of the investing companies from Wall Street say about IPO's.
Why does a company go public?
Companies issue stock to the public for many reasons including:
Needing growth capital for the business
Founding investors selling a portion of their original ownership
Paying off debt
Increasing exposure for the company
Improving company's ability to recruit upper management through stock options
Ability to issue further stock to facilitate takeovers using company stock
IPOs generally favor the brokerage firms that underwrite these issues and the companies that go public. A close second are institutional investors that buy the stock at its offering price and then sell it in the afternoon, profiting from the transaction. By pricing the shares below their real value, institutions are able to make a quick buck off unsuspecting individual investors. Unless you are a big institution, it's unlikely that you would be able to buy shares in an IPO even if you wanted to. Only those with the deepest pockets representing the widest interests get access to these opportunities. That's not such a bad thing for individual investors.
Sure, being in on the ground floor might mean a quick 15 to 20 percent return on your investment once it starts trading. However, studies have shown that many IPOs tend to trade below their offering price one year after going public. Investors might be better to focus on buying stocks that were IPOs a year earlier. Coca Cola went public in 1919 at $40 and was trading at $19 a year later. That is quite a difference.
IPOs do from time to time grow up to be extremely large companies and so, like any other investment vehicle, you should do careful research before investing. If it's a stock worth buying and holding for the long term, whether you buy it today or in a year is of little consequence in the end.
Why Go Public?
Going public raises cash, and usually a lot of it. Being publicly traded also opens many financial doors:
Because of the increased scrutiny, public companies can usually get better rates when they issue debt.
As long as there is market demand, a public company can always issue more stock. Thus, mergers and acquisitions are easier to do because stock can be issued as part of the deal.
Trading in the open markets means liquidity. This makes it possible to implement things like employee stock ownership plans, which help to attract top talent.
Excellent info.
This will be a huge game changer. I have been in a few boards myself and know the effect that they can have on a company. I predict that a board would immediately push for differentiated subscription models (for higher the end customers that Istock is currently taking all the sales from) and exclusive content to differentiate against Istock. Basically all the things that Jon was against in the start (2005), but that is market reality today. This could make Shutterstock the absolut go-to agency over Istock in couple of years if they do these changes. If they also continued to acquire a few smaller agencies here and there to serve as a mass-distribution platform such as with bigstockphoto.com they are in for a true winner and would have the basis for a tempting exclusive offering (from the perspective of the photographer).
Imho shutterstock has been differentiating itself from istock by not doing any of that, and winning with a 'keep it simple' model.
86
« on: May 21, 2012, 15:17 »
I'm thinking of starting an antisocial network for people who hate the internet. Complete with a dislike button obviously.
Ther are several I think. I remember some hatebook thing with hate buttons.... you could choose between hate and dislike people were grouped up by hating each other. It's like a workplace.
87
« on: May 21, 2012, 14:58 »
Since the internet has become fast and easily accessible to so many, the price of generic images (among many other things) has been on a curve to zero. This is one of the final steps before getting to that pricepoint of zero. You, yes You, endorsed this by creating oversupply by adding your content to mass sale schemes. Theres nothing you can do about it now... and if you think it can't get worse, you are - as always - wrong. They can, and probably will charge you for uploading to gain popularity.
and again, who told you here we all make "generic images" ??
i sold many obscure subjects on RM agencies, you will never find them on micros, nor on Flickr or Pinterest and if you need them you must pay RM price.
actually they're so obscure i wonder how they even find them and this only shows once again that anything can still sell.
and that kind of stuff represents the majority of output from ppl coming here, right? gimme a break...
88
« on: May 21, 2012, 14:56 »
100 / 2.8 macro (canon). can't think of anything more bang / buck.
89
« on: May 21, 2012, 14:54 »
theft isn't a "change"
nonsense. americans used to be regarded simply as criminals defecting from the monarchy, punishable by death. thats how the nation was born. yankee was a dutch slang term for thief / pirate.
as much as i'm strongly anti american you just sound like a pathetic troll.
what we have here instead is a clear trend where IT/ICT and stock companies are desperate to increase profits in the actual negative economic downturn and don't give a sh-it about long term, even microsoft seems to be ready to shoot Corbis in its own foot to make space for yet another social project in its arsenal, and wait for the launch of the new Windows 8, WinMobile, and Windows RT with built-in apps all focused on sharing photos, text, and videos, and who cares if 99% of these contents are ripped off and the copyright owners don't get a penny for that.
and take a look at the many VC web site like TechCrunch, VentureBeat, WeekendHacker, etc... i see almost new startups every day all dealing with so called user generated content in one way or another and we know very well how much of this junk contents are gonna be legal and licenced !
so we're now absolutely powerless, the future will be more and more about theft up to the point where one day theft will be taken for granted
and socially accepted.
and yet i can tell you that stock is not gonna die soon, as web sites and mobile networks have never been our client base and never will, so all this doom and gloom scenarios are only a small part of the whole story.
what this has to do with being anti american your troll? I tell you one scheme where others live off content generated by users for free: forums. : )
90
« on: May 21, 2012, 13:24 »
I don't think I ever seen this level of denial in my life, except for religious cults. I personally don't mind or care about pinterest or the rest. So, solutions... what you are going to do? Whine here for days without even a hint of any action plan, like the case with Istock? What a waste of time.
and who told you we're all microstockers here ? there are also photojournalists, hobbyists, macrostockers, midstockers, people on assignment, and many here do micro just as a side job.
and about overproduction, i can say there were zilions of images and agencies even 20 yrs ago so where's the point ?
the bar simply goes higher and newbies will find it impossible to get a foot in the door, for anything else if your portfolio is big enough it's still an asset and you still make decent sales.
I suggest you look at the url.
91
« on: May 21, 2012, 13:22 »
Where did I say i'm offering any solution? Kids demanding a magic spell-word that makes the boogieman disappear.... there isn't. The only point I'm pressing here is that this is all the direct consequence of your own actions. It's incredible how not one person can face that. I don't think I ever seen this level of denial in my life, except for religious cults. I personally don't mind or care about pinterest or the rest. So, solutions... what you are going to do? Whine here for days without even a hint of any action plan, like the case with Istock? What a waste of time.
Exactly where have I whined? Rubyroo asked a question and I posted to answer it, to help her out by explaining their TOS which I'm familiar with.
My actions? Do you know me at all or do you simply jump from thread to thread typing the same repetitive nonsense to anyone, regardless of who they are, hoping that your assumption is correct for all. Youre making a bit of a fool of yourself by doing this. Instead of making stupid assumptions, why not ask a question or two before you pass judgement on anyone? Or is your only intention to stir the pot in here?
Yes I have an action plan. If Serban doesn't remove the Pin-it option, I'll drop them like I've dropped some others who have made changes I didn't agree with. Violating my copyright is serious stuff and I certainly won't roll over and let them. But is it any of your business what I do or what anyone else does? Mind your own and stop annoying everyone with your repetitive posts. We heard you. "Contributors are to blame." To an extent we are but also our hands are tied and with the big four, they often don't respond to our outcries. In the end our only option is to either contribute or to leave which equates to making some money or losing it all. Decisions to leave an agent isn't so easy to make for people earning a living from this. Some whining is essential otherwise how will they know we don't agree with their decisions that effect us directly? I don't have the time, but if I want to whine for days in here in the hopes they'll listen before I make a financial decision, then I'll whine and you will just have to put up with it.
wow, thats short memory, actually you were whining to me. You even demanded a solution from me. Thats what each of you did... thats funny  This is a whine thread (as always). Thats ok if that brings ppl together who feel 'offended', to form some common strategy. But it doesn't, it's just whining to infinity, just like with Istock canisters and commission. You dropping out is not a startegy, it won't even be noticed... and pls don't ask me for some magic answer again. I don't mind pineterest, and I don't want to delete flickr, I actually like it. It helped me market myself for IRL comissions.
92
« on: May 21, 2012, 11:40 »
Since the internet has become fast and easily accessible to so many, the price of generic images (among many other things) has been on a curve to zero. This is one of the final steps before getting to that pricepoint of zero. You, yes You, endorsed this by creating oversupply by adding your content to mass sale schemes. Theres nothing you can do about it now... and if you think it can't get worse, you are - as always - wrong. They can, and probably will charge you for uploading to gain popularity.
Who says I think it can't get worse? It just did. It gets worse by the week. I'm sure they'll keep screwing us but that's your solution? You believe that since they're going to screw us further, since the market is so over-saturated with images and since commissions and prices are dropping, we may as well hand over our images to anyone for free? Awesome solutions! I will now give in and pin all my images on Pinterest. Thanks for your brilliant advice!
Where did I say i'm offering any solution? Kids demanding a magic spell-word that makes the boogieman disappear.... there isn't. The only point I'm pressing here is that this is all the direct consequence of your own actions. It's incredible how not one person can face that. I don't think I ever seen this level of denial in my life, except for religious cults. I personally don't mind or care about pinterest or the rest. So, solutions... what you are going to do? Whine here for days without even a hint of any action plan, like the case with Istock? What a waste of time.
93
« on: May 21, 2012, 11:28 »
theft isn't a "change"
nonsense. americans used to be regarded simply as criminals defecting from the monarchy, punishable by death. thats how the nation was born. yankee was a dutch slang term for thief / pirate.
94
« on: May 21, 2012, 07:05 »
you are just trads who can't accept changes.
95
« on: May 21, 2012, 07:00 »
I am crossing my fingers that Dreamstime will allow an opt-out. This will serve the purpose of handcuffing all of the opted-out images within Google Images, and allowing mine to move higher. And since this is about making money ultimately, I won't cry for anyone who loses sales.
And since you have 'pinned' your images there, according to Pinterest's terms of service, they are now in public domain and any user is free to use them (for free) and there's nothing you can do about it because you pinned them there yourself. I might just put your images on my website and blog. Thanks for the freebie from me and from behalf of the world wide web 
Since the internet has become fast and easily accessible to so many, the price of generic images (among many other things) has been on a curve to zero. This is one of the final steps before getting to that pricepoint of zero. You, yes You, endorsed this by creating oversupply by adding your content to mass sale schemes. Theres nothing you can do about it now... and if you think it can't get worse, you are - as always - wrong. They can, and probably will charge you for uploading to gain popularity.
96
« on: May 21, 2012, 04:09 »
I'd contact support, as they shouldn't be using iStock's SM to recruit contributors to another site, or to undercut iStock; but otherwise, yes, ignore it.
They can undercut istock all they want if you ask me. They should be undercuting each other and be in a competetion for contributors. Thats in your interest.
97
« on: May 21, 2012, 03:12 »
^^^An IPO doesn't mean they're for sale. The current owners will probably keep enough shares to control the company. FT can't just buy shares and own SS unless the current owners want to lose control of the company.
We already talked about whether it' can be a controlling interest or not. But if it's an IPO, you can't go around rejecting shares from ppl.
98
« on: May 21, 2012, 03:02 »
Drugal needs a "share button." It's a shame to keep all that knowledge isolated in MSG Forum.
It is shared. It's on that thing called teh internets.
99
« on: May 21, 2012, 03:00 »
These hype IPOs are a farse. They serve only one purpose: to line the pocket of financial executives and a few insiders managing the IPO. It's not about investment, it's about fees.... they have almost nothing to do with the company's or the investors interest. If there was rational price discovery mechanism at work here, the shares simply wouldn't sell at such an unreal price compared to working profits... and it wouldn't generate so much fee.
The Facebook IPO is the daddy of all farces. As I mentioned in another thread Apple, with all it's fantastic products and $100B of cash reserves, is currently trading at a price/earnings ratio of about 13. Google has a PE of 20. Facebook's earnings ratio is a staggering ... wait for it ... are you sitting down ... 125!!!!!! In other words, it's only going to take about 125 years for Facebook to eventually earn what it was priced at.
Boy you7 sure know it L
So there was a dotcom bubble, it popped, disaster - they went from that to an enormous real estate bubble, popped, disaster - now they want another dotcom bubble? 0.o Talk about quick, forced loss of memories.... or learning from mistakes.. omg
Boy, you sure know it all................
This is only news to babies.
100
« on: May 20, 2012, 17:35 »
These hype IPOs are a farse. They serve only one purpose: to line the pocket of financial executives and a few insiders managing the IPO. It's not about investment, it's about fees.... they have almost nothing to do with the company's or the investors interest. If there was rational price discovery mechanism at work here, the shares simply wouldn't sell at such an unreal price compared to working profits... and it wouldn't generate so much fee.
The Facebook IPO is the daddy of all farces. As I mentioned in another thread Apple, with all it's fantastic products and $100B of cash reserves, is currently trading at a price/earnings ratio of about 13. Google has a PE of 20. Facebook's earnings ratio is a staggering ... wait for it ... are you sitting down ... 125!!!!!! In other words, it's only going to take about 125 years for Facebook to eventually earn what it was priced at.
So there was a dotcom bubble, it popped, disaster - they went from that to an enormous real estate bubble, popped, disaster - now they want another dotcom bubble? 0.o Talk about quick, forced loss of memories.... or learning from mistakes.. omg
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