MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Shutterstock.com => Topic started by: Uncle Pete on December 20, 2021, 11:00
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Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)
2005 Sub’s .20
2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25
2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30
2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28
2011 SOD’s introduced
2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced
2014 Larger SOD’s
2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00
2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents
2021 January You have been reset to level 1
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For me it went to 10 cents for a photo but I don't so many photos and about $1.25 to $1.75 for editorial video, hardly worth it unless you get massive amounts of downloads, just like music and spotify royalties, unless you're BTS or some big name group it's hard as you need millions of downloads.
I could upload more photos but for 10 cents it's not worth it. Video same thing....might make $1.75 if I'm lucky.
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I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.
Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.
When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.
So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.
So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.
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I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.
Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.
When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.
So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.
So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.
You must be still getting a lot of 10 cent sales to even make it worth it to upload, you really need volume now it seems.
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I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.
Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.
When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.
So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.
So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.
You must be still getting a lot of 10 cent sales to even make it worth it to upload, you really need volume now it seems.
Six of my last 20 sales have been at 10 cents.
However, you are right. It is all about volume now.
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I don't get fixated on the 10 cents for an image thing. What matters to me is the average RPD over the year.
Unfortunately, this year (2021) I'm looking at a 33% drop in RPD compared to 2020. That is largely due to two factors. The first is that the first four months of the year were terrible for revenue as I fought my way through the levels. The second is the absence of any ELs (2020 I had two) and fewer SODs.
When I look at RPD for May through December, it's at the same level as 2020 and better than 2019.
So, while I have made marginally more revenue this year (+2%) it has taken 52% more downloads to get there.
So my prediction of May 2020 has come true. More downloads to stand still.
You must be still getting a lot of 10 cent sales to even make it worth it to upload, you really need volume now it seems.
Six of my last 20 sales have been at 10 cents.
However, you are right. It is all about volume now.
I guess all it takes is one viral photo to get that volume though, two come to mind, when COVID first hit there was this photo of a tray holding test tubes and a hand written word "covid 19" with a black sharpie on the orange tray.....all the media outlets bought it and are still buying it and using it today, it's everywhere. I laughed when I first saw that photo and not laughing now, that photographer banked!.
The other one is the laptop keyboard, black keys with white LED backlight and two hands on the keyboard, used everywhere by media in stories on hacking and cyber crime, very simple shot, no find art just two hands on a keyboard in the dark.
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Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)
2005 Sub’s .20
2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25
2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30
2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28
2011 SOD’s introduced
2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced
2014 Larger SOD’s
2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00
2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents
2021 January You have been reset to level 1
Was SS a public company all along ?...if not at what point did it turn public?
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Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)
2005 Sub’s .20
2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25
2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30
2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28
2011 SOD’s introduced
2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced
2014 Larger SOD’s
2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00
2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents
2021 January You have been reset to level 1
Was SS a public company all along ?...if not at what point did it turn public?
SSTK launched in 2003 but went public with an IPO on October 11 2012 and is currently trading at trading at $105/share.
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Here's a brief history of SS royalties. (early years originally compiled by Photobomb)
2005 Sub’s .20
2006 Subs .20
OD’s introduced $3.99
EL’s introduced $20
March 30th Sub’s increased to .25
2007 Subs .25
April 30 Sub’s increased to .30
2008 Subs .30
May 14th Levels introduced
Sub levels .25 - .33 - .36 - .38
OD’s increased to current tier level
El’s increased to $28
2011 SOD’s introduced
2013 Facebook .38 SOD’s introduced
2014 Larger SOD’s
2016 EL's change, level pricing, amounts vary, most under $28.00
2020 new commissions, June 2020 based on downloads current year.
0-100 = 15%, to 250 = 20%, to 500 = 25%, to 2,500 30%, to 25,000 35%, over 25,000 40%
Minimum 10 cents
2021 January You have been reset to level 1
Makes me want to throw up! :-[
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Makes me want to throw up! :-[
I'm not trying to praise them for going from 20 cents, up and then down to 10 cents. Just a history of how artists were paid.
Can anyone tell I'm bored? Must be Winter in Wisconsin.
Also I just worked this out and if anyone has any evidence that any number is off, please tell me. Sometimes, someone will say, "hey look, there's a photo of this banned subject, how did they get it passed?" (because they used to be allowed) Or maybe for looking at who stole what image from where. The idea is a rough attempt to estimate the date a photo was accepted, by ID number. Image data has become harder to come by, or I'd have included 2007. On the other hand, before 8,650,000 is 2007 or before.
SS Image ID Numbers with Approximate date. Year of image accepted starting with:
8650000 2008
23250000 2009
43400000 2010
91600000 2012
121000000 2013
172000000 2014
240000000 2015
360000000 2016
550000000 2017
776000000 2018
1280000000 2019
1643000000 2020
1888500000 2021
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Some references to Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer here, looks like he's moved on. https://www.wired.com/story/miami-tech-boom-where-memes-come-true/ (https://www.wired.com/story/miami-tech-boom-where-memes-come-true/)
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...The idea is a rough attempt to estimate the date a photo was accepted, by ID number.
I can add a couple of additional data points.
18829 uploaded Oct 29 2004
71306 uploaded Dec 21 2004
152974 uploaded Feb 15 2005
248541 uploaded Mar 30 2005
537086 uploaded Sep 06 2005
693135 uploaded Nov 05 2005
888312 uploaded Jan 15 2006
1240080 uploaded Apr 24 2006
2128452 uploaded Nov 7 2006
2900019 uploaded Mar 18 2007
5432761 uploaded Sep 18 2007
6157531 uploaded Oct 16 2007
7146277 uploaded Nov 20 2007
I had saved a page showing the Top 50 images that week on November 8, 2005 and at the bottom it said there were:
"420,035 photos available for download · 12,259 new photos added in the past week"
May 2 2006 top 50 images:
"727,930 photos available for download · 6,839 new photos added in the past week"
Nov 15 2006 top 50 images:
"1,219,859 photos available for download · 15,397 new photos added in the past week"
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...The idea is a rough attempt to estimate the date a photo was accepted, by ID number.
I can add a couple of additional data points.
18829 uploaded Oct 29 2004
71306 uploaded Dec 21 2004
152974 uploaded Feb 15 2005
248541 uploaded Mar 30 2005
537086 uploaded Sep 06 2005
693135 uploaded Nov 05 2005
888312 uploaded Jan 15 2006
1240080 uploaded Apr 24 2006
2128452 uploaded Nov 7 2006
2900019 uploaded Mar 18 2007
5432761 uploaded Sep 18 2007
6157531 uploaded Oct 16 2007
7146277 uploaded Nov 20 2007
I had saved a page showing the Top 50 images that week on November 8, 2005 and at the bottom it said there were:
"420,035 photos available for download · 12,259 new photos added in the past week"
May 2 2006 top 50 images:
"727,930 photos available for download · 6,839 new photos added in the past week"
Nov 15 2006 top 50 images:
"1,219,859 photos available for download · 15,397 new photos added in the past week"
I figured you knew that, I remember you had some ideas back when we were looking at Who Uploaded This Image First for a copied/stolen image. I'm trying to not get back to that question because we've seen that SS doesn't care.
Now for today's installment? ;) SS stats and history from the archives.
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Country Search as of December 2018 - data is no longer available. There's no certainty that this is really the country because it's user supplied. Not all accounts had a country.
Thailand 2567
Russian Federation 2122
Ukraine 1857
United States 818
Italy 367
Belarus 346
United Kingdom 344
Spain 301
Czech Republic 258
Serbia 227
Romania 205
Japan 202
Canada 197
Indonesia 168
Andorra 168
Malaysia 156
China 134
Turkey 132
Netherlands 128
Australia 117
Latvia 115
India 107
Hungary 90
Bulgaria 84
Moldova 76
Azerbaijan 75
Kazakhstan 71
Estonia 67
Slovakia 67
Lithuania 65
Luxembourg 65
Lithuania 65
Sweden 59
Brazil 57
Portugal 57
Israel 55
South Africa 50
Switzerland 50
Austria 49
Taiwan 48
Greece 45
Korea 44
Croatia 42
Belgium 36
Finland 35
Vietnam 34
New Zealand 33
Hong Kong 31
Denmark 29
Bosnia and 28
Norway 24
Pakistan 23
Philippines 22
Singapore 20
Ireland 20
Mexico 19
Colombia 18
Macedonia 17
Armenia 15
Georgia 14
Cyprus 11
Iceland 6
Uruguay 6
Antarctica 5
Cuba 3
Tunisia 3
Cocos Isl. 2
France 2
Tajikistan 2
Niue 1
Solomon Islands 1
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Country Search as of December 2018 - data is no longer available. There's no certainty that this is really the country because it's user supplied. Not all accounts had a country.
Thailand 2567
Russian Federation 2122
Ukraine 1857
United States 818
Italy 367
Belarus 346
United Kingdom 344
Spain 301
Czech Republic 258
Serbia 227
Romania 205
Japan 202
Canada 197
Indonesia 168
Andorra 168
Malaysia 156
China 134
Turkey 132
Netherlands 128
Australia 117
Latvia 115
India 107
Hungary 90
Bulgaria 84
Moldova 76
Azerbaijan 75
Kazakhstan 71
Estonia 67
Slovakia 67
Lithuania 65
Luxembourg 65
Lithuania 65
Sweden 59
Brazil 57
Portugal 57
Israel 55
South Africa 50
Switzerland 50
Austria 49
Taiwan 48
Greece 45
Korea 44
Croatia 42
Belgium 36
Finland 35
Vietnam 34
New Zealand 33
Hong Kong 31
Denmark 29
Bosnia and 28
Norway 24
Pakistan 23
Philippines 22
Singapore 20
Ireland 20
Mexico 19
Colombia 18
Macedonia 17
Armenia 15
Georgia 14
Cyprus 11
Iceland 6
Uruguay 6
Antarctica 5
Cuba 3
Tunisia 3
Cocos Isl. 2
France 2
Tajikistan 2
Niue 1
Solomon Islands 1
I am very sure that this list is not true, Pete.
Where is Germany? Where is France? Andorra - 168 - with its 77,000 inhabitants compared to Indonesia - also 168 - with its 274,000,000 inhabitants? Hmmm...
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France is fourth from the bottom, but I don’t see Germany either.
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France is fourth from the bottom, but I don’t see Germany either.
Right, thanks, I overlooked that.
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I wonder how has the 10 cent commissions changed contributions. I was shooting youth sports which sucked me dry so I more or less stopped uploading regularly before the price change, but I wonder how anyone can do this full time any more? Who is uploading photos? And how can anyone "invest" in a quality photo shoot? For example, If I rent a hockey rink for 1 hour for $250, pay the kids $25 per hour, yikes - that is a hella lot of 10 cent photos just to recoop. Not to mention, hockey is plastered with logos. All over every piece of equipment and the arena which means hours in post! There isn't a lot of incentive to shoot anything for stock. Taking the card out of my camera and adding to lightroom is more effort that it's worth!
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I wonder how has the 10 cent commissions changed contributions. I was shooting youth sports which sucked me dry so I more or less stopped uploading regularly before the price change, but I wonder how anyone can do this full time any more? Who is uploading photos? And how can anyone "invest" in a quality photo shoot? For example, If I rent a hockey rink for 1 hour for $250, pay the kids $25 per hour, yikes - that is a hella lot of 10 cent photos just to recoop. Not to mention, hockey is plastered with logos. All over every piece of equipment and the arena which means hours in post! There isn't a lot of incentive to shoot anything for stock. Taking the card out of my camera and adding to lightroom is more effort that it's worth!
Sadly, you can't, even as editorial, 10 cents a photo and it's not like there will be thousands of sales.
This pays so little you're losing money just going out filming by yourself, if you look up HotelFoxtrot on Pond5, the sets and models they used, definitely a thing of the past. The agencies are still charging a decent price for the content but nothing for us and what amazes me is how many people still upload for 10 cents.
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I am very sure that this list is not true, Pete.
Where is Germany? Where is France? Andorra - 168 - with its 77,000 inhabitants compared to Indonesia - also 168 - with its 274,000,000 inhabitants? Hmmm...
Taken directly from the SS artists information, not made up. :) I did say, that countries were a choice of the artist and that some have no data. I should have included, this is artists with 1000 or more images on that date, which was 17872
Germany was my error - omission 559
France the same - 137
If I had something that counted words in a document instead of doing it myself, with a search, "find" one by one, I'm sure the results would be better. But I'd still need to remember to search for Germany, before I could count that. My mistakes.
Andorra has always stood out as an oddity. Maybe people used it for fake accounts or some substitute for a real location. I have no answer for the illogical number.
For today, on April 29, 2017, 100 contributors had 100,000 or more images in their collections. Top 11 because they were over 300,000 at the time
# Author Type Portfolio Added per week Country Member since
1 Africa Studio Photographer 1067700 4700 2007
2 Rawpixel.com Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist 859700 14400 2014
3 Aha-Soft Illustrator / Vector Artist 689600 300 Russian Federation 2010
4 Toluk 564100 17000 2011
5 lineartestpilot Illustrator / Vector Artist 505900 0 United Kingdom 2009
6 wavebreakmedia Photographer / Videographer 473400 0 Ireland 2006
7 Ionut Catalin Parvu Illustrator / Vector Artist 431900 0 Romania 2016
8 ImageCatalog 401900 1100 2016
9 Sergey Nivens Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist 338900 1000 Australia 2009
10 Kathy Hutchins Photographer 326200 1200 United States 2010
11 iDesign Illustrator / Vector Artist 308800 0 2011
Anyway, I selected artists with 1,000 images as a cut off for what some would call serious. Even that is flawed, because someone with 600 stunning, well produced images, could have a serious account and make some good "serious" money. It's just an arbitrary number, because I had to find something that was representative. I picked 1,000
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I am very sure that this list is not true, Pete.
Where is Germany? Where is France? Andorra - 168 - with its 77,000 inhabitants compared to Indonesia - also 168 - with its 274,000,000 inhabitants? Hmmm...
Taken directly from the SS artists information, not made up. :) I did say, that countries were a choice of the artist and that some have no data. I should have included, this is artists with 1000 or more images on that date, which was 17872
Germany was my error - omission 559
France the same - 137
If I had something that counted words in a document instead of doing it myself, with a search, "find" one by one, I'm sure the results would be better. But I'd still need to remember to search for Germany, before I could count that. My mistakes.
Andorra has always stood out as an oddity. Maybe people used it for fake accounts or some substitute for a real location. I have no answer for the illogical number.
For today, on April 29, 2017, 100 contributors had 100,000 or more images in their collections. Top 11 because they were over 300,000 at the time
# Author Type Portfolio Added per week Country Member since
1 Africa Studio Photographer 1067700 4700 2007
2 Rawpixel.com Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist 859700 14400 2014
3 Aha-Soft Illustrator / Vector Artist 689600 300 Russian Federation 2010
4 Toluk 564100 17000 2011
5 lineartestpilot Illustrator / Vector Artist 505900 0 United Kingdom 2009
6 wavebreakmedia Photographer / Videographer 473400 0 Ireland 2006
7 Ionut Catalin Parvu Illustrator / Vector Artist 431900 0 Romania 2016
8 ImageCatalog 401900 1100 2016
9 Sergey Nivens Photographer / Illustrator / Vector Artist 338900 1000 Australia 2009
10 Kathy Hutchins Photographer 326200 1200 United States 2010
11 iDesign Illustrator / Vector Artist 308800 0 2011
Anyway, I selected artists with 1,000 images as a cut off for what some would call serious. Even that is flawed, because someone with 600 stunning, well produced images, could have a serious account and make some good "serious" money. It's just an arbitrary number, because I had to find something that was representative. I picked 1,000
Perhaps the Andorra phenomenon can be explained by the fact that Andorra has extremely low income tax rates. A kind of "tax haven/paradise" for contributors? I don't know - it's just really striking.
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Perhaps the Andorra phenomenon can be explained by the fact that Andorra has extremely low income tax rates. A kind of "tax haven/paradise" for contributors? I don't know - it's just really striking.
There have been other guesses too, all of them good or bad, I have no clue. :)
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I have more details on this one but honestly what they show now and the way, I've lost interest. "Images"? Vectors, photos, illustrations who knows what? So just some notable milestones.
2006 = 1 million images
2009 = 6 million images
2010 = 10 million images
2012 = 20 million images
2014 = 40 million images
2016 = 80 million images
2017 = 160 million images
2020 = 320 million images
2021 = 340 million images
January 15, 2021 - 228,179,907 Photos
Today - 248,629,205 Photos
In one year, as many new photos were added as from 2006 to 2012 for the whole collection. Hmm, maybe things are slowing down?
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I would not expect for someone to copy and sell someone else videos because it would easily be identified as stolen...but here we are, in the last two weeks alone I found roughly 400 of my videos copied (already reported). I am pretty sure that the rest of their portfolios are somebody else work too. So for anyone wondering here they:
https://www.shutterstock.com/ru/g/teoharipetrescu2/video?sort=newest (https://www.shutterstock.com/ru/g/teoharipetrescu2/video?sort=newest)
Still waiting on this one for 29 videos to be taken down.
Another one which just got kicked of depositphotos for copying 219 of my videos, he has small portfolio on shutterstock...so everyone check if the got bitten like me..
https://www.shutterstock.com/da/g/viodumivioche/video (https://www.shutterstock.com/da/g/viodumivioche/video)
Lets make them famous!
..and happy holidays!
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The introduction of "nearly free" streaming and subscription services have made it very easy for people to steal videos now.
Also whereas its relatively easy to see which sites (and who) are selling still images, the tech for doing the same with video really hasnt caught up yet.
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Also whereas its relatively easy to see which sites (and who) are selling still images, the tech for doing the same with video really hasnt caught up yet.
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Agree, one needs a bit of extra work to see what is going on with videos, but it is possible. I use pixsy and frankly I got surprised how well it works. All you need is 3-4 frames from a video from different parts where it might have been generated a thumbnail and you get results. That is how I caught them.
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The introduction of "nearly free" streaming and subscription services have made it very easy for people to steal videos now.
Also whereas its relatively easy to see which sites (and who) are selling still images, the tech for doing the same with video really hasnt caught up yet.
Almost too easy to steal content these days, earlier this year I tried this random free app for stealing video off social media, it was literally too easy, I didn't upload the "stolen" content to any stock site but I think it was 60 seconds and it spat out a perfectly good .mp4.
However, with so little money to be made in stock video and photos now I wonder if there is much interest anymore from the bandits, they want to make more money than a few dollars and cents, probably not worth the effort anymore to steal.
There's that plus the agencies deal our content in bulk to companies in places like Russia and China which don't have copyright laws like we do and it's just a lost cause to keep that content secure.
There is good money in trafficking of stock footage, that's why the agencies are so desperate to deal our content around the world to those "trusted" global partners.