Oh don't get me wrong, I don't think Steve is directly responsible for any of this, he is just the messenger and as such it is his obligation to hear all rebuttal and take it back to the PTB at Jupiter. At a personal level my grievance is with management at JI but since they are not talking to us I will continue to address my comments to their liaison.

All that said I really hope that they do come to an acceptable resolution to the EULA issues, as I do believe Photos.com has the potential to be a strong brand for all of us. I would love nothing more then to be able to include my content in the brand but the EULA issues must be address for that to happen and I really do not think that my position on this issue is unique among the top 100 contributors at StockXpert

In one day I often get as much at SS as I got in one month at StockXpert. and when a site that does not pay well tries to pay even less it gets many people upset.

The mgment at StockXpert must be scratching their heads.

Yesterday SS announced a policy change which :
-cuts contributors' percentage of sales to 25%
-allows no opt-out choice whatsoever, as I understand it

And there are no hysterical threats to pull portfolios, no idiotic calls for unionization of microstocking, no name-calling and insulting of the SS management such as the StockXpert people received.

Oh well. SS got its share of childish and irrational attacks from photographers back when it announced its last pay raise. I guess its StockXpert's turn now.

MichaelDB, I think you still do not understand the differences between the Photos + and StockXpert EULA and the implications behind them.

In a nutshell, the photos + EULA would let the buyer resale our work on poster, calendar, mugs and also use our images in magazine with high print run (I know that you'll be so happy to pay to have your work published but fortunately you must be the only one dreaming about it).

This is simply not acceptable.  ALL other micro have an EULA that even if not perfect, prevent resale of our work.  I think EVERYBODY on this board agrees.

You might not get many EL sales, but many contributors get about 10-20% of their income with EL.  If the Photo + EULA goes through, these 10-20% are at stake and the entire Stock industry will be affected.

The reason why so many contributor got upset is simply because they realized that the new Photos + EULA would for the first time since Microstock exists let buyers get the equivalent of an EL for the price of a regular sub sale.

Looks like you're not a photographer but rather an illustrator, and the EULA would not affect you, but you have to think about the dozen of thousands of photographer out there fighting for their work and the value of the content they produce. 

Hope that clarified a few points. 

StockXpert 's 30 cent payment per sub DL's is a joke..

I don't understand photogs who just opt-in without any conditions.. Just think what would happen if everybody opted-out??!!

Wake up guys.. StockXpert depends on us.. WE OWN StockXpert and other sites.. We need to be clever.. Just think that they have no images at all to feed their subscribers..

StockXpert sub model is poor.. I have my conditions for it:
1- They should increase the payment to 35 cents per DL
2- Only images up to medium size should be included into this deal..
3- Large and XL images should have another sub deal for customers who will pay more.. so we can get at least 40 cents per DL..

Just opt-out everyone.. Don't be slaves of this funny agreement..
If we all opt out, WE, ALL, then they will come to us begging, because they will have no images to sell to their sub customers..

I was in business for many years. I dealt with suppliers (which is what we are to StockXpert et al). I made the suppliers offers and the suppliers behaved in a business-like manner. I wonder what Wal-Mart or Macy's would do to suppliers who sent them emails such as the posts here and on StockXpert's forum?

The 'technical' aspects of StockXpert's and SS's offer aside (because no one knows for certain how little or how much money will be or would have been made from them): If I were StockXpert I would have locked that thread and kicked out the bawling babies who threatened to leave, and tell them to go peddle their snapshots somewhere else and never come back.

That is probably what IS would have done, although I doubt that many photographers would have dared take the tone toward IS which they did to StockXpert.

StockXpert made their suppliers an offer; their suppliers, or at least many of them, responded like hysterical ninnies. They did the same thing to SS back when SS offered them a raise they didn't deem large enough. I would say that I am amused, but I am actually rather appalled.

Ok slave.. you are right..

StockXpert is no IS for a few small reasons

1- IS has the best and the most photographer friendly sub model.. You get an amount which is closer to what you deserve
2- SS can do whatever they want now, but that is only until I reach gold at IS.. SS is a temporary step.. so is StockXpert..
3- IS has the right to have rules, StockXpert has the right to be owned.. without us they would not exist.. but IS is the starter of everything..
4- seriously, I won't let a mediocre site that makes %7 of my income ruin my images that sell for $10 on IS.. You just can't give them away like that just because you can't compete with IS..

I was in business for many years. I dealt with suppliers (which is what we are to StockXpert et al). I made the suppliers offers and the suppliers behaved in a business-like manner. I wonder what Wal-Mart or Macy's would do to suppliers who sent them emails such as the posts here and on StockXpert's forum?

The 'technical' aspects of StockXpert's and SS's offer aside (because no one knows for certain how little or how much money will be or would have been made from them): If I were StockXpert I would have locked that thread and kicked out the bawling babies who threatened to leave, and tell them to go peddle their snapshots somewhere else and never come back.

That is probably what IS would have done, although I doubt that many photographers would have dared take the tone toward IS which they did to StockXpert.

StockXpert made their suppliers an offer; their suppliers, or at least many of them, responded like hysterical ninnies. They did the same thing to SS back when SS offered them a raise they didn't deem large enough. I would say that I am amused, but I am actually rather appalled.

Oh boy. 

Ok that would be my last attempt with your own example:


Walmart used to pay $30 his supplier to sell product A.
Then one day Walmart decides to use a new distribution channel and for the same product they would now only pay the supplier $0.30 (100 times LESS for the SAME product).

Are you seriously thinking the supplier will just take that in the face?

Geeeeez it's not that difficult to understand....  This guy must be one of Photos.com customer 

Very little has been said yet about the "Partner Licensing". Here's the only information provided on the StockXpert site about it.

"We would like to partner with sites & distributions channels in addition to StockXpert in order to reach more customers. You would earn 50% of the net receivables that we receive based on your portion of images used."

 I have lots of questions about this. What sort of EULA will be followed with these partners? Will it be the same EULA as StockXpert or Photos.com or something entirely different for each "Partner".  Will we know ahead of time who these partners are? My understanding is that right now there are no partners at all.  Just for example....they may offer a sub plan just like Photos.com only we may only see .15 cents and they may offer XXL sizes in the sub plan.

How can anyone decide to opt into that without more information.

I honestly don't believe the problem is with Steve and the employees of StockXpert. The real problem is JI that has apparently taken StockXpert hostage in a process that robbed the management of StockXpert of their autonomy. The EULA of Photos.com demonstrates that JI have totally lost contact with recent developments in the stock industry and they apparently still believe it is the year 2002. Their plummeting stock market shares are but one of the consequences of this lack of vision.   

Very well said Eco. I think you've hit the nail right on the head there.

Steve and co are probably gutted at how their good work buikding up StockXpert over the last couple of years is being decimated by JI.

Did I read somewhere that the 0.30 EL does not include L or XL?

Please clarify. Thank you.

No, the 0.30 EL does not include XL and XXL, but it does include L, which is more than enough to use the image for resale on T-shirts, calendar, mugs, magazines, etc.

I have opted out from subs at StockXpert as soon as I heard this photos.com thing..

Just give it a try everyone and never look back.. You deserve better treatment.. Don't be after a few bucks you will make from subs, think about your future.. by supporting this you are insulting your own future..

What's next? Images for 0.1 cent??? Or for free??!! Crazy.. I would rather see StockXpert sink and all our customers at StockXpert go elsewhere.. I don't mind this at all.. I am on all major sites and don't care where the money comes from, as long as it comes in a deserved way..

Don't worry, you won't lose anything if StockXpert sinks.. Designers still need images and they will go to another agency.. so, They will still come to you.. They need you..

For your own future at stock people.. opt-out from the subs.. if they make it impossible to opt-out then I am opting out from StockXpert as well..

Save your future, not StockXpert..

The StockXpert concession is a temporary fix. It's a quick reactive solution to prevent mass attrition.

Reverse the roles. What would you do if every time you wanted to make a business change you had contributors threatening to yank portfolios?

My guess is they're already talking about implementing a new policy or removing functionality to prevent mass deletion of portfolios.

If so, what then?

yes, guys quit that stale fish until it is too late. SS by introducing PPDs will take
a bit bite of StockXpert anyway.

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on August 06, 2008, 17:37

...My guess is they're already talking about implementing a new policy or removing functionality to prevent mass deletion of portfolios.

I think your guess is wrong.  They need new images all the time or buyers will just go to the other sites.  If they locked us in, they would lose new uploads.  I can't see any site surviving long if they did that.

Also, at the time I signed up with StockXpert I did so, because I knew I could remove them anytime.. I did not sell my images to them, I just gave them the chance to represent me..