Recently, the stock agency Depositphotos sent out a letter to all authors regarding the necessity of filling out a tax form from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for non-U.S. authors (+ the instructions for filling out form W-8 BEN):

Don’t let your exclusivity agreement with another stock interfere with uploading images or video footage to Shutterstock. Shutterstock offers a special “Opt Out” option that allows authors to upload images and clips whenever and however they prefer.

Since the photo bank Crestock was acquired by Masterfile in July 2010, many changes have occurred. The new owner has brought consistency to this business and the photo site, provided stability to payments, and brought in responsive people to support authors and address all inquiries without delays.

The Shutterstock microstock team is excited to announce to all contributors an incredible increase in royalties for all stock video sales (footage) that will take place this December.

We believe in the power of creativity. Not just in the sense of making things beautiful. We’re talking about changes in thinking, feeling, perceiving the world, and creating. We see this every day in the works created by our community of authors and designers.

Found a rather interesting study conducted by Tyler Olson based on the results from 2010. I think everyone will find it interesting. This research presents results obtained from a survey of a large number of microstockers.

The study paid special attention to the earnings level of microstockers. Based on the data collected, Tyler tried to make certain conclusions about how portfolio size correlates with stocker earnings.