In this version ProStockMaster starts working with CanStockPhoto via our proprietary PSM API. Thus, from now on you will be able to track your sales and download stats on per-image base for any image uploaded to CSP with PSM.
All the data is transferred over HTTPS, which significantly improves the communication security.

Many thanks to Duncan Enman, CEO of CanStockPhoto and his great team for making this possible.

Here is the email I just have received from iStockphoto.com:

Let me read you what is written in this message.

Now, please tell me who was the marketing genius behind this correspondence. I just want to shake his (her?) hand.

Dear marketer, what target did you want to reach? If you wanted to get some angry customers, my congratulations, you got them all. I am sure anyone who got such a message feels frustrated and angry after reading it.

So, you want to keep iStock collection 'clean', containing only brilliant images? I see. No doubt this is a good target you should aim to.

Assuming that iStock biggest investment is in human reviewing of images and this investment is taken anyway, it would be enough just to mark images that you do not like anymore as "low quality", handling them respectively in images searches. Adding "this-image-is-a-low-quality-image" DB field is exactly 20 minutes of work for your developers, including testing.
Give your reviewers an option to mark images that they do not like anymore as "low quality" and you guys are done!

Instead, iStock preferred to lose money sending messages like this one above to tens thousands contributors that will be shocked reading them exactly like I was.

How much does you guys cost to bring in a new contributor who generates some sales? Now take this cost and multiply it by the number of photographers that will leave you now - this is the cost of such a marketing communication message. I will not be surprised if many recipients of this correspondence will just stop submitting their images to iStock, which appears to be too good for their artwork, preferring submitting images to other agencies that treat their photographers differently.
Bravo iStock! - good work, great marketing, refreshing approach to customers relationship - thumbs up!

I especially loved "You have two options." quote. I see it this way:
One dark night you meet a robber. He points his gun on you and says:
"You have two options. You either give me your money and then I kill you or I first kill you and then I take your money."
Being a good iStockphoto marketing person, the robber continues: "Do not you worry, my friend. The choice is always yours. You are in complete control here!".
And just because that robber is a bit more polite than the author of the email above he also adds: "Oh, and thank you for doing business with us!".

In a short time after this post has been published I got a personal message from iStockphoto staff, saying that the email discussed in this post was sent out by a mistake and they apologize for the misunderstanding.

According to iStock, what should be sent out was this message:

Obviously, this is a very different message to a contributor. When you get such an email, you see one more [welcome] service from iStock which is designed to help you selling your images that were never sold, at a lower price. Just great, let's try selling this unsold stuff for just $1, why not. And see - there is no single word about image removals!

Mark Dennis,iStock commented out what happened with their Dollar Bin initiative at last: So the gremlins got into the auto email system again, and some people got an email saying that the files will be deleted after 30 days if they're not selling.

Well, it seems that these gremlins, goblins and trolls were quite human and very intelligent, were not them? I guess that they really enjoyed what they did to the company, these cute little pets of iStockphoto.

Jokes aside, I am glad that iStock clarified their position now, and even probably took the entire gremlins family out of the iStock email system this time?

Mark, if you want my advice - next time just deduct the damages costs from the gremlins salary. Typically, it works at its best avoiding further similar attempts.

iStock also has sent 'the right' email to their contributors now, so if you just like me got the 'remove it or else' email discussed above, wait for the next message from iStock. As you see above, the second email looks much better than the first one.