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.

In this release:

• iStock login fixed again.
• Statistics for 123rf & Fotolia fixed. Note that 123rf stats show up quite slow due to their server speed.
• Fixed: “99% upload – read timeout” error while uploading large files to Panthermedia.
• Removed some internal limitations from the free version.
• Mac: system / hidden folders will not show up in the file tree.
• Mac: some customers reported they could not run PSM 1.7 on their Macs, typically Leopard & Snow Leopard OS. This was caused by improper application packaging for Mac. Get v1.7.1 - it should run OK now.
• Linux releases & Linux support is discontinued from this release on. We prefer to focus on Mac and Win OS only.
• Shutterstock & Dreamstime FTP uploads: large / long batches interrupts fixed

...once again.
So v1.7 can not upload to iStock anymore. We'll fix it in upcoming 1.7.1 as well as a few statistics-related things.

For a couple of days people trying to upload images to Panthermedia got "PSM session error" error message and the upload stopped. This issue is fixed now and the upload is available again.

Stock agency Pixamba adds a new users forum where members can share their thoughts.

I am happy to announce the release of new PSM v1.7.0!
In this version:

1.New stock agency added! Integrated upload, total stats and per-image statuses, downloads and earnings info for our new stock agency Pixamba. Expand your sales now!

2.iStock login fixed [again] due to further changes on their web.

3.Various EXIF interpretation fixes, ISO speed is now showing correctly in EXIF tab

Fixes iStock and Alamy login and hopefully makes Alamy bulk upload work

... and ProStockMaster v1.6.4 follows these changes. This release also fixes Alamy login, and, hopefully, also fixes the upload of multiple files to Alamy in a single batch.

The new version will be released on this weekend. If you see any weird problem after the auto-upgrade - re-install by downloading the full archive from our web.

It seems that once a three year we create the next thing, helping you to get some more sales online

Visit Pixamba web site and take a look what we did this time.
Build on an advanced cloud computing infrastructure, Pixamba is probably the world-fastest online stock photography agency today. Utilizing our technological advantage, we plan to add more features and media services soon.

We start with 255,000 midstock collection and we welcome microstock contributors.
At the moment the business model is credit-based and your commissions are $0.40/credit for any non-exclusive submission, which is effectively 40%-53% (depending on the credits package price) of the sale price.

Register now, take a tour and tell us what you think and how we can make things better and more convenient for you.

Did you know that if you do not work with Shutterstock in PSM you can use "Shutterstock FTP" credentials uploading to any FTP-enabled agency? Just keep in mind that what is shown as "Shutterstock" in PSM is in fact your trusted "ABC-stock" agency.

How to do that: go to "Upload->Stock Agencies->Shutterstock" and replace Shutterstock FTP server name with the name of the FTP server for "ABC-stock", adding your FTP credentials for "ABC-stock".

From now on, each time you upload to "Shutterstock" the file actually goes to "ABC-stock". Since Shutterstock keeps blocking their submitters login with the image captcha you can't see your Shutterstock stats in PSM anyway, so it can be used as a placeholder for any other FTP-enabled agency you prefer to work with.

If you did not see it yet somewhere else, worth watching:
a virtual tour in Yuri Arcurs studio, guided by Yuri.
Impressive.

New in this release:

1. Shutterstock uploads switched to FTP. Go to "Upload->Stock Agencies" to change your credentials.

The FTP server name is already filled in for you by the app. Your FTP user name is your email address, which is on file with Shutterstock and the password is your regular Shutterstock web site password.
Since the connection to Shutterstock is now via FTP only your stats for this site can not be displayed anymore.
Here is why...

2. “Export Metadata” dialog added in “File->Export Metadata” menu. It creates a CSV file with JPG IPTC metadata and a few more file parameters for all JPGs in a specified folder. Optionally, it works recursively on all the subfolders of the specified folder. You probably remember this free JPG IPTC metadata dump utility? Now it is an integral part of PSM, available for free with any license. Just open "File->Export Metadata" menu and select a folder to be exported.

3. Fixed an annoying bug causing thumbnails not to be displayed in many cases.
I am sure you faced it at least once - you start PSM, open a folder and there are no thumbnails, just the file names with '...' are displayed. Well, not anymore.
The app still needs some time to draw the thumbnails at the first access, but once the initial processing is done you get all the graphics instantly.

4. EXIF reading is back.
EXIF decided to leave PSM for a few weeks. Now it is back at its full.

5. Manage metadata – copying data between images: verified & OK. Also the dialog will close now when a user press OK in the “applied” confirmation message.

6. Alamy uploads: only one image can be uploaded. The issue is still there.
A quick check shows that the same is correct for Alamay uploads from their web either with their Java applet or with Alamy ActiveX control. Seems to be a problem with their web server. More info...

7. Minor fixes & updates for performance and graphics, here and there

Alamy uploads in PSM are capable to deliver 1 file only, all the rest of Alamy uploads is dropped by their server.
A small investigation shows that the same problem persists if you upload more than 1 file on Alamy web.
This way it looks with Alamy's ActiveX control (MS IE)

And this way it looks when using Alamy Java applet uploader (FireFox and others):

Not too much difference though. The connection is just fine and we can upload tons of images to to other agencies without any problem, so it seems to be a pure server issue at Alamy.
(Well, who else but Alamy uses Microsoft IIS? )
Once they'll fix their web-based multi-file uploads PSM batch uploads to Alamy should also start working again.

Following Dreamstime, now Shutterstock adds captcha to submitter account login:

Server performance they say? Well, it is hard to believe that this is the real reason. I would say that this could be one of the possible reasons for doing that, but definitely not the primary one. Here is why.

Shutterstock is actually designed as two separated web sites, one is for the buyers (www.shutterstock.com) and another one (submit.shutterstock.com) is for the sellers (contributors). These sites seem to be connected mostly by their databases through the offline processes or by sharing the same databases.

Thus, there is no real overhead if a submitting software is accessing Shutterstock contributors' web site - the buyers web site is not affected at all, it's a separate resource.
Furthermore, if an automated software will use FTP (which can not be blocked by its nature) instead of HTTP, Shutterstock will get exactly the same traffic, but now over FTP. Shutterstock FTP servers will still have to handle the same amount of incoming bytes, meaning that they will have to consume more or less the same amount of resources like HTTP servers handling contributors uploads. No costs savings, no time saving, nada.

So, what exactly performance issue does this capture solve?
Look for a better reason and you will easily find it.

Anyway, at the moment PSM can not upload to Shutterstock due to this new interesting feature.
The next release of PSM is going to put Shutterstock uploads back on track.

1. Alamy: While v1.6.2 indeed brought back Alamy uploads, we found that there is still an issue there: only the first image in the batch is uploaded to Alamy. All the rest are not actually land in Alamy.

2. EXIF: EXIF data is not displayed in v1.6.2 due to the issue in Java binaries post-processing.

3. Metadata copying: we were reported that there is an issue with metadata copying between images through Manage Metadata window. We are checking this issue.

Some of these problems are external (Alamy changes) while some of them (#2,3) are caused by internal reasons - changes in our development environment and in the release packaging procedures.

We are going to fix this stuff in the upcoming PSM release.

Version 1.6.2 is a minor release which fixes Alamy uploads.

I guess most of you already saw this message when logged in to iStockphoto:

The iStock forums post by the same author says:

It's an interesting statement, where the first part is correct, while the second part is very confusing. No financial information to breach, oh yeah, really?

Just a week ago Dreamstime complained in this thread that "we had cases when contributors had their accounts accessed, password changed, payment requested". Now the iStockphoto guys are brave enough to say us they have "no financial information to breach"?

We all know that iStock, like any other stock photo agency has on file your PayPal / MoneyBookers accounts. They also collect funds that have to be transferred to contributors monthly. Should not this stuff be considered as a valuable financial information stored by iStock? And if it is not enough, add here you personal profile details like your home address, phones and your picture ID. And even your images portfolio is in danger since it can be first completely downloaded and stolen and then, just for fun, completely removed from the agency by a hacker who looks for an entertainment on the hacked site.

What happened to iStock on March 3 is not funny at all. And it is a much more serious issue than just a few hours of iStock down time, even if iStock prefers to present it this way. The site stores financial information and digital goods that can be stolen, so their "no financial info stored" statement is very far from the reality.

The point is that during the last few months I wrote to iStockphoto multiple emails pointing them on some security vulnerabilities in their system. The iStock answers always were "you don't have to worry, it is fine", whenever there was any answer at all.

The last email, which explains a serious security flaw in one of the iStockphoto technical interfaces was sent to iStock guys on March 2, 2009. Quite ironically, it was just a day before the site was attacked by the phishers. And quite typically, this email is still unanswered.

So I do worry. In my understanding, having security holes 'by design' is a very wrong approach to the software security concept, particularly for an online system where any security flaw can be explored and used by wise hackers. These people intentionally look for any vulnerability and once found, it will be sooner or later used against iStock customers. Perhaps we can not say at the moment how exactly some security flaw will be used to serve the hackers, but when we will know how it was used to compromise iStock security it obviously will be too late. Fixing the security flaws can not eliminate the next phishing attempt, but it definitely reduces the risk of a successful hacking attack.

This releases switches Dreamstime uploads to FTP and fixes a small issue which recently stopped Canstockphoto uploads. There is no change in your Canstock workflow, but for the Dreamstime uploads you have to add your FTP credentials now.
In order to do that, please login to Dreamstime web and go to
http://www.dreamstime.com/ftpupload.php
At the right part of the page you will see text similar to this:

When you open Dreamstime credentials dialog in PSM v1.6.1 ("Upload->Stock Agnecies" menu in PSM, click on the checkbutton next to Dreamstime name), the follow window opens:

Note that ProStockMaster already fills in for you the Dreamstime FTP server name and the correct server' FTP port, as well as takes care of entering Passive FTP mode when connected to Dreamstime FTP server. So the only two FTP parameters that you still have to provide are your FTP user ID from the Dreamstime web (see the image above) and your FTP password.
For Dreamstime, your FTP password is identical to your web password (please verify that your personal FTP details on Dreamstime web confirm that).

All you have to do to activate your FTP uploads to Dreamstime is copying your FTP user ID from Dreamstime web page directly to ProStockMaster GUI (you can use CTRL-C/CTRL-V keyboards sequences for bullet-proof Copy/Paste) and providing PSM with your FTP password (which seems to be the same like your web password).

You will still need to provide your web credentials in the top form of PSM GUI in order to get your Dreamstime statistics through PSM HTTP connection.

Let's see what else was added in v1.6.1.
This version sports 25 more languages in keywords translations, so together with previously introduced 23 most popular languages PSM is now capable of translating your keywords from 48 different languages.

In addition to the West European and North American languages set, we support now most East European languages (e.g. Hungarian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian) , accomplished by a nice selection of Asian languages like Turkish, Thai and Uzbek. We keep our target in mind: photographers should be able to describe their creations using their own words in their native language. We at ProStockMaster try to help them with this target, taking care of all the rest of the dirty and time consuming images keywording work.

Note, that ProStockMaster inserts your keywords directly into the IPTC segment of your image, thus never touching your pixels. Unfortunately, not all the applications available on the market today behave in the same way.

For instance, you use such a high-quality and high-performance tool like Adobe Photoshop to edit image' metadata each time opening your JPG, modifying keywords and closing the file back you can end up with the image of significantly lower quality than your original. Each time you use Photoshop to edit anything in your JPG Photoshop decompress JPG to be represented as bitmap RGB data. When you are done with your modifications and save a JPG file Photoshop re-compresses the data again and saves it as JPG file.

Thus, such a simple and intuitive Photoshop "Open a JPG -> add-metadata-with-File_Info -> Save JPG & Close" flow of operations becomes unsafe in terms of the image quality. Doing such modifications frequently on a certain file you can easily end up with visual artifacts and other image quality degradation results. If you want to stick with modifying your images metadata with Photoshop you better switch to the safe RAW-based workflow where no de/re-compression applies.

Alternatively, you can use ProStockMaster which even in it free version combines the convenience of multilingual translations, keywords suggestions and multi-agencies uploads for your stock photo images. All that without touching a single pixel of your valued artwork.

Dreamstime adds a captcha to images uploads via HTTP, thus intentionally or unintentionally blocking PSM uploads.

The captcha adds a lot of work for regular web-based uploads since the contributors should now enter permanently changing captcha values for every new image they upload through Dreamstime web.

I sent an email to Dreamstime regarding this new feature and I hope this issue will be sorted out soon.
I will inform you how we proceed on this matter as soon as I get a new information.

I am happy to tell you that we and the Dreamstime management came to the mutual understanding regarding this issue. Dreamstime explained to the public that the recent web-based blocking was not intended to block ProStockMaster customers specifically, but was a general attempt to block any type of automatic software that unreasonably overloaded their servers.

Knowing that, we agreed that for the meantime ProStockMaster will switch to FTP uploads instead of HTTP uploading path. It also looks possible that the HTTP-based PSM service, which gives more control and more info for the Dreamstime customers than FTP uploads will come back later on, this time using some different tools / APIs. This is a subject to the availability of the development resources at Dreamstime and ProStockMaster.

I am happy to see that this issue is resolved in a goodwill. The software update follows.

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.