See what you think of this:

(recipient's name),

You don't know me, but I'm a stock photographer too (give link or user name). I'm not sure if you're aware of Fotolia's new (started in January 2014) project, the Dollar Photo Club. It's a subscription-like, low price site where for $10 a month, a buyer gets 10 images (any size) or vectors and additional images are $1 each.

By default, all Fotolia content is opted in for sale at the Dollar Photo Club (DPC), and contributor receives a subscription royalty (according to level) on each sale even though the terms of these "image packs", chiefly that they roll over, make them more like incredibly cheap credit sales.

Why opt out? Contributors are concerned about converting existing buyers from credit purchases - which net the contributor much more - to DPC because of the incredibly low buy-in. To get subscription deals at Shutterstock or Fotolia, a buyer has to spend $249 a month, but at DPC it's just $10. On Fotolia you have to pay $14 for the smallest package of credits (10) which will get you just one XXL image, so even if a buyer needed just one image, it'd be cheaper to get it via DPC.

In summary, DPC gives huge volume discounts without a volume commitment.

In an interview Fotolia's CEO gave, he made it clear that he's looking to move buyers from Shutterstock and iStock to DPC, which for almost all contributors would result in a big drop in income.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/29/dollarphotoclub-expands-into-more-markets-hits-11000-users/

If you already know all about this, then there�s no need to read further - thank  you for your time.

If you were not aware of DPC, I'd like to strongly urge you to opt your portfolio out of DPC sales. Here's how to do that (as it's hard to find):

Go to your Contributor page.
Under My Account, select My Profile (https://us.fotolia.com/Member/Modify).
Select Contributor Parameters (https://us.fotolia.com/Member/Modify/Contributor).
Find Sell my files on DPC and click Modify.
Save parameters
Check that where you ticked actually says, "do not share on DPC" - it's a toggle and can easily get switched

Another thing to consider is suspending uploads to Fotolia until the terms of the sales via DPC are improved - where that would involve the contributor getting credit towards level from DPC sales and the minimum monthly and annual ($99 a year for 99 images) buy-ins be raised.

It's also worth pointing out that the opt out was not initially available - contributors were told by Fotolia support that they'd have to remove their portfolios from Fotolia to remove them from DPC. A group of contributors started a boycott and at the beginning of May close to 1 million images were removed from Fotolia portfolios, prompting Fotolia to offer an opt out choice.

Fotolia has since also raised the contributor royalties on monthly subscriptions (but not for sales through DPC) hoping to stem the tide of images opted out - close to 6 million images are now opted out from DPC, disproportionately among the best selling selections. Buyers have taken notice!

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, or provide you with more links to where you can read about this. Check out this set of links for a start.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/how-to-opt-out-of-dollar-photo-club/msg379729/#msg379729

regards,

(your name)

admin edit: removed quote as requested by quotee

And thanks Svetlana - it could be a ton shorter than the above, but it would be a whole lot ruder

May I suggest that if people are going to write, we need to keep track of who has been contacted? I don't have time to manage that right now though.

And that before you write you are sure that the contributor is (a) still on Fotolia and (b) still opted in to DPC (if you click on one of their images in a DPC search and you don't see the larger preview, it means they've opted out but it hasn't yet gone from search)? We don't want to contact the same people multiple times or badger those already opted out.

PhotoBomb contacted me with a list he'd assembled with some contributors and e-mail addresses. I started checking portfolios last night and found several were already opted out (Danny Smythe/rimglow and Daniel Dash). I have already contacted keeweeboy (opted out)

admin edit: removed quote as requested by quotee

Personally i'm sort of on the fence about this whole DPC thing.  I'm opted out but not 100% certain it'll stay that way always - especially if they make some changes to DPC such as a higher buy in.

What I'd like to say however is, I'm happy the Fotolia seems to be listening to contributors and that banding together is possible and can show an agency how we feel - but don't make this a witch hunt.  That isn't how we work as a team or support eachother.  If members who are opted in (or out) are listed for ridcule or similar, the post will be removed.  One name has already been removed from a post.

I didn't realize that link to the excel sheet contained the email addresses to people.   Publishing peoples email address online without their consent is not OK for any reason.  I've blocked that link now.

I agree, it should not be a witch hunt, but this is a very serious issue, Mr Oleg Tsheltzoff has made a cold and calculating decision to dump over 20 million images at $1 each, he fully understands exactly the consequences of his actions.

He developed the DPC site over a period of time: site design, servers, technicians, coders, marketing strategy, advertising, all take a lot of time, energy and money, which we are paying for.

He has done this in a totally underhand way, by not informing any of Fotolia's contributers about this new site. If the Dollar Photo Club site is such a good idea why didn't he 'shout it from the roof tops' to inform us, the contributers about the launch of this great new way of selling OUR content.

An opt out was only given 4 months after the DPC site was started and I suspect that this was only because it had been drawn to his attention by the companies lawyers, that it is illegal in the EEC and probably in the US to take our images and put them on another site without giving us this basic option. I do not believe it was pressure from the contributers.

He will be looking at stock statistics and movements in the micro stock market every day, he will know exactly how much market share he is taking off the other stock sites.

He will be reading this.

His strategy is obvious to bust the market with the outcome being he and his shareholders make a load of money at the expense of the people who have supplied Fotolia's content.

He has manipulated people and the media to take on his message about DPC, he cannot be trusted.

It is plain and simple an abuse of market position with our content.

He do's not have the best interests of the contributers at heart as an Agent should, its a real shame that he didn't put the same amount of effort into Fotolia.

I call for Mr Oleg Tsheltzoff to resign from Fotolia and have nothing more to do with selling OUR IMAGES he should go now for the good of all!