October 25, 2003
Image Cooperative: iStockphoto
iStockphoto.com - royalty free stock photography community
Well, it's not free, but it's really cheap - or it is free, if you support the collaboration by uploading your own high quality photos to share. The concept of sharing is great - and the images seem pretty great too.
The official explanation of the system: "iStockphoto.com works on a download credit system and some ideas we borrowed from the concept of micropayments. Rather than purchasing individual images from our collection, community members can purchase credits in packs. One credit is equal to one image download. Each credit costs .50 cents, but discounts are available on larger credit packages. Our members, the artists who upload files, earn 20% of each download. Earnings can be converted into download credits or cashed out ($100 minimum). This ensures that regular contributors will always have download credits."
image is "this week's free image"
