Getty Images has ruined the best free photo site

[Sleepy_Sentry]

I don't know if members here are familiar with SXC.hu or not. It's the largest free stock photo site on the web and has a large selection of high-quality images. Premium stock photo sites didn't like, and for good reason. So Getty Images bought the site some time ago.

Since then, things at SXC have gone downhill. Many think that Getty bought SXC because they thought it was taking sales away from paid stock photo sites. Since Getty acquired the site, only poor to mediocre shots are being accepted. Anything that could compete with a paid stock photo site is rejected.

For example, I uploaded a horrible photograph a year ago of a wine glass. The white balance was way off and the lighting was horrible. It was accepted, but the image was of such bad quality I deleted it in disgust. Yet they rejected this photo and this photo because they contain "content that may be subject to copyright or trademark."

Other SXC submitters have also complained about quality images being rejected and low-quality ones being accepted. This wasn't a problem before Getty took over. Getty bought SXC with the intention to kill it and it's a shame to see this happening.

Does anyone know of a good free stock photo site? I enjoyed submitting to SXC because it gave me a lot of exposure. One of my photos has been published twice in print because it was on SXC.

 

[Derrel]

What else would one expect from a company bought out by Microsoft? Microsoft has always tried to dodge fair competition. They normally will buy or take over a competing company, and ruin its product or products, or stop developing the products and allow them to stagnate...then the obvious alternative choice is the dreck they have for sale. Microsoft has done the same,exact thing for the last 15 years. It's SOP for the folks from Redmond.

 

[Overread]

I wouldn't tar just microsoft its a major way that big business occurs these days - buyout the competition and then either continue to trade under their name and steal their market or crash that arm of the business to drive up sales of your main enterprise.
I also makes sense that a company that can make money out of something won't want to be giving that away for free - infact one could even go as far as to say by defending the paid stock photography sites that Ghetty is defending the working stock photographer from being undercut by hobbyists and part timers who can afford to give away their work for free because they don't have to use their photography to put food on the table.

 

[Sleepy_Sentry]

infact one could even go as far as to say by defending the paid stock photography sites that Ghetty is defending the working stock photographer from being undercut by hobbyists and part timers who can afford to give away their work for free because they don't have to use their photography to put food on the table.

The images on SXC are good, but I don't think it drives stock buyers away from paid sites. Most of the people using SXC images are bloggers or hobbyists who can't afford to pay high prices for stock photos.

Don't blame hobbyists for hurting paid sites. If professionals are losing out to free sites, then professionals should innovate and produce a better product.