Let me say first that I could be wrong about any of this, but according to the user agreement section 20 (g), we're independent contractors, ie, freelancers, not employees of sharecg. Which I don't blame them for in the least from a liability and responsibility perspective. I believe this is how the various poser markets do it as well.

As freelancers, as it spells out clearly in the user agreement, and I've seen spelled out elsewhere before, the whole taxes thing is already covered by stating bluntly that it is Our responsibility to declare the relevant amounts and pay the appropriate taxes, not theirs to do the witholding thing. Which AFAIK is standard for a freelance situation. Freelancers operate under entirely different rules than normal.

I do understand what you're getting at by suggesting that everyone has to give an SSN etc, it would eliminate a number of problems. Since no one who wants to scam, would want that kind of identifier. That being said, I think you'd find rapidly that a lot of people who Aren't scammers wouldn't be willing for the following reasons:

a)because it's not legally required by the relationship, or it's illegal in their country

b) Because if sites with a heck of a lot more operational budget than Sharecg can't keep data secure, they're going to Severely doubt Sharecg's ability to do so. Identity theft is a very lucrative business these days as we all know. One hack, is all it takes.

c) That whole issue that people are told every day Never to give out that kind of information online.

What I think Would work, and no one could complain about, is requiring that people use only Verified Paypal accounts. To have a Verified status, it's required that you have verified an email, as well as a credit card or bank account. Do you think scammers will want to do that?

Both ways, have issues of course. A scammer could I'm sure easily find fake or stolen SSN's, just as they could find a fake or stolen credit card. But requiring a verified paypal account, would make a lot of people a whole lot less nervous I think.

Personally, I tend to favor the opt out or two tier system. 

Frankly I'm going to fall on the American side of not wanting to disclose my SSN for freebie income. I'm not a fraud, spammer or Scammer, but neither do I wish to open myself up for Indentity theft.

Even here in the USA it's not reccommended that you give out your SSN willy nilly because of the growing problems with Identity Theft. As has already been noted by someone else, as freelancer's it is our own responsibility to report our income, not ShareCG's as we are not Direct Employees of their business.

Frankly, the income I've made off my freebies last year doesn't even add up to a significantly reportable income amount. I wouldn't report it any more than I report income I make from a Garage Sale.

Quote: "Frankly, the income I've made off my freebies last year doesn't even add up to a significantly reportable income amount. I wouldn't report it any more than I report income I make from a Garage Sale."

Exactly In the US, you have to have a certain amount earned during a 12 month period, before you can report it to the IRS. That amount is {iirc} $600.00 or more.

I don't think the requirement of SSN's is a good idea, and I would not give mine out for anything.

I think you should have a code system were the downloady should type in the 6 character for the download to begin.

Also I think you should have a content leveling system. Because there are levels in all different types of content, and have moderators assign levels to items. Also you should have a queue for submitting items. and then assign trusted rights to trusted content developers, where the trusted developer items don't go threw queues

Also it shold be paid by flat rate per page view or download.

The code should take care of most bots and if admin has to ban the violaters.

IMHO Admin should have tried some of these steps before just telling us that slaved over real serious content just to put on this site, before just cutting us off.

Cutting items off after 20 items is a bad idea. As a content developer I was hoping to have fifty items online by the end of March. All of them high quality and developing residual income. With out the promise of some residue income I would not have wasted a hunder hour developing content that riveals products users would have to pay for. 99% of the content here was only uploaded for the thought of making a few extra bucks.

IMho this site grew faster than admin could handle, and will require more work that admin is apartently putting into it.

Also the advertising needed to be based of of monthly sponcer ship. Try getting the companies to sponser different areas. Autodesk for max content. Smith micro for poser area. pay viewer don't make serious money until they hit millions of veiws every day. Content is a targeted audiance. poser ads should have been targeted adds for other seller content. Not magazines or art schools. I know I only clicked on the adds because i was downloading.

Also a thumbnail view of items should be required. I know I got tired of searching for items because every time I clicked on an item it didn't meet my desires.

Just a last word I think the site has hope and I think admin has they're heart in the right place. It's going to require morework and extra staff.

Ah, I thought that a 1099 only became necessary if you did make 600 or more? Thanks for the info on the lack of difference, reading the info on tax stuff can make it sound differently :)

LOL and people wonder why I prefer to work for free :)

I get what your saying about controlling access, just don't think it would be a big enough benefit from the security point of view to warrant the damage it will do to the community itself.

One of the main attractions Sharecg has for me and many other content providers is that people can download without registering.  If registration was required prior to download the first time I dropped by, I probably wouldn't have done it because I had no idea what sharecg was at that point.

I got here from following a link from another website, and it was only to download a small prop file I needed for one scene.  Had the website started asking me for all manner of personal information just to download the file odds are good I wouldn't have downloaded it.

It wasn't a super high quality couldn't live without it sort of thing, just something I thought it would be nice not to have to model myself.  Since Sharecg was so easy to deal with I stuck around, got a little more familiar with the site, then I signed up and have even started providing content of my own.

But had they wanted me to register prior to downloading odds are good I wouldn't have stuck around, just wouldn't have been worth it to me at the time.  I think you'll find a lot of other people will feel the same way when the first stumble across sharecg.  Sure, some will stick around and register, but a lot will just come here with one freebie in mind, find out they have to give out their life story and fill out a bunch of forms to get it, bounce back and forth with a verification email, etc.. and run the risk of their email account being spammed back into the stone age for one file - and I think you'll find a lot of potential traffic going elsehwere.

Sure, an automated security system would be nice, I just honestly don't think it's feasible or a good idea given sharecg's stated business model.  Again, just my 2 cents worth.

Had the website started asking me for all manner of personal information just to download the file odds are good I wouldn't have downloaded it.

 "Enter your email address to receive your private access-code via email"

 isn't that hard to fill out. Even not for an impatient Poser user hunting for free crap ;)

And if it is, he will be send back to ShareCG while clicking the next download link. Over and over again. Because in a perfect world all free content is hosted by ShareCG :)

Because in a perfect world all free content is hosted by ShareCG :)

You mean it isn't yet?  XD