For most of iStockphoto’s best-selling photographers, the number of images downloaded per month declined in 2009.

Despite the general state of the economy, falling advertising budgets and continued debate over the marketing usefulness of social media, budgets allocated to social media in 2010 are bucking the downward trend. For the stock industry, the channel holds dual interest: it is becoming an important collective user of imagery and video, and an equally important marketing resource.

Those that have traditionally made their living licensing stills to print educational and textbook publishers should take heed: there is ample evidence that predictions of such uses giving way to digital, often video-based options are true. ITN Source and its Education Clip Library just announced a deal with Archipelago Learning to provide video content for Archipelago’s Study Island-an online standards-based assessment, instruction, practice, and test preparation program for the U.S. K-12 educational market.

The figures gathered by CEPIC last year suggest that the stock industry’s gross revenue estimates could be inflated by as much as a third as a result of double counting sales.

Getty Images Photographer’s Choice contributors have been asking if they can participate in the recent Flickr Collection Call for Artists. Getty is allowing this, as long as the contributor has a payee name that is different from his or her current account. This can be accomplished as simply as adding “Inc.” or “LLC” to the contributor name name.