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Articles from October 2011
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) has received $307,700
from the Authors Coalition of America (ACA). The funds are part of a
distribution from a European Collecting Society that is authorized to
collect payments for the copying of non-title-specific copyrighted
works. In order to facilitate photocopying the law allows it to take
place in some instances without requiring that the copyright holder’s
name be recorded or that he, she or the corporation holding the
copyright be directly compensated for the use.
Early next year 10 to 15 aspiring commercial photographers will be
offered an amazing three year FREE education in the technical and
business aspects of commercial photography as part of the Yuri Arcurs
International Commercial Photography Academy. Yuri is the most
successful microstock photographer in the world.
In the case of DRK Photo vs John Wiley & Sons Inc. in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Arizona Judge Frederick J. Martone
denied the defendant’s motion to seal circulation information for 40
titles that were part of the complaint.
Some in the stock photography business will wonder, “whatever happened to Jeff Burke?” Jeff was the creator of the FoodPix, Brand X and Botanica brands and sold his company (PictureArts which also owned Nonstock at the time) to JupiterImages in 2005. (Jupiter was later acquired by Getty Images.)
Some Flickr photographers are given the opportunity to place some of
their images on gettyimages.com. One photographer who was recently
approached by Getty asked if he should have any concerns about dealing
with Getty or if there are things he should be aware of before
agreeing. Here are some of my thoughts.
In discussions with stock agents, and listening to publishing clients
explain their needs, at the 16th PACA International Conference in New
York this past weekend a few things became clear. Read this story for information about how the business is changing and what those licensing images need to do.
Corbis has announced that it will be closing its entire Calgary operation at the beginning of 2012. The "planned office closure" will consolidate all of the company’s Technology and Marketing activities in Seattle. Corbis is expecting to add technology and marketing positions to the Seattle headquarters. Veer will continue to operate as a separate brand. It is unclear whether any of the personnel currently working on the Veer brand will move to Seattle.
Why can’t the three major distributors – Getty, Corbis, Alamy – set
reasonable prices for textbook use? As licensors of the images they
should be able to set the price. Instead, they allow the major
publishers to dictate to them what they will pay. This happens
because the agencies are so worried about losing market share that they
constantly try to undercut each other and play right into the hands of
the publishers.
The big distributors are missing a huge opportunity to capture an even larger share of the market than they already control. Learn how visual search could help them grow revenue and take market share from the small suppliers.
iStockphoto is celebrating completion of its fifth year in the stock video business by
discounting all video purchases by 15 percent from October 17th to 23rd.
Alamy has announced the launch of its live news service which provides a
stream of unique news, sport and entertainment photographs direct to
customers. For the first time, Alamy will push live news to its
customers via FTP minutes after the photographs were captured.
The first thing everyone wants to know about microstock is how much the average person earns licensing images at those prices. This story provides some statistics. The story also deals with the misconception that in order to have high earnings in microstock it is necessary to have a huge number of images in the collection.
Recently, a new stock agency asked if they should develop a pricing
strategy based on fixed prices, or prices based on how the images would
be used? Here are some things to think about.
Corbis Images (
www.corbisimages.com) has named Barak Ronen as Senior Vice President of Media Products. Ronen was formerly with Reuters and will be based in London. He will be responsible for the company’s Media product development and commercial strategy.
It is always interesting to hear what Jonathan Klein has to say. Recently he was interviewed by Tara Fuller, editor of American Express’
Open Forum, a pro business website designed to “power small business success.”
Getty Images plans to use "a handful" of 3D-dedicated photographers to cover secure next year's Olympic Games in London.
Many photographers believe they will make more sales for the best prices
if their images are represented by the biggest distributors. They may
make more sales, but definitely not for the best prices. For years the
biggest distributors have been seriously undercutting price – at least
in the education field. There is a big question whether increased volume
at low, dramatically discounted prices results in increased revenue
overall for creators. Here’s how and why.
Pond5 will be giving away coupons worth $10,000 of free stock media at the Frankfurt Book Fair (Hall 3.1, Booth A 118), Oct. 12 - 16, 2011. Pond5’s
online collection includes more than 800,000 royalty-free stock video clips (the largest archive on the web), along with millions of other assets, including stock photos, illustrations, music tracks, sound effects, and After Effects motion graphics projects.
StockFood, the world’s leading food image agency, introduces
living4media: a new picture agency specializing in home and living. The concept behind
www.living4media.com is to unite the most outstanding images produced by internationally renowned photographers and well-known niche agencies under one roof.
With the addition of over 32,000 images from Omni Photo Agency and 18,000 images from the British Library picture archives
Universal Imaging Group’s (UIG) educational image database has grown to nearly 3 million still images and 100,000 film clips. Both of these organizations will be continually adding additional images of art, history, culture and anthropology to the collection.
iStockphoto has launched
Feast, a new online community for creatives. Feast provides abundant helpings of inspiration from a diverse group of designers, photographers, directors, writers, marketing professionals and more. Feast’s centerpiece is a unique public mentorship between cutting-edge leaders in diverse fields such as photojournalist
Mario Tama and writer, director and producer
Kirby Ferguson, and protégés who apply to work with them online. In pre-launch, 25,000 people registered for Feast and 300 applied to be October protégés.
In Norbert Wu’s copyright infringement suit against Pearson Education, Inc. before Judge Richard J. Holwell, in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York the court GRANTED class certification to one of Wu’s causes of action.
Eastman Kodak’s stock lost more than half its value in volatile trading
on Friday amid fears that it is headed for bankruptcy. The company has
lost nearly $1.8 billion since 2007 and is set to borrow another $160
million from its $400 million line of credit.