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Articles from October 2018
Shutterstock has reported Q3 2018 revenue of
$151.6 million up $7.5% million compared to Q3 2017. (The comparison excludes the 2017 revenue from
Webdam which was divested in Q1 2018.) Gross revenue was and down from $156.6 million in Q2 2018. Revenue per download averaged
$3.40 per image, compared to $3.23 in Q3 2017. (Much of this growth is probably due to increased sales of video content offered at much higher prices than still image content.)
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated copyright infringement claims by sports photographers against commercial users of their photographs, finding that the licenses that the photographers had granted to one of those users did not permit it to grant a sublicense to the other to use those photographs for free.
Spinelli, et al. v. National Football League, et al.,
Case No. 17-cv-0673 (2d Cir. Sept. 11, 2018) (Lynch, J).
The following is an update of information I have supplied previously about the Image Creator Locator concept. The previous stories can be found
here,
here,
here and
here.
The images created by photographers who are trying to earn a portion of their living from their work represent very small minority of the total images that can be found on the Internet. Every day the number of images on the Internet that require licensing becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of the total. While there may be 2 billion unique images online that photographers have on offer for licensing, that number is a very small percentage of the total images available for viewing.
The last thing this industry needs is lower prices. However, it often seems that whenever someone wants to start a new business, or grow an existing one, they conclude that the most important distinguishing characteristic compared to their competitor must be lower prices. The new
Onepixel offering clearly illustrates this point. A group of people with experience in the industry put together a new site. Based on their experience they are well aware of the type images in greatest demand by customers. They have previously built relationships with many of the creators of such images. They have a good idea for offering a small highly curated collection of images that will make it much easier for customers to quickly find what they need.
A few former Fotolia employees have joined forces to launch a new microstock site called
Onepixel.com. While at Fotolia these people were able to learn the type of pictures that customers are most interested in buying and build relationships with many of the photographers who have been most successful in producing such images.
The U.S. Senate has passed the
FAA Reauthorization Act that will give authorities permission to shoot down private drones that are determined to be “threats.” The proposed law has sparked an outcry from civil liberties organizations.
The CEO of Agence France-Presse Fabrice Fries has announced a "transformation plan" which will cut the number of employees by 5% at the end of 2017 in order to bring net profit of the company into equilibrium by 2021.
Photographers trying to earn a portion of their living from the images they produce get very upset when they discover that someone has used one of their images without permission or compensation. But, pursuing and collecting from such users can be a very complex process and raise some difficult issues.
Shutterstock, Inc. has announced that Editorial content is now available for license on its eCommerce Platform. Shutterstock Editorial offers images that capture the world around us, including a live feed of curated news, sports, entertainment and royal family images, along with access to a multi-decade archive of iconic images. Previously available only to Enterprise customers with Shutterstock Premier accounts, this collection is now available to all Shutterstock customers through
Shutterstock.com/editorial.
ACSIL, Association of Commercial Stock Footage Licensors, has provided more information about the ACSIL and CLEAR panalists for its West Coast Footage Meet-Up in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 20, 2018 from 2pm to 7pm. The event will be held at Getty Images, Los Angeles, 6300 Wilshire Blvd, 16th Floor. For more about Meet-Up see
here. Attendance for footage buyers is free.
One advertising trend to watch that could have a major impact on the demand for stock photography is the use of “customer stories” to market products and services. Recently at a Dreamforce conference Stephanie Buscemi, Chief Marketing Officer at Salesforce said, “
We’ve eradicated stock photography. In the marketing organization, using stock photography is one way not to have a job. We always use customers.”
Creators take note. Are you a
“Copyright Troll?” For people in the tech industry and many Internet users this as a term of derision implying that the troll has no right to expect compensation for small uses of their copyrighted material. On the other hand, for those trying to earn a portion of their living creating the images that people need to promote their businesses and the services they offer, maybe this should be a badge of honor. Maybe you should be proud to be referred to as a
“Copyright Troll.”
Over the weekend on
Stockphoto@yahoogroups.com Rick Boden said, “I was getting serious about (putting my images with) Adobe Stock Images and then I realized they sell images via subscription. I have a very bad feeling about getting into an arrangement like that based on experience where my present agency (that) has a tie in with Getty where I am getting many royalties of less than a dollar because of subscription sales.”
ACSIL, Association of Commercial Stock Footage Licensors, has announce the IDA panalists for its West Coast Footage Meet-Up in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 20, 2018 from 2pm to 7pm. The event will be held at Getty Images, Los Angeles, 6300 Wilshire Blvd, 16th Floor.
To incentivize
Adobe Stock image and video contributors Adobe intends to provide the
Creative Cloud Photography Plan (worth $120/£120), to 20,000 to them for free in 2019. You must already be an Adobe Stock contributor and either have had 300 or more photographs accepted, or made $500/£375 or more from sales.
Zhang Wei, CEO of
Imaginechina is appealing to other stock agencies, particularly editorial producers, to help stop massive photo copyright infringements by Baidu (Nasdaq BIDU). Imaginechina has recently won 38 lawsuits against Baidu over photo copyright infringements.
Shutterstock has announced that they will be testing some new pricing and promotions for their
Offset.com brand in the next few months. Initially, they will only offer these prices to their Enterprise customers (customers who purchase through their Premier Platform). Their posted rates on the website of $249 and $499 will not change. Sources tell us that their tend to be more at the lower price than the higher.
Designers and content marketers alike are familiar with the multi-step process of finding the perfect stock image and optimizing it for multiple dimensions to deliver a seamless experiences across platforms. Ahead of the
Adobe MAX Creativity Conference that will take place in Los Angeles next week from October 15th thru 17th,
Adobe Stock has released
Preview Crop, a new feature that streamlines designer and social media marketer workflows.
Recently, in a discussion with a stock photo agent the subject came up as to what it would take for Getty Images to repair its relationships with the Creator Community. I raised the issue late last year in “
Why Creators Are Dissatisfied With Getty.”
PicRights Europe GmbH, a global leader in copyright compliance, has added a new enforcement partner in Brazil to monetize copyright infringements for the world’s leading news agencies, stock image agencies and independent photographers. PicRights Brazil will augment PicRights’ long established network in major markets in Europe, North America and the Middle East.
Since March Facebook had been researching and testing with 27
fact-checking partners in 17 countries around the world how to fact check false photos and videos. They are regularly onboarding new partners.