Diablo Management has notified all concerned that Newscom and another unnamed buyer have rescinded their interest in Digital Railroad. The management company expects that Digital Railroad’s main creditor will take possession of the physical servers that house photographer archives and software, wipe them clean and put them up for auction.
Some have expressed concern about the method of information deletion. Image files can be restored using commercially available software.
The latest Diablo memo of Nov. 10 apologizes to image owners. It states that Digital Railroad intended to preserve its customers' images for recovery but is unable to do this without additional funds.
The memo also reiterates Diablo’s intent to “work, with the assistance of photographer associations to have the publishers pay the photographers directly” any outstanding fees for images licensed through the Marketplace. The Stock Artists Alliance is in contact with Diablo and is pursuing such issues on behalf of its membership.
Photo District News has details on how some of the affected photographers have coped and which suppliers benefited by getting Digital Railroad’s main asset—its customers.