Education
What happens when the iPad becomes the primary vehicle for delivering
educational information? Check out this story for some of the things we think will happen in the education business. Also see how what will happen to in the education business to content providers -- writers as well as photographers -- in the next ten years compares to how microstock has changed the stock photography business in the last decade.
Last week in a story entitles “
Educational Products For Students” I discussed the new educational publisher strategy for making images available to students. In particular I examined the Encyclopaedia Britannica product called Image Quest and made some estimates about pricing and the royalties photographers might receive for the use of their images. Encyclopaedia Britannica has now provided us with more details of their pricing strategy and we need to revise our numbers.
On Tuesday June 7, 2011 U.S. District Judge James C. Francis IV denied Norbert Wu’s request for a preliminary injunction and sanctions and refused to stop Pearson Education Inc. from communicating with members of a proposed class of photographers. Pearson had been temporarily restrained from negotiating with other photographers and stock agencies with regard to unauthorized use claims until the judge determined whether or not a class action could be certified. Now Pearson is free to move ahead and settle photographer's claims.
The educational market has always been a big segment of the stock photo business. Some agencies and individual photographers earn the majority of there revenue from sales for educational use. Until recently, most of the photographs used for educational purposes were published in textbooks. All that is changing with
Britannica Image Quest that gives students and teachers unlimited access to a 2.3 million image file.
Some textbook publishers have begun to ask photographers to invoice them for the right to use images for the “life of the edition” of a book. The following is the language from one such request. "
Please bill us for publication rights for the life of the edition. … we would like by this permission request to sell additional units through the life of the edition...."
Universal Images Group (UIG), and Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB) have
entered into a 10-year License Agreement that makes UIG the exclusive
provider of still pictures, video and footage for EB’s online
educational image service, Image Quest. UIG, the distribution
business of the Virtual Picture Desk (VPD), has provided 2 million
educational still images for Britannica Image Quest and will
subsequently provide motion content including video and footage clips.
The Image Quest online subscription service went live in September 2010
with content from more than 50 world-class image providers.
When customers first requested rights to use images in both print and
online it seemed reasonable to charge a supplemental fee for the online
use that was much less than the print price. Today, electronic use is at
least equal to print and tomorrow it will be the predominate use of all
imagery. If we continue to price electronic as a lesser usage we will
be offering a huge discount on the price for the majority of our future
licenses. Therefore we must come up with an entirely new strategy for licensing electronic uses.
The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has reported that e-Book
sales in February 2011 were $90.3 million, up 202.3% compared to
February 2010. Higher Education sales for January and February
2011 were $406.9 million, down by 5.6% vs the same period in 2010. K-12
sales for the same two-month period were $173 million, a decline of
8.9% compared to 2010.
Anyone who earns significant revenue from producing or licensing stock
images for educational purposes should be looking, as soon as possible,
for another line of business. Why? It is rapidly becoming
impossible to earn enough from licensing images for educational use to
cover the costs of producing them. For decades photographers have been
willing to license rights for limited usage of their images with the
understanding that if a greater use is made the photographer will
receive additional compensation. This system was originally developed to
help publishers limit their risk in the event that some of the book
they produced did not sell well or generate as much revenue as hoped.
Educational publishers regularly set up “preferred provider” agreements
with image suppliers who represent large collections. Publishers outline
certain standard terms and uses. The image provider is then asked to
stipulate a fee that will be charged for each use. Based on the fees
providers agree to charge the publisher decides which supplier to use. McGraw
Hill School Education Group has recently requested quotes from
potential preferred providers and they have introduced a new concept for
determining circulation of the product. Instead of talking about the
number of copies printed McGraw Hill now refers to the number of “unique
users.”
Federal appeals court judge Denny Chin has rejected Google’s proposed
settlement of copyright claims arising from the company’s digitization
of books. Since the case is a class action, the court, and not the
parties, must determine whether the settlement is fair, adequate and
reasonable.
Science Photo Library, has signed a licensing agreement with
Global Grid for Learning, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambridge University Press and one of the most comprehensive digital educational content collections in the world.
Those who license rights to use photos in textbooks should include
language in their invoices that requires publishers to provide the
licensor with a password to any web site where the licensors images are
used.This story explains why it is important and provides recommended language.
In an effort to recognize and support emerging photographers, the Editorial Photographers trade association [EP] has announced its Third Annual EP Education Grants student photo competition. For details go to:
http://www.editorialphoto.com/epedu/ The Grand Prize winner will be chosen from among the finalists by internationally-acclaimed Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt. More than $5000 in prizes will be presented to the Grand Prize winner, and more than $2000 each for the other five finalists!
If you license rights to your photos for textbook use then here are a few articles you should read.
Do educational publishers place much value on the pictures they use
in their
books? Based on
what they are willing to pay for such images, the role pictures play in
the educational process has declined significantly over the
last 10 to 15 years. The fees paid for images used in textbooks have
not kept up with changing usage demands. There may be little
photographers can do to alter this trend, but they need to be aware of
and understand the problem as they plan future production for this
market.
Many believe the concept of business ethics has become an oxymoron. Do a Google search and you’ll find reams and reams of explanations of what ethical business practices are, or should be. Every major corporation has a place on its web site that outlines the company’s ethical principles. Some companies test all employees annually to insure that they clearly understand the company’s ethical policies and procedures.
Often these principles seem to boil down to two over riding rules: (1) Maximize Shareholder and Manager Wealth and (2) Do What Is Legal.
The use of images for educational purposes has always been about 20% of
the total market for stock images. For some agencies and photographers,
educational sales represent a much higher percentage of their gross
revenue. However, as a result of technological developments and industry
consolidation, it has become extremely difficult for creators to earn
enough from licensing images for educational uses to enable them to
continue to produce imagery for this purpose.
Eye tracking studies by Jakob Nielsen, a Web site consultant and author of a number of books about design and user interface, show that users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information but ignore fluffy pictures used to “jazz up” Web pages.
Copyright lawyers Dan Nelson and Kevin McCulloch provide some background on how major U.S. textbook
publishers have been—and, indeed, still continue to—systematically
infringe photo the copyrights of the photographs they use in
textbooks and various other materials. They explore some of the
various factors that allowed this situation to occur and go unnoticed,
despite being an industry-wide practice that has given rise to some of
the most egregious cases of copyright infringement in recent memory.
Photographers whose business it is to produce stock images that are
designed for use in textbooks should IMMEDIATELY look for another line
of work. For years the major textbook publisher -- not fly by night
organizations -- have been paying fees based on minimal press runs.
Then, with no regard whatsoever for the written contracts they executed
with the sellers, they have made extensive additional uses of the images
without making any attempt to compensate the image creators in any way
for the use that exceeded the original license agreement. These
additional uses have resulted in millions of dollars of extra revenue
for the publishers. Such actions were not occasional oversights, but
policy.
In his biography,
The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan said, “The presumption of individual property ownership and the
legality of its transfer must be
deeply embedded in the culture of a society
(emphasis mine) for free market economies to function effectively. In
the West, the moral validity of property rights is accepted, or at least
acquiesced in, by virtually the whole of the population.” I was
struck by how this relates to the photography business today. The concept of individual property ownership is no
longer deeply embedded in the culture of our society. A large segment of
the population believes that certain property should be free to all and
that the creators have no rights once the property is shown to anyone.
Using the creative works of others without permission or compensation is
becoming the morally accepted standard.
ASPP has published a very informative guide for picture editors and
researchers on locating copyright holders of imagery when the name and
contact information is not readily attached to an image. The guide, and a
link to a downloadable PDF, are available free or charge.
There are two primary factors that should be considered when quoting a
price for textbook use: image size (1/4, 1/2 or full page) and size of
the print run. This article provides a historical perspective on pricing images for textbook uses and offers an update for the current economic climate.
Photographers should be alert for textbook publisher requests for new
image licenses to extend print runs on books that have already been
printed without obtaining such licenses. In many cases, image owners may
be entitled to high retroactive usage fees for copies already printed
and distributed, as well as a fee for the new books the publisher
intends to produce.