Glenn Ruga, founder and publisher of photo-exhibit Web site SocialDocumentary.net, likened the destruction of images stored on Digital Railroad’s servers to the demolition of the original Penn Station building in New York. The process of destruction and rebuilding began in late 1963, lasted for years and resulted in the Madison Square Garden, new office buildings and the first New York architectural preservation statutes--or say say the proponents of the preservation movement.
Ruga is a self-described full-time graphic designer, part-time social documentarian and lifelong human-rights activist. He holds degrees in social theory, graphic and advertising design and interactive communications. In addition to SocialDocumentary.net, a Web site established to depict the human condition, he founded the nonprofit Center for Balkan Development to help stop the genocide in Bosnia, as well as a graphic-design company Visual Communications, which he runs from Lowell, Mass.
“The wanton destruction of such a large collection of photographs is a tremendous loss to our visual culture,” he said. Ruga sees the need for establishing regulations against destroying intellectual property in contemporary digital culture and laments the permanent erasure of hundreds of thousands of images from the former Digital Railroad servers, now headed for liquidation.
In contrast, many of the photographers that used Digital Railroad to store and market their images were relieved to hear about the process used to wipe the data from the servers. Their primary concern was that a straightforward deletion would leave an opportunity to recover and subsequently use copyrighted imagery. In its latest memo, the liquidation company explained that each image’s data is spread across hundreds of disks in linked components; the deletion process would not only wipe the image data but also break such links. According to Diablo Management, this will make it impossible to use data-recovery software. “Reinstalling the operating system will [also] require that each disk be reformatted, thereby guaranteeing that the images are unrecoverable,” the memo stated.
While the loss of Digital Railroad archives has cost its clients significant amounts of time and money, it is unclear how many of such images can be counted as complete losses in a cultural sense. Photographers’ and photo agencies’ revenues depend on their collections, particularly for those who specialize in stock. It is difficult to imagine that Digital Railroad’s servers housed the only existing copy of any image.
Ruga agreed with those who described Digital Railroad’s treatment of its photographer clients as disgraceful. He also agreed with those who predict that little of the fees collected between Nov. 14 and Dec.19 will make their way to the photographers. Diablo has committed to divide these royalties between the photographer (70%) and the senior secured creditor; however, there is widespread skepticism about clients actually paying on invoices of a defunct company.