Ever since Getty Images invented Premium Access (PA) licensing image creators have been upset that their images were being licensed to some users for ridiculously low prices. Often images licensed in this manner are ones that have been extremely costly to produce. For at least one contributor Rights Managed PA sales now represent 66% of total sales at an average price of $12.00 and over half the sales are for $4.35 or less.
Depositphotos, a New York-based stock photo platform with Ukranian origins, has announces a $5 million funding round led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) via the EBRD Venture Capital Investment Program. Previously TMT Investments had invested $3 million in Depositphotos in 201. In this round EBRD contributed $4 million and TMT $1million. The transaction should be completed before the end of the year.
All drone operators must register their unmanned aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by Feb. 19, 2016. Registration begins on December 21, 2015 and is free for the first 30 days. While the registration fee is only $5.00 the government is encouraging as many owners as possible to register quickly.
Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27), Congressman Tom Marino (PA-10) and Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (VA-10) have introduced H.R. 4241 – the Copyright Office for the Digital Economy Act or the CODE Act. This comes after months of discussion with various stakeholders, including several joint Member roundtables.
Sources tell me that Corbis representatives will be meeting with Visual China Group (VCG) next week in Beijing to discuss the Visual China’s possible acquisition of all, or part, of Corbis.
Six REX employees were laid off by Shutterstock earlier this week. One had been with the company for 34 years. I asked Shutterstock for an explanation.
PhotoPlus 2015 International Conference + Expo welcomed more than 21,000 attendees from 67 countries and all 50 U.S. States. This year’s show also recorded the largest number of exhibitors in the past five years with 250, including 75 participating for the first time.
Shutterstock has launched a new editing tool in open beta.
Shutterstock Editor is a simple, fast and free way to edit photos.
What should we expect next from Adobe? The following is pure speculation. I have no inside information that the following is part of Adobe’s plan, but it seems logical to me that they will move in this direction in the near future. If they do it could benefit many image creators and possibly negatively affect some.
In its race to grow its image collection, Shutterstock has made it easier for new contributor to get accepted. New contributors used to have to submit 10 images for quality review. Seven of those 10 had to be accepted before the contributor was allowed to submit more images. Now, if only one is deemed acceptable the contributor can begin submitting more images. Here’s the way Shutterstock explains the change.