Articles by Jim Pickerell

Pursuing Infringements

By Jim Pickerell | 722 Words | Posted 3/29/2018 | Comments (1)
When it comes to pursuing copyright infringements the biggest problem for photographers is not finding unauthorized uses, but finding too many. Photographers can do their own searches using Google Images or Tineye. Once a use is found, the photographer must search his/her records to determine if the image has ever been licensed, and if so, the terms of the license.

Reducing Middleman Cuts

By Jim Pickerell | 1037 Words | Posted 3/28/2018 | Comments
Given stock imagery oversupply, and ever falling prices, in order to justify continued production of the type of images customers want to buy, professional image creators need to find a way to reduce, or eliminate, some of the middleman cuts.

Small Claims Bill - Contact Your Congressperson NOW!

By Jim Pickerell | 455 Words | Posted 3/27/2018 | Comments (2)
All photographers and copyright holders in the U.S. are urged to contact their Congressional Representative and ask them to Vote in Favor of H.R. 3945 – a bill to create a Small Claims Court! The bill is likely to be out of the House Judiciary Committee mark-up and ready for a vote the week of April 9th. Your representative needs to hear from you now! Grass-root support is imperative!

Looking To Maximize Revenue: RM or RF?

By Jim Pickerell | 700 Words | Posted 3/26/2018 | Comments (1)
I was talking to a photographer recently who has both RM and RF collections with Getty Images. The question he faces is whether to put new images into the RM or RF collections. Getty is pushing many of its photographers to move many of their images from RM to RF. Certainly, there is a much better chance that an image will get used if it is available for licensing as RF rather than RM. But, if the photographer’s goal is to maximize revenue, will images offered as RF earn as much revenue overall as those offered as RM?

New Search Term Needed - Used

By Jim Pickerell | 900 Words | Posted 3/23/2018 | Comments
If stock agencies really want to help their customers the most important thing they could do is make it possible for customers to search for just those image that have been previously “Used.” The biggest problems facing customers today is too much choice. Only a very small percentage of the images in the major agency collections are ever licensed, but customers have no way to distinguish the used images from those that have never been used.

VRmeta: New Video Keywording

By Jim Pickerell | 530 Words | Posted 3/22/2018 | Comments
One of the issues these videographers face is accurately tagging their video clips so they can be easily discovered by customers. Microstocksolutions LLC has released its VRmeta® app for iOS and Android that is designed to make it easier for videographers to accurately tag their digital video and 360°/ VR clips with time and location-based metadata.

iStock Exclusive or Multi-Agency Non-Exclusive?

By Jim Pickerell | 734 Words | Posted 3/21/2018 | Comments (2)
I’ve been asked by an iStock exclusive contributor with more than 10,000 images in the collection if he should go non-exclusive and put his images with multiple agencies. This contributor has been regularly adding new images, but his gross revenue has been steadily declining month by month.

UK Football Association Selects SilverHub and Shutterstock As Photographer and Distribution Partners

By Jim Pickerell | 561 Words | Posted 3/16/2018 | Comments
The Football Association (FA), the governing body of English Football, has announced that it has awarded SilverHub Media UK Ltd. (SilverHub) and Shutterstock, Inc. an exclusive multi-year agreement to cover photography, distribution, and syndication services around key events and activities.

Trade Organizations In Europe Call On EU To Stop Framing

By Jim Pickerell | 1164 Words | Posted 3/15/2018 | Comments
In a joint letter to the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee these trade organizations CEPIC, EFJ, EVA, and Pyramide Europe are calling European legislators to urgently correct the theory of law used by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) involving the use of framing/embedding technology on the Internet.

Masters of Photography Classes

By Jim Pickerell | 879 Words | Posted 3/14/2018 | Comments
Masters of Photography (MoP) has announced the launch of its first online video masterclass with legendary photographer Joel Meyerowitz. Masters of Photography is a new and unique online learning platform which brings together some of the worlds most acclaimed photographers; the Masters. Students can enjoy an unprecedented insight into the way the Masters work during intimate lessons that capture their knowledge, ethos and philosophy.