The Image Works has announced
the addition of imagery from Green Stock Media to its archive. This
collection visually promotes a broad spectrum of environmental and
sustainability issues with an extensive array of imagery representing
environmental problems, contemporary ecological solutions, and the
beauty and importance of nature.
Recently the U.S. Copyright Office launched a pilot program that enables
photographers to use the Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) system to
complete group registrations of “databases that predominantly consist of
photographs" or “published photographs."
In a previous story I said that Flickr photographers receive 20%
royalties when their images are sold on the Getty Images web site. In
fact, Flickr photographers receive 20% of RF image sales,
BUT if their
images are licensed as RM they receive 30%. Also, there will be
no change in royalty rates in the new contract.
In a recent talk at the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts at
Columbia University as part of a program titled
Collective Management of
Copyright: Solution or Sacrifice Eugene Mopsik, Executive Director of
American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) outlined the general
state of the photo licensing business and offered some possible
solutions.
Getty Images has announced that as of April 1, 2011 they will have a new
contributor agreement. For American photographers the date may have
some relevance. We call it April Fools day and it is usually celebrated
with practical jokes and hoaxes on family, friends and work associates.
However,Getty’s move may not be a joke.
Corbis Images (
www.corbisimages.com), has entered into a partnership with ZUMA Press (
http://www.zumapress.com), an independent press agency and wire services capturing news and documentary images.
I just returned from ASMP's Strickly Business 3 weekend in Philadelphia.
There is another in Chicago April 1st to 3rd. It was absolutely great
for laying out where the industry is today (not particularly great) and
offering ideas as to how to re-invent your business for the future.
Check out
http://asmp.org/content/strictly-business-3.
Getty’s move to sell some of its royalty-free images on both
www.gettyimages.com and www.istockphoto.com is presenting some problems
in pricing usages and is sure to drive more Getty Images customers to
iStockphoto.
Many Western stock photographers are beginning to wonder if it isn’t
time to explore the potentials of the Chinese market. I asked Jerome
Lacrosniere, CEO of ImagineChina in Shanghai for some information about
the state of the Chinese stock photo industry.
Picnache.com has put together a list of the top 1000 keywords used by customers to search for stock photos in the last 6 months to 2
years. This dataset was compiled from about 500,000 searches and
prioritized according to which words were used most frequently.