Stories this month include: Getty Buys Image Bank, Tasini Decision Overturned, Speedpix, PNI and Cinebase to Merge and Infringement at Glencoe.
In assessing the impact of Royalty Free on the stock photo market it is important to look, not just at gross sales, but at the number of uses these sales represent. In this story we have done an analysis of total uses.
Photographers and agencies are having problems getting paid on two Glencoe/McGraw-Hill book projects -- the 1998 revision of Biology: The Dynamics of Life and a series of three books called Science Voyages 2000. Details are provided.
We have a new pricing schecule for Editorial Web uses that is a suppliment to the prices listed on page 220 of Negotiating Stock Photo Prices. The prices on page 220 are still applicable for corporate and commercial uses.
Getty Images' filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in conjunction with its acquisition of The Image Bank provides some interesting insights and surprises. TIB sales of still images were lower in the first six months of 1999 than during a similar period in 1998.
Speedpix is an online agency scheduled to launch service in February of 2000 with approximately 5000 images. They intend to market worldwide and give photographers a higher percentage of sales than any other agency offers. This story examines their offering and compares it with other options.
These short news items include: a new CEO at Liaison, Sale of Gamma in France, Digital Delivery at Getty and expected future growth, RF vs Traditional sales in Europe, McaGraw Hill Rights Request, FPG's iSwoop and more.
Picture Network International and Cinebase Software Inc. have signed a letter of intent to merge and create a new company which will provide media asset management services. Still photographers will be interested in this merger because PNI licenses rights to still images through PictureQuest and Cinebase will begin licensing video and film content.
This story describes the dilemma many photographers represented by major agencies are facing in trying to get their images where they can be seen by clients and it focuses primarily on the situation at Getty Communications.
For small infringements it may be more practical to seek redress in Small Claims Court rather than bringing a copyright infringement action in Federal Court. Davis Barber describes his successful approach.