News Analysis
Getty raises an amazing $269.1 million in a public offering of 6,900,000 shares. The share price was $39 per share. They raised enough to pay for the entire acquisition of The Image Bank and have plenty of cash to spare.
The Glencoe story takes more twists and turns. Additional titles have been discovered about which image sellers have not been notified or paid.
These short news items include: NAFP Disbands, Todtri Served In Effort To Collect, Getty Acquires Newsmakers, Corbis E-Commerce Sales, PACA International Conference and Photonica Appoints Mayes COO.
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.
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.
Photographers and stock agencies should check their records to determine if they had a usage in Glencoe/McGraw-Hill's 1995 edition of ''Biology: The Dynamics of Life''. There was a 1998 reuse for which no one was paid until recently.
The U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned the Tasini decision of 1997 and ruled in favor of freelance writers and all copyright holders of creative works. Publisher must now pay for all uses and may not make secondary uses of photographs without clear contractual permission to do so.
When assessing the effectiveness of web sites be careful not to place too much emphasis on ''hit'' and ''visitor'' logs. Photo Stock Notes recently published an article entitled ''Who Are The Heavy Hiters?'' which may mislead photographers. See our analysis.
Rumors abound on both sides of the Atlantic that Getty has completed a deal to purchase The Image Bank from Kodak. There has been no announcement on Getty's web site and no confirmation from any of the parties.
The lead story is a long analysis of our ''Industry in Turmoil'' and the impact of various changes that are taking place. There are also stories on Understanding Similars, Getty Images, VCG and Corbis.
The stock photo industry is in turmoil. Never has there been so much uncertainty among photographers about the future of the stock industry. This story takes a look at how industry issues -- royalty free, agency consolidation, over supply, pricing, marketing methods, potential for growth in sales to internet users and consumers, agencies wholly owning high demand subject matter and volume production -- impact on one another.
Visual Communications Group (VCG) has announced the acquisition of Seattle based Definitive Stock Inc. in an effort to seriously enter the royalty-free market and to bolster their on-line technology expertise.
Getty Images continued their slow rise in sales during the second quarter of 1999 with gross revenue of $55 million and overall growth in sales for the quarter about 5.3% over sales in the previous quarter.
Some photographers have misconceptions about labor unions and what they might do to defend the rights of freelance photographers. Kevin Larkin provides a very clear explanation of the advantages and limitations of being allied with a union.
This series of short news items includes information on Corbis Sales, personnel shifts at VCG, Stock Market begins using Datamark, Tahabi Books labeling policy, Archive's representation of Photo File images, and more.
Jon Feingersh lists 23 Keys to Success in production stock shooting. Jon is represented exclusively by The Stock Market and is one of the world's most successful stock photographers. TSM licenses an average of 18 uses to Jon's images every business day.
PACA lawyer Nancy Wolff discusses the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how it is helping to curb Internet copyright infringements. The DMCA can be a valuable tool if the goal is to remove images quickly from offending sites and not seek monetary damages.
Getty Images has announced an internal re-organization to arrange their seven ''brands'' into four customer-facing divisions and to produce vertical hub sites for each division. The strategy is outlined and some of the difficulties for photographers are examined.