News Analysis
Ray Kurzweil gave a thought provoking presentations on the future of computing, and what it means for society, at the 1999 Spring Seybold Publishing Conference in Boston. Take a few minutes to look beyond next week or next year and plan for your future. Kurzweil is also the author of the ''The Age of Spiritual Machines.''
The items include: TSI's New Catalog Format, Getty's Move to Seattle, Todtri Update, RF at TSM, Update on ASMP/PACA Joint Statement, legal action in the UK on Elvis Trademark and new moves at Index's Photos To Go.
The ASMP board has established a new policy that will make it much more difficult for chapters to plan and hold stock information meetings. They have also supplied statistics on MPCA sales.
Photographers need to start giving a lot more attention to model releases and what they cover. This story discusses this issue and gives a sample release.
Gary Elsner, former Sales and Marketing VP at FPG International and currently an independent consultant on stock photo issues, shares his thoughts on ASMP's new approach to photographer education.
Is it absolutely necessary to offer on-line pricing and no negotiation to be successful in the E-Commerce arena? This story examines the issues surrounding this question.
With this file you can print out the entire March 1999 issue of SELLING STOCK which includes: ASMP Cancels Texas Seminar, Getty E-Commerce Success, EyeWire Launches Portal Site, Picture Perfect in Arrears and National Geographic Grams Rights. All of these stories have appeared previously in our on-line edition.
This article includes shorts on stock photographer Randy Taylor's elevation to VP at Liaison; Trend Watch's statistics on the number of creatives worldwide; Copyright and trademark issues in the UK and photographer credits at Corbis.
This report summarizes some of the 1998 developments that Getty Images recently reported to their stock holders.
ASMP National Board has canceled a stock seminar planned by the Dallas chapter because the meetings were scheduled to give a platform to RF producers and traditional stock agencies whose practices the board finds ''inconsistent with ASMP's policy, goals and code of ethics.''
Charles Swan reports on Bridgeman Art Library's loss of its copyright claim against Corel Corporation. Bridgeman aledged that Corel distributed RF copies of fine art paintings which Bridgeman had the sole right to license.
Nancy Wolff reports legal developments in trademarking of landmarks.
Thoughts on new policies at The Stock Market; Changes at Corbis; Rights of Privacy in the UK and Fiduciary Responsibilities of Stock Agencies.
National Geographic informed their photographers at their January meeting that in the future they will be using the photographer's work in more ways and they are offering less overall payment for these usages. See details.
After more than thirty years with FPG, Gary Elsner has started a consulting service for stock agencies and individual photographers.
EyeWire, Inc. (formerly Adobe Studios) launches a portal site to provide all types of visual content - such as video, animation, photography, type fonts, illustrations and clip art -- to the professional community.
We have just learned that in August 1997 the Central London County Court ordered Pictor to pay Philip Chudy approximately £45,000 in commissions that Pictor had been withholding for several years. They were also required to return Chudy's transparencies. See details of the situation and settlement. Pictor is the parent of Uniphoto/Pictor with offices in Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles.
We have a major new survey which attempts to determine both income and expenses of stock photographers so we can make some judgements as to profits. We encourage all stock photographers to respond to this survey. The survey may be returned by mail or answered on-line. Non-subscribers responses are welcome.
Robert Tod, President of Todtri and Picture Perfect has provided a response to our Story 192 entitled ''Picture Perfect in Arrears.''
Sheldon Marshall has been replaced as Chief Executive of Visual Communications Group by Andrew Nugee. VCG is the still image marketing subsidiary of United News and Media in the UK and parent of FPG International in New York.
Picture Perfect and Todtri Productions, Inc. are seriously delinquent in their payments to stock agencies and photographers. Both organizations are owned by Robert Tod and based in New York City.
Ellen Boughn is on the road again. She is now Vice President-Photography for Artville in Madison, WI after being with Definitive Stock in Seattle for about four months.
More short news items of interest to stock photo producers and sellers.
With this file you can print out the entire January 1999 issue of SELLING STOCK which includes a reaction to Jonathan Klein's argument for lowering Photographer percentages, a suit against PhotoDisc for usage of an image without a model release, and a major feature on the changes in photographer/agent relationships as a result of major agency consolidation on the industry.
Photographer Larry Aiuppy points out the fallacy in Jonathan Klein's thinking when Klein compared, in his recent New York speech, the percentage compensation phototgrapher ''talent'' receives to that of movie stars in the entertainment industry.