Facebook, a popular social-network site, remains in the middle of a prolonged controversy arising from the its terms and conditions of use. Last November, users protested Facebook's liberal sharing of personal data. Now the anger has spread to images.
The primary reason for offering images as RM rather than RF is the hope of earning tens of thousands of dollars from a single sale. But the number of such sales is infinitesimal. Stock image sellers should consider whether it's better to have two separate types of RM images. The two divisions of RM would be Rights Managed Non-Exclusive (RMN-E) and Rights Managed Exclusive (RME).
The EC sees policy reform as necessary to promote a single-market music, film and games industry. While image licensing is not specifically referenced, the issues raised and reforms proposed have direct relevance to the well-being of stock producers and retailers.
Two of the five annual Getty Images' coveted $20,000 editorial grants have been awarded to Ian Martin and Lorena Ros.
Previously open only to members of the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies, the Picture Buyers' Fair is welcoming all image suppliers as exhibitors. The seventh annual PBF is scheduled for May 7 and 8.
The Kelsey Group has reported in its "Outlook for Directional and Interactive Advertising" that global advertising spend was just over $600 billion in 2007. It predicts that number will hit $707 billion by 2012.
Stockxpert, Jupitermedia's microstock brand, has expanded its product offering to include royalty free footage.
Referring to the Apple-championed move away from digital rights-management technologies, image-licensing startup GumGum says it wants to be the iTunes of content, making the licensing process so easy it eliminates the need for content piracy.
While there is still a large gap between traditional royalty-free and microstock, image pricing and contributor commissions are rising at leading microstock Web sites. Even with recessionary woes, there are no signs of a slowdown in the micro segment.
Image-monitoring company PicScout estimates that 90% of stock images are published without appropriate licensing or payment to their owners. Despite the proliferation of laws that criminalize image piracy, it remains a global problem.
Reed Elsevier, the world's largest publisher with over $9 billion in annual revenue is in the process of cutting its exposure to the print and advertising segments of the market and intends to concentrate on higher growth online and subscription activities.
In the very near future, RM photographers and traditional RF photographers will need to take a hard look at the whole issue of volume relative to price.
Getty Images Inc. has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by affiliates of the private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC in a transaction valued at approximately $2.4 billion, including the assumption of existing debt.
As Jonathan Klein promised when Getty Images acquired Pump Audio, the company's music collection is expanding beyond the independent artists that were the sole focus of Hudson Valley's alternative-music business. In a first major representation agreement, Getty has partnered with top indie film studio Lionsgate.
Photographers considering other sites need to determine how they will compare with iStock. In an attempt to learn more about comparative sales, I decided to use the same keywords to search several sites, order the images by number of downloads and count the total number of downloads for the 100 most downloaded images.
New York-based digital art site Zymmetrical has added a new search option. It allows users to find images with a designated area of blank or clutter-free space for adding text, logos and other layout elements. Founder and CEO Keith Tuomi said tthis Freerange feature, in combination with tools like Zymmetrical's color picker, helps buyers who know what they want find it faster.
Those who feel microstock businesses are ruining the industry are sure to be outraged by a new, potentially even lower-priced image offering from British newcomer moodboard. The London-based company, owned by Mike Watson of Digital Vision fame, launched moodboard unlimited, a Web site that allows customers to set their own prices for royalty-free images.
Moodboard has just launched moodboard unlimited, which allows customers to set the price they will pay for an image. Any amount, no matter how low, will get them a 300 dpi file suitable for printing 8.5 inches x 11 inches.
The Picture Licensing Universal System Coalition, an industry-neutral nonprofit that aims to simplify and facilitate image-rights management, has elected five new directors to its board. They represent their industries' trade and nonprofit associations. The PLUS board unites all industries involved in image creation, distribution, use and preservation.