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.
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.
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.
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.
Getty Images, Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire The Image Bank from Eastman Kodak Company for $183 million. The cash acquisition is expected to close in December 1999.
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.
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.
Getty Images, Inc. has announced the acquisition of EyeWire, Inc., one of the largest providers of royalty-free photography, video, audio, typefaces, software and other design resources to creative professionals and business users.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
More agencies are deciding that their survival as they compete with RF is dependent on being able to sell high-end exclusive rights. To do this they believe they need to control the rights to all similars to their catalog images, not just the image itself. This tends to limit sales, and gross dollar volume, for many photographers and is creating quite a dilemma.
As more and more customers choose Royalty Free over Rights Protected Images the overall size of the market for stock photos, in terms of dollars, not number of images used, is changing. Consider the statistics.
With this file you can print out the entire July 1999 issue of SELLING STOCK which includes: Comstock For Sale, Business Week Raises Rates, Editorial Photo Forum, Corbis Acquires Sygma, Geographic Guilty of Copyright Infringement, TSI Pricing Structures, Getty Buys Art.com, ''Artists Choice'' at EyeWire and more.
Several short items including: TSI Production Shoots, Video Pirates, Web Advertising Rates, Lifting Images Off The Net and more.
Business Week has announced an interm rate increase after receiving pressure from a group of editorial photographers. Negotiations are continuing with two full proposals on the table and more is expected by fall.