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Articles from October 2010
Masterfile-owned Crestock Corp. has expanded its range of images and introduced several additional file sizes. The company statement takes a shot at other microstock providers: "One dollar means one dollar: Crestock has one of the simplest pricing models in the microstock sector."
Students and teachers needing images for research, term papers and projects can now get them from Britannica Image Quest, an online database of images sourced and provided by a London/Chicago-based Universal Images Group.
Veer has launched Free-For-All, a
series of four different one-week community challenges that aim to give
away $30,000 in prizes to participants who can try to win just by downloading free images, fonts, avatars, screensavers and wallpapers.
Many stock photography
professionals remain largely unaware of the widespread and
institutionalized practice of copyright infringement that plagues the
textbook licensing industry. The dual purpose of this article is to
provide a brief introduction to this phenomenon and, in doing so, to
help alert photographers, vendors, and other stock photography
professionals to the fact that major U.S. textbook publishers have
been—and, indeed, still continue to—systematically infringe third-party
copyrights in photographs that they use in textbooks and various other
materials. We also will explore some of the various factors that allowed
this situation to occur and go unnoticed, despite being an
industry-wide practice that has given rise to some of the most egregious
cases of copyright infringement in recent memory.
In a smart move that borrows from trend-setting technology practices of
newer image companies, Corbis has launched a contributor Web site to
provide a single pace for represented photographers to manage their
relationship with the company.
SuperStock refunds photographer royalties after purchasing U.K. agency.
I’d like to encourage you to take a look at some of the “Free Stuff”
available on this site. Click on this link
(
http://www.photolicensingoptions.com) and you find a list of Free Stuff
in the column on the right. The stories listed will give you a good
sense of the resources available on this site.
Agency professionals, service providers, photographers and those
interested in stock licensing are invited to the ASMP Meetup between
5:00pm and 6:30pm in the Javits Center Cafeteria on Friday, October 29.
Everyone interested in stock photography is invited; ASMP membership is
not required.
The president and chief operating officer of the Associated Press
recently spoke at the meeting of the Southern Newspaper Publishers
Association in Austin. Although Tom Curly was addressing the news
industry, the issues discussed were identical to those faced by image
creators and marketers, particularly matters that address online and
digital uses of content.
Copyright lawyers Dan Nelson and Kevin McCulloch provide some background on how major U.S. textbook
publishers have been—and, indeed, still continue to—systematically
infringe photo the copyrights of the photographs they use in
textbooks and various other materials. They explore some of the
various factors that allowed this situation to occur and go unnoticed,
despite being an industry-wide practice that has given rise to some of
the most egregious cases of copyright infringement in recent memory.
Alamy is seeking an industry heavyweight to develop a worldwide news division.
“Our contention is that the iPad version of a magazine is part of the
rate base of that magazine,” said Condé Nast vice president of editorial
operations Richard Levine at the recent conference of the Picture
Archive Council of America. “A new strategy for acquiring content is
needed because it will be impossible to anticipate how imagery initially
acquired primarily for print use might be repurposed,” he continued.
This is not unique to Condé Nast issue, but rather a position other
publishers have already taken or will need to take in the near future.
With this article Dan finishes his five part series on the steps you need to take to become a professional photographer. Today he talks about Finding Success and
explores what it takes to achieve success in a
very tough, competitive and rapidly changing industry. The previous articles include:
Part 1- Making the Jump,
Part 2- Getting the Gear and Expertise,
Part 3- Marketing and Self-Promotion and
Part 4- The Business of Photography.
Richard Levine’s keynote address at the PACA International Conference,
“The Impact of the iPad and the Future Use of Content,” raised a number
of critical issues for the stock photo industry.
A new piece of legislation, “Combating Online Infringement
and Counterfeits Act,” is now working its way through U.S. Senate
hearings. Now is the time for anyone interested in copyright protection
to contact their senators and congress men or women.
For the second consecutive year, PicScout has made Deloitte’s annual
Fast 50 list for Israel. With five-year revenue growth exceeding 600%,
PicScout ranked at 14 overall and in third place among Internet
companies.
Photographers are primarily right brain people. We’re creative. We focus on the
subjective, the random, the visual and the intuitive. We tend to focus
on the whole picture first, then focus on the details later. That’s why
we bought cameras and chose a career that revolves around creativity. Business, on the other hand, is analytical, sequential, verbal and
it focuses on the details. These are all left brain ways of thinking.
Often times these clash with what may come more naturally to us, and the
result is that we’re just not always the best business people.
Advertising growth is continuing to surprise analysts. ZenithOptimedia
has upgraded its forecast for global ad growth in 2010 from 3.5% to
4.8%. The forecast for 2011 is a continued growth of 4.6%. However, this
positive news comes somewhat qualified.
A2Z Keywording released new image tagging software, Keyword Perfect 2.0, which was initially developed for in-house keywording.
Marketing is where things start to get scary for some photographers.
After all, we’re passionate enough about our imagery to want to make
this our full or part time profession, and we’re certainly adept with
technology and digital imaging gear. However, this is where photography
starts enter the business realm, which, unfortunately, doesn’t always
come easy to some creative and artistic types. However, photographers are good at creative problem solving, right?
Well, marketing is the same thing. It’s solving a very simple creative problem that can easily be summed up in one sentence. “How can I convince clients to hire me?”
Creative Commons has released a Public Domain Mark, a label that
communicates the absence of copyright restrictions to the public and
allows works to be easily discovered online.
Steve Pigeon welcomed Ellen Boughn to Creastock, a wholly owned microstock subscidiary of Toronto-based Masterfile.
The Picture Licensing Universal System Coalition says the PLUS
Registry—a resource that promises to connect images, rights holders and
rights information—will launch this fall.
Jim Pickerell has released a new e-book.
Secrets To Building A Successful Photography Career
examines recent changes in the photography business environment, from
technological improvements to the introduction of microstock and the
availability of free images.
Fotolia has partnered with online artist community deviantART to launch a
stock offering within the deviantART network. The arrangement has
benefits on both sides: 15-million-member-strong deviantART represents
what the two partners say is the largest online aggregation of
microstock users. At the same time, Fotolia can help artist-members of
this community monetize their own work.
Everyday artists are being instructed by experts how to promote their
art business online, in social media and in all ways digitally. The
experts espouse these “must do’s and must have’s” on how an artist
should market themselves virally. Yes, digital marketing is extremely
important, but artists should not forget to market and promote
themselves offline as well. Marketing offline is another way to drive
traffic to an artist’s website and help to create new business
opportunities. Overall, offline marketing helps to make sales and to
brand the artist and their artwork.
Former president of the Stock Artists Alliance Shannon Fagan will chair
the newly established Stock Imaging License Committee of the American
Society of Media Photographers. Fagan will moderate the new ASMP stock-photo listserv community, write for the Strictly Business Blog and speak at the 2011 Strictly Business 3 conferences.
PicScout’s Image Tracker software has helped Glen Carner’s Hawaiian Art
Network dramatically grow revenue in less than a year by locating
infringements and assisting in the collection of appropriate fees for
unauthorized uses. Currently, revenue recovered from infringements
accounts for about 50% of Hawaiian Art Network’s income.
This is the second of five articles where Dan Bailey discusses what it takes to make the jump from amateur photographer to pro and work towards making a living with photography. This article focuses on the types of gear and professional expertise you'll need to gain as you make the transition. In future articles, he'll discuss, Marketing and Self-Promotion, The Business of Photography and how to put it all together and get started in a photography career.
Practically any report having anything to do with multimedia includes
a mention of MediaStorm, a company that rightfully describes itself as
“widely recognized for quality editorial production and as leaders in
multimedia storytelling.” In addition to producing award-winning cinematic narratives and consulting for the
world’s largest nonprofits and media companies, the company also has a
training offering—and its next Methodology Workshop registration closes
at the end of the month.
Unemployment in the United States may be affecting freelance
photographers in some not so obvious ways. While many photographers and
designers have either lost their jobs or are under employed what we
often forget is that those who still have viable businesses may now be
competing with the unemployed as they produce new images as a way or
earning a little extra cash.
So localization as a marketing concept is not so new. For instance, in
the American retail space—think big supermarkets—“buy local” went
hyper-popular a couple of years ago, with big brands like Hannaford and
ShopRite touting their support for local farms and produce. “Support
your local business” has been around for a while as well. Now more than
ever, image buyers are seeking images that resonate with particular
communities and locations—but what does it really mean to the stock
producer?
Dallas Morning News publisher Jim Moroney III recently sent his
staff a memo that said: “We’re no longer a newspaper company. We’re a
news media company. The newspaper is just one way we package and
distribute the content we publish.”
Under a new agreement, Intellectual Ventures will exclusively sublicense Digimarc technology patents—for a $36 initial license-issue fee and 20% of further profits.
Photographers whose business it is to produce stock images that are
designed for use in textbooks should IMMEDIATELY look for another line
of work. For years the major textbook publisher -- not fly by night
organizations -- have been paying fees based on minimal press runs.
Then, with no regard whatsoever for the written contracts they executed
with the sellers, they have made extensive additional uses of the images
without making any attempt to compensate the image creators in any way
for the use that exceeded the original license agreement. These
additional uses have resulted in millions of dollars of extra revenue
for the publishers. Such actions were not occasional oversights, but
policy.
This is the first of five articles where Dan Bailey discusses his 15 year odyssey in photography, from being an amateur to making a living taking pictures. He starts out by outlining a number of things you need to consider before deciding to jump from amateur to pro. In future he'll discuss Getting The Gear and Expertise, Marketing and Self Promotion and other aspects of the Business of Photography.
The copyright office tells us that only 5% of photographers register
their images. ASMP wants to change that and has created an initiative
called
Registration ©ounts to create awareness of copyright
issues, to encourage all photographers to register their work, and to
provide the tools and information needed for registration.
Polylooks, a photo service launched in June 2009 by Deutsche Telekom, Germany’s leading provider of communications services, has announced that it will close operations on December 31, 2010.
All photographers working with iSyndica must contact them before October
17, 2010 to get a refund. According to iSyndica this is required,
“because we do not have your billing details and cannot refund orders
after a certain point. Without your information, we cannot refund you.
Do fill in the form before October 17, 2010 at the latest.”
In his biography,
The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan said, “The presumption of individual property ownership and the
legality of its transfer must be
deeply embedded in the culture of a society
(emphasis mine) for free market economies to function effectively. In
the West, the moral validity of property rights is accepted, or at least
acquiesced in, by virtually the whole of the population.” I was
struck by how this relates to the photography business today. The concept of individual property ownership is no
longer deeply embedded in the culture of our society. A large segment of
the population believes that certain property should be free to all and
that the creators have no rights once the property is shown to anyone.
Using the creative works of others without permission or compensation is
becoming the morally accepted standard.
ASPP has published a very informative guide for picture editors and
researchers on locating copyright holders of imagery when the name and
contact information is not readily attached to an image. The guide, and a
link to a downloadable PDF, are available free or charge.