The stock photo industry has developed into a business with
No Bottom Line pricing. Some customers can get as many images as they want for whatever they are willing to pay. That is why more and more frequently royalties paid photographers are in cents, rather than dollars. I can’t think of any other industry that operates this way.
The two major trade associations for those who license stock photo images and video are CEPIC and DMLA. The DMLA (Digital Media Licensing Association) is primarily a U.S. organization that usually has its annual conference in late October. CEPIC (Coordination of European Picture Agencies Stock, Press and Heritage) is based in Europe, and usually draws attendees from around the world. CEPIC normally has its annual Congress in late May or early June. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was necessary to postpone its 2020 Congress. The 2020 Congress has now been re-scheduled to take place from May 19 through 21, 2021 with no actual Congress occurring in 2020.
A couple days ago we told you about the sad case of
Stephanie Sinclair who
had an image used by Mashable after she told them that $50 wasn’t a
sufficient payment for permission to use her copyrighted image. After 4 years a judge in the Southern
District Court of New York decided in Mashable’s favor saying that if a
photographer posts a picture on a “public” Instagram account anyone can
use that picture for any purpose whatsoever without permission or
compensation.? But now
Instagram tells Ars Technica, their TOS doesn't give companies like Mashable the right to make such uses. Which legal opinion is right?
One or my readers, Amyn Nasser, recently asked, “Isn’t it about time that ALL photographers started using copyright watermarks on all images that appear on social media platforms?" To a certain extent many photographers and agencies have tried for a decade or so to reduce infringement by placing watermarks on their images. For the most part the effort has been a total failure. This story will explain some of the reasons why.
Photographers interested in licensing rights to the images they produce, or in showing their work in hopes of getting assignments, have a dilemma. The only way they can earn money is to advertise and show potential customers what they can do, but the very act of showing in today’s Internet environment creates a huge risk that the images will be grabbed and used without compensation.
Self-employed, freelance photographers are being hit especially hard by the covid 19 pandemic. Most normally work from one short-term job to the next. They tend to be paid by the job, or the project, not a salary. Often these jobs last only a day, or less in terms of hours spent. When everyone is sheltering in place and much of the country closed down it is impossible for many photographers to find any work at all. The CARES and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) programs have focused on helping salaried employees, not those who are self-employed.
On May 21, 2020, the United States Copyright Office published its long awaited 512 (c) report and issued recommendations. The Copyright Office’s report looks at Congress’ intent in enacting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which offered service providers safe harbors to provide incentives for internet platforms and copyright owners to cooperate in order to detect and deal with copyright infringements in the online environment. The Report looks at that balance in light of the changes in the internet in the past 20-plus years and concludes that the current operation of the section 512 safe harbor system is unbalanced, with copyright owners bearing too much of the burden to deter piracy<
One thing that has bugged me lately is the host of ads I receive almost daily offering detailed reports of "Global Stock Photography Market Potential Growth" for the next 5 years. I haven’t paid for or read any of these reports, but I am pretty sure they are all scans. I hope no one is throwing their money away on these reports, or worst yet, believing them. The creators of these reports ask unsuspecting interested parties for fees ranging from $3,400 to $3,960 to read their fanciful industry growth predictions.
The Appellate Court of the Second Circuit in New York has decided an important important case for photographers regarding registrations and “Look Back” periods for copyright damages (Sohm v. Scholastic Inc., No. 18-2110, 2020 WL 2375056 (2d Cir. May 12, 2020). The court upheld the validity of the copyright registration procedure utilized by photography licensing agencies like Corbis Corporation, and held that courts may award copyright damages only for the three-year period preceding commencement of the action.
Photographers hoping to earn enough producing images to support themselves need to look for another line of work; one that has a better guarantee of income for time invested. The business of photographing meetings and events is unlikely to ever come back to where it was before Covid 19. As the world works its way out of this crisis, there will be fewer small or large group events and more Zoom meetings that are not conducive to photography. But stock photography isn't the answer either.
More Free Articles
Other Recent Stories
Take a look at Jon Oringer’s $52 million home https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9562059/Billionaire-founder-Shutterstock-lists-oceanfront-Hamptons-home-52-million.html
in the Hamptons on Long...
Read More
The chart below allows you to easily track the growth trends of Shutterstock quarter-by-quarter over the last 11-years and see the number of images in the collection, number of downloads and the gros...
Read More
Shutterstock has reported Q4 2020 revenue of $180.9 million up 9% compared to $166.4 million in Q4 2019 and up from $165.2 million the previous quarter. Revenue per download was $3.91 per-image compa...
Read More
More from Microstock
With the decline in public sporting events due to Covid-19, and thus the need for photo coverage, many sports photographers have seen a significant decline in demand for their services. But media com...
Read More
After publishing our article “Getty’s RF ‘Market Freeze’: Expensive Customer Mess?" I received the following clarifying message from Matthew McKibben, Getty Images, PR Manager in The Americas. He sa...
Read More
I can remember when I was primarily an assignment photographer and occasionally sold outtakes from assignments on the side. Most of the income I needed to support my family came from assignments. Sto...
Read More
More from Macrostock
Stay Connected
Sign up to receive email notification when new stories are posted.
Follow Us
About This Site
This stock photography news site focuses on the business side of photography with a special emphasis on stock photography. Our goal is to help photographers maximize their earnings based on the quality of their work and the commitment they are prepared to make to the trade. The information provided will be applicable to part-timers as well as full time professional photographers. We’ll leave it to others to teach photographers how to take better pictures.
Jim Pickerell launched his career as a photographer in 1963. In 1990 he began publishing a regular newsletter on stock photography. In 1995 the information was made available online as well as in print and was gradually expanded to a daily service.
Click here for Pickerell's full biography.
Top Categories