As an update to this story (1; 2; 3) the ASMP delivers the following story:
"In New York City, on Wednesday, May 5, 2004, Alan Chin, freelance photographer, Victor Perlman, American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) Counsel and Managing Director, and Eugene Mopsik, ASMP Executive Director met with William Schmidt, Associate Managing Editor of The New York Times and other members of the Times staff. The purpose of the meeting was to clarify the terms and conditions of the newly offered NYT Freelance Photographers Contract and to bring to the attention of the Times what may have been unforeseen issues surrounding the wording and implementation of the contract.
The meeting was cordial; however, as previously indicated by the Times, it yielded no prospect of change to the core issue of the contract - work for hire leading to joint copyright ownership in perpetuity with no additional compensation at this time. In effect, the contract makes photographers both partners and competitors with NYT in the syndication of images.
Regardless of any changes that the Times might be willing to make to improve the wording of the contract, the basic terms of the contract will not be revised. The only circumstance that we can see that would compel the Times to make substantive changes is if a sizeable number of the photographers on whom the Times relies were to not sign the contract and their absence were to become a problem for the Times.
This is one of those pivotal times in a photographer’s career where many factors must be weighed and individual decisions must be made. Key in this decision is a determination of the value of the work being contributed to the Times and the value received. If enough photographers sign this contract and if it becomes the industry standard, it will force many independent newspaper and editorial photographers to find additional streams of revenue while they, the photographers, subsidize their clients."
[Provided by ASMP; Headline quoted from Editorialphoto Yahoogroup which you should join]
