StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

Brian Palmer´s Digital Diary: Witnessing the War in Iraq 07-03-2004 until 08-21-2004

[© Brian Palmer/SIPA Press]

Brian Palmer (Sipa Press; see his bio) has published (PixelPress) a text and photo diary with his experiences in Iraq, 07-03 until 08-21-2004. Palmer writes in the Epilogue of "Digital Diary: Witnessing the War":

All told, I spent about seven weeks with various elements of the 24th MEU. I was expecting plenty of rah-rah triumphalism and USA-first hyperpatriotism but found only a little, not a lot. There were a few folks who hooted at John Kerry when he appeared on the chow hall's TV screen, and then cheered when Bush came on. "John Kerry is a fucking communist" for tossing his Vietnam War ribbons, asserted a cocky young Marine from Arkansas, Corporal Michael Euler, a soon-to-be father who knows what he knows and will tell you so in a heartbeat. There was the major who paused mid-sentence when a US fighter jet flew overhead. "You hear that," he asked me. "That's the sound of freedom." More than a few Marines I spoke with, however, accepted without question the Bush administration's casus belli for going into Iraq -- the 9-11 connection with Saddam Hussein’s government and the alleged weapons of mass destruction -- an argument I do not buy.
[...]
It has been difficult to find venues for these stories and photos. They are quieter, more mundane and subtle than, for example, the graphic coverage of the fighting in Najaf. Gauging the progress of nation-building is difficult, time-consuming, expensive, beige. Flying bullets and screaming protesters provide ready-made drama for networks and newspapers that compete moment to moment for consumers' attention. It may seem counterintuitive, but it's less risky from an economic standpoint (though not from a personal one, as is the case with Najaf) to cover the story everyone else is covering. The very presence of the media transforms an event into news. Their absence, well...
Will the media start measuring the progress in Iraq, both in fighting the militants and nation-building, against the administration's promises? Will the Iraq story evaporate as Afghanistan did (as well as Haiti and Somalia and Liberia), or will Americans begin to demand accountability for this open-ended effort, which costs lives and limbs, Iraqi and American, every month, and billions of dollars? Will citizens, myself included, press both presidential candidates for their one-, two-, and five-year plans for Iraq? I'm skeptical, but not without hope.
[...]

Links to his entries of Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, with photos by Brian Palmer and Christopher Smith.

Pixelpress states

This is Brian Palmer's final installment of his 'Digital Diary: Witnessing the War.'" Other photo essays by different authors on various aspects of the War in Iraq and the political situation in the USA will follow as part of the "Democracy in America" series.

In The Case 'People vs. SIO'...

Stock Index Online (SIO) finally generously has agreed (read the Update section at the bottom of the page) to rewrite the review about Digital Railroad. Read the new entry: "All aboard the Digital Railroad". The old entry was terminated.

istockphoto.com: You do the math

First off, thanks for all the comments regarding istockphoto.com. Secondly, there were also lots of referrers regarding the post "istockphoto.com: "Bringing the price down to a level where everybody can afford to buy a stock photo" (this seems to have been a subject on the Alamy Contributor List/Yahoo). Besides the discussion of the Pros and Cons photographer Ei Katsumata recently wrote a reply to "istockphoto.com informal study" which was discussed [STOCKPHOTO] Digest Number 2086] at the Stock Photo List/Yahoo:

I did a bit of researching to estimate how much money one can make at istockphoto. Check out work by Lise Gagne--I used her for this 'study.' She seems to be one of the top sellers over there.
Her photos are highly produced business lifestyle imagery.

Here's a link to her istock profile:
http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=162596

Since she joined in April 2003, Ms Gagne has 73,695 downloads (sales) over a 16 month period. Since then, she has uploaded 1,036 photos. The commission she receives from each sale is either $0.10, $0.20, or $0.30, depending on the file size. Let's assume, on average, that she makes $0.20 per sale (probably more, as I imagine most buyers will pay an extra buck or two just to have future access to a hi-res file). That translates to [(73,695)*($0.20)]=$14,739 over a 16 month period, with an average of 518 images on the site over that period (assuming that she contributed photos in a linear fashion). So her income per photo per year would be [($14,739/518images/16mo)*(12mo/1yr)]=$21.34 per image per year. If she can keep that rate of sales up for her existing collection for the next year, she'll make another [(73,695sales/16mo.)*(12mo./1yr.)($0.20/sale)]=$11,054,
without adding any more images.

Considering the marketability of her images, I'm sure she can make lots more money at an agency specializing in RM lifestyle imagery (masterfile, workbook, corbis, etc). So why would Ms Gagne continue to stay at istockphoto? Perhaps she just doesn't know any better. Or perhaps she was once rejected by an agency and doesn't want to bother with the submission process again. Or maybe she has a hand in the workings of istockphoto. I guess there could be a number of reasons. But if I were to to through the time and trouble of producing model-released lifestyle images, I'd certainly check out more reputable agencies before ever considering istock.

See also "Analysis #7--Why Royalty Free WON'T completely take over the industry!" (Bahar Gidwani, Index Stock).

Corbis: Revenue up 27 percent in QI/II 2004

The Seattle Times in "Revenue up 27.1 percent in first half, company says":

Corbis...said yesterday that it increased revenue by more than a quarter in the first half of the year and was poised to become cash-flow positive in 2005.
[..]
Although privately owned, Corbis began releasing more details of its operations earlier this year.
Corbis, which said it grew revenue by 20 percent to $140 million in 2003, reported that revenue grew 27.1 percent in the first half of 2004 from a year earlier. Excluding currency gains, Corbis said revenue increased 23.3 percent.
"For the remainder of this year we're expecting to continue the momentum we've had in the first six months," Corbis Chief Financial Officer Sue McDonald said. Previously, Corbis was forecasting 20 percent revenue growth for 2004.

August Common Cents is online: "Living under the new regime"

This month in Common Cents by Mark Loundy: "Fear of Digital". Furthermore under "Leftovers":

The resolutions that I proposed to redirect the NPPA toward economic issues were defeated at the July meeting of the NPPA Board. To learn more about the proposals, go to http://www.loundy.org/nppa/. Stay tuned for further efforts to address the critical need for stronger leadership in this area.

Istockphoto.com: “Destructive Pricing”

Related story: "
istockphoto.com: "Bringing the price down to a level where everybody can afford to buy a stock photo"

Some quotes from a recent discussion at Stockphoto.net. All started with a message “istockphoto.com is scary for the industry“:

I tried to post this message on alamycontributors group a while back in response to one of Jeff Greenberg's post, but my posts rarely seem to actually get posted over there. Perhaps the moderator doesn't
like me... ;)

To the topic at hand...

http://www.istockphoto.com
[...]
They sell RF images for as little as $0.50 each, and as high as $3.00 each (dependent on file size). The photographer's cut is anywhere from $0.10 to $0.30 per sale.
[...]
There are big companies purchasing these photos as well. One of the contributors posted an AOL advertisement with a photo of his. AOL probably paid a buck or two for it--the photographer's cut was likely less than a quarter! I was quite surprised to read that--I would've assumed that a large company like AOL would want something a bit more unique....

So here's the scary data:
http://www.alexa.com/browse/categories?catid=253870
According to alexa.com, traffic-wise, they are rated below Getty (not surprising) and above Corbis (scroll to the bottom right to see the top 5 websites in the business>photography>stock category). Also ranking between these two stock giants is Photos.com, which is a subsription based RF site.
[...]
I'd like to believe that istockphoto and photos.com offers images to an entirely different market than agencies dealing in rights-managed imagery, but if companies like AOL are shopping there, I'm not really sure what to believe.

Readers were reponding:

This is what I call destructive pricing - an entirely different things from the RF model operated by Alamy etc.

and...

What you can believe is that if there are usable photos there, at least some photo users, like AOL, will be all over the new penny photography, especially if there are search methods for cutting through the crap to the photos that will suffice for their jobs (at their now lower photographic standards). They have been primed for it by RF purveyors.

furthermore...

Now I have visited the RF site with that low price and involved on Istockphoto there is a photographer,..., with some very good images and a high technical skill. Looks professional.

and finally...

There are others who do highly marketable stock work. Check out the "most popular files" section, and browse the work of the contributors there. You'll find that some of the photographers do much production work for the bulk of their photos, involving different models, wardrobes, and settings. It seems there are a handful of contributors that specialize in business or lifestyle imagery. Though their work is pretty ordinary, it is high quality stuff that I would consider quite marketable. And many of the better contributors use 6MP dSLRs.
[...]
But those high quality lifestyle shots deserve much more, especially considering that they are all model released!

Believe it or not, this is only the beginning routine. These words are only a cold comfort:

...how many of thesewannabees actually earn a living from photography (probably none), as opposed to how many of them get beer money from their "professional" pictures (at a buck a pop, or less, they better have an even greater output than JG), while in the day to day world they pay their bills by peeling potatoes at McDonald's.

[© Image: Barnes&Noble/Indiana.edu/The Unknown Artist]

Right Forecast: Thinkstock And Thinkstock Footage Sold

As predicted earlier (May 19: "Rumors, Rumors, Rumors"; first with real names, then in a figure of speech), Thinkstock and Thinkstock Footage have been sold to Jupiter Media (1; 2) "for $4.0 million in cash, the assumption of certain limited liabilities and 50,000 restricted shares of Jupitermedia common stock. Thinkstock has been in the stock imagery and stock footage business since 1999 and is based in Charlotte, NC" (Link). As written earlier: "a sweet nice agency located in - no, not in SC." (Link)

Related: "Comstock Images Acquired by Jupitermedia"
Related (in general, with big question marks): "The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition"

[© Ranchooasis]

Audioblogging From Hell -- From The Old Palace of Saddam Hussein´s Sons

Reader Glenn Tolle wrote in a comment to "Audioblogs: Nine bucks and you can post to a worldwide audience":

Speaking of audioblogging, I've been audioblogging from Uday and Qusay's old palace in Mosul, Iraq. No garden variety political rants, just fiddle and mandolin tunes recorded over a laptop in the early morning hours. A much better use of the palace than what Saddam's boys used it for.

The blog states:

An unrelenting student of Celtic and Bluegrass music shares his acoustic travails, while working as a Civil Affairs trooper in Iraq. What follows is a curious alchemy of a liberal arts education, two decades of military culture, and stainless steel optimism.

You have to select the July archive to hear some of the recordings:

The Star Spangled Banner (Fiddle) Play Ball! Saddam would have a fit if he knew I was playing this in one of his palaces. (Link)

Well, the times, they are achanging, as the song goes.

[© Image Glenn Tolle: "Posing with my Martin backpacker mandolin in front of a mural of a cuddly, father-figure Saddam. This cat was seriously into himself. Now he's all back of the bus, about to be sentenced by the Iraqis."; Link]

[Update] Digital Railroad: A New Hub For The Professional Photographer To Organize And Sell His Work

Some photo agencies won´t like this... . It is the old story of "turn the industry on its head by taking control from the big guys and putting it back onto the hands of the photographers“, the unforgotten sentence once stated by the CEO of Exactlyphoto in SF in 1999, the company that burned $11 million Venture Capital (Link 1 +2). But, this seems to be an example of a press release (and more, a presentation of an idea and a company) that is worth to be reprinted word by word (full text here):

Digital Railroad Inc. today launched the first online archive system that gives the power of a large photo agency to individual photographers.
Digital Railroad's Web-based application services transform the individual photographer’s business. Digital Railroad, www.digitalrailroad.net, automates repetitive workflow tasks, as well as streamlines delivery of images and communications with clients—providing photographers an online searchable archive that unlocks potential image revenue.
Photography legends and previous White House photographers Dirck Halstead and David Hume Kennerly, who have tested the system, believe it is a watershed product that will change the way business is done in the professional photography industry.
"Digital Railroad eliminates the daily technology hurdles photographers struggle with; finally photographers can have access to efficient tools for editing, archiving and simultaneously distributing their work," said Halstead, award-winning photojournalist and publisher of Digital Journalist.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly says Digital Railroad has proven to be the answer for many of his production workflow problems and enables him to interact more easily with his editors.
"I like the real-time collaboration with editors using the digital lightbox features—I can be online in Bangkok, and making selections with an editor in New York. Digital Railroad is the answer for those of us who want total control over our own marketing and distribution,” says Kennerly.
"With Digital Railroad, photographers can finally take control of their creative businesses," said company founder and chief executive officer Evan Nisselson. "We've created an affordable, automated system as powerful as any of the proprietary major agency systems. We free photographers from managing technology and allow them to concentrate on what they love—being creative."
[...]
A core value of Digital Railroad lies in its unique marketing features. Typical photographer Web sites without archives provide no value to buyers as they have no search, download or interactive sharing features. Digital Railroad provides the all-in-one solution so member photographers can have personally branded archives that better market their images, publicly or privately, to buyers around the world—all for a low monthly fee.
Photographers share a lightbox with buyers via a unique link in an email, which opens a Web browser displaying selected images within their archive. Buyers can choose the images they want from the lightbox, share those with their editorial staff, or even search the photographer's entire public online archive. Buyers negotiate and finalize pricing with the photographer, who then makes the purchased selections active for download.

Looking back: since 1998 (in some countries it goes back to 1996), the question for the professional photographer with a certain level of success has always been: how do I sell my work in the digital age? Should I sell my work via a photo agency? Should I sell my work via a photo portal? Should I set up or buy my own web-based image archive for my images? Should I work non-exclusive with two or three agencies and portals and additionally build my own website? What about pricing? What about the conditions? What about the split? What about negotiating? If the photo agency or photo portal promises to pay 70% or more, will they finally retain enough money for marketing? What about the photo buyers, how do they get to know that this portal or my website exists? If I´m (for example) a food photographer, should my work become a part of a big agency or should I talk to some other food photographers to found and build "the one and only" food photography portal? Who is doing all the technical stuff (maintenance, security, back up, etc.)? What about the future? Should I wait with all that digital internet crap until a respected photographer community or association builds a serious photo portal? Will small portals, founded by former photographers, survive in a world of giant portals with million of images? What about the advantages of models that are "monthly-fee-driven" instead of "percentage-driven"?

In this field of new photo agencies and photo portals we all have seen a lot of companies appearing and disappearing. And a lot of companies who quickly changed their business model from a "photographer-concentrated" way to a "Wal Mart" model. No names here, and no hard feelings. A short history of those old days can be found here (1; 2). A wise man (we all know him) once wrote about his own internet adventure: "The ... is another of those Internet Businesses that failed to achieve the critical mass necessary to make it useful... . As a result the site has continually disappointed those who use it". In those old days, that simply could happen.
So now, there is another newcomer: Digital Railroad. The core sentences describing the activity are:

Digital Railroad gives you the tools to easily manage, market and sell your digital images online. With Digital Railroad, you’ll have a personalized online archive system as powerful as that of a large agency for a low monthly fee. Focus on making great pictures rather than worrying about managing your technology.
You control how, where, and when to share or sell your images. Members can use the system purely to minimize their workflow and syndicate to agencies. Others may choose to leverage the system to sell their images directly to buyers. Some may do both.

Digital Railroad works with the "One-time Setup" ($195 waived) and "Subscription"-fee model ($49.95/month; Link for the pricing), so no need to concern about a 70/30, a 80/20 split and possible unpleasant future developments of this split. Additionally, "Upload data traffic (uploading images to your archive) is free and is not deducted from your monthly bandwidth allowance".
For the specialists among us there is a small hint that Digial Railraod may be powered by Venture Capital:

All your images are stored on our highly secure SQL database and Linux storage systems which are located in a first class co-location facility with an OC-48 speed IP backbone, redundant power feeds, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, backup diesel generator power, 24 x 7 monitored security, fire-suppression systems, as well as 24 x 7 system administrators on-site to monitor and maintain the data center infrastructure and client equipment.

This is usually a clear sign of a greater amount of money in the background, and also "We provided extensive online help and tips throughout the system. Our veteran team of engineers, editors and photographers are available to you via online support", but so far we have no real evidence (comments are welcome!). The company was founded by Evan Nisselson (Founder and CEO, who worked -- among other jobs -- as photo editor at SABA Press Photos; here is the link to the management team). Peter Nisselson is on the board of directors ("He is an investor...Chairman of Star Struck, Ltd., a public company. Since 1982, he has been investing in small companies), this might be a sign of a family Angel Investor. Link to the impressive "Board of Advisors", too many people, too many careers to name them all here.

The site comes up with "real world" testimonials from Sisse Brimberg, Photographer, National Geographic; Ron Haviv, Photojournalist, VII Agency; Damon Kiesow, Senior Photo Editor, America Online; Jon Levy, Photojournalist and Founder, Foto8 and Ei8ht Magazine; Lisa Quiñones, Photojournalist, Black Star; Roger Richards, Photo Editor, Virginian-Pilot and Photographer, and a section "What professional users have to say about the Digital Railroad system".

This is the good news: well-known pros and photogs involved from the beginning. Sundance DiGiovani, Chief Creative Offficer, Temple NY Gallery: "We just can't go to thirty different photographers' websites and hope they have a searchable online archive with high resolution images. If we had a system with a consistent interface to get content from a variety of different photographers, we're going to use it because we're about speed, variety and great photos."

The technical features Digital Railroad offers (esp. the new lightbox function) are among the most sophisticated available today: ftp syndication, Captioning can be applied to whole groups or individual images ONLINE, Syndicate group, Manage permissions, Look and feel of your own website, Manage Viewer Permissions, Dashboard, Feature Images, Share Production Tasks, Search for Model Release/Property Release Y/N, etcetc.

Remember, it´s a web-based system (cataloguing, archiving etc.), and this can be a very tricky thing, to architecture something solid for the professional market (just remember the history of the two other companies who ever tried so). Maybe I´m the wrong person to judge about that with gigantic enthusiasm. Let´s instead quote Jon Levy, Founder, Publisher, Foto 8:

Digital Railroad is set to be the tool that will enable photographers to take control of their very own stock future: as easy as one two three! Cataloguing and archiving will become a pleasure rather than a chore... AND at the receiving end, the photographers' clients - we the photo editors - will get a submission of images that can be edited, shared with other photo editors and art directors, and downloaded in the blink of an eye. Get ready to throw out the old lightboxes!

I´m hungry to see the details of the "Coming soon" features: "Keyword System", "E-Commerce: Set firm pricing on your images" and NATURALLY "Digital Rights Management: Associate specific rights management for selections of photos in your archive".

However, some questions remain: an interactive query refinement (all that machine-learning and neuronal-network stuff working with Keyword-Related Image Retrieval or Content Based Image Retrieval) is, no, not is, but should be the standard for such a system (some details here). Furthermore the possibilty of a 7/24 automated pricing model without user (i.e. copyright owner) interaction (as said above, this may be a "coming soon"-feature). What about categories? And a "switch"-function: searching for a keyword in all images of all websites of all photographers, but also only at one website of one participating photographer. And: can the system suffer from the success it probably -- and hopefully -- will experience? What if there are -- one day -- 4,000 personal Digital Railroad websites of participating photographers, each one with 10,000 images: which picture researcher can handle or search efficiently 40,000,000 images if he doesn´t want to look at only one or a few of his fellow photographers? There are solutions for this problem, but I haven´t found a recommended solution for this problem written clearly in letters at the site of Digital Railroad (hint for readers: that doesn´t mean that the people at Digital Railroad haven´t already a solution for this problem...).

So far, from what we can see today in the present status quo, this is the best system ever for the single professional photographer, and we are snoopy to experience what future developments will bring.

Small hint: a real contact address (street, phone) would be great. Talk to your VC.
Another hint: Scott Braut, Director of Product and Photo Services at Digital Railroad, maintains a photography news blog at www.PictureEditor.com.

[Update August 13:

Off Topic: What Others Talk About

Just two great posts:

Ross Mayfield: "Internal and External Corporate Blogs"

JD: "Men in Black: from the Iraq frontlines" ("CBFTW, a soldier in the Stryker Brigade in Iraq who hails from San Francisco, has a blog called MY WAR - Fear and Loathing in Iraq")

A21Group (Superstock) : Second Quarter Financial Results

Conditional Sentences in Financial Reports: "Had the acquisition of SuperStock occurred at the beginning of fiscal 2004, revenue for the six-months ended June 30, 2004 would have been $4.8 million." Anyway, here are the A21Group key numbers:

-Gross revenue for the second quarter of 2004 was $2.5 million
-Gross revenue for the six-months ended June 30, 2004 was $3.3 million

(Raed more at BusinessWire: "a21 Reports Second Quarter Financial Results")

The Florida Times-Union delivers some additional information in "Shooting for super status in stock image industry":

By comparison, a21 is relatively small, as SuperStock is currently producing close to $10 million in annual revenue. But third-place is not an unreasonable goal. According to SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Chris Rowen, who follows Getty, after Getty and Corbis, the third-biggest firm in the industry probably has about $50 million in annual sales.
And in a fragmented industry, there are plenty of acquisition opportunities to grow a company despite a number of acquisitions by Getty and Corbis.
[..]
A21 was formed in 2000 by Pleus, an investment banker, and became public two years ago by merging with another public company while it looked for acquisition opportunities in the stock image industry.
Pleus brought Haim Ariav in as president to help form the company. Ariav, a former fashion and beauty photographer, had run his own Web design and production company in New York called Muffin-Head Productions Inc. before selling it to DVCi Technologies in 1998. Ariav said his experience made him a perfect candidate to run a stock image company.
"I get the chance to use all my Internet experience and photography experience and put it into one company," he said.
[..]
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a21 paid $2.6 million in cash and paid off $2.2 million in debt to acquire SuperStock. It also issued convertible preferred stock to SuperStock's owners.
[..]
As a private company, SuperStock didn't report financial results. But according to SEC filings made by a21 after the acquisition, SuperStock had net operating losses in the previous four years. Still, a21officials were confident about SuperStock's finances.

Trouble At The New York Times: "Photographers Will Retire Or Pass On, New Photographers Will Be Less Demanding"

[The new "crop of young photographers" and highly trained professional Baby Shooters working for the NYT in the future replacing "the current generation of photographers (who) will retire or pass on", agreeing to work for a bottle of milk (or two) and some brownies; © Infant Vision Laboratory, University of Massachusetts]

The following message came in as a forwarded email from a highly respected and acknowledged resource:

Last week, I was saddened by news of the death of the iconic 95-year-old photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, a pioneering visionary who helped establish modern photojournalism by routinely seeing — and capturing — what came to be called "the decisive moment" in his memorable photographs.

One of the original founders of the Magnum photo agency, Cartier-Bresson worked as a freelance photographer, and inspired a generation of documentary photojournalists, myself included. The timing of his death is particularly ironic, since it comes during a period when modern freelance shooters are under assault by many of the very publications that seek to distribute their work.

In the wake of Cartier-Bresson's death, [you] may be interested in a revealing conversation I had with ... [the] New York Times ... [some time ago].

...

And then, [someone] articulated the Times corporate strategy regarding this issue. It did not come as a surprise, but nevertheless was jolting. "Our accountants, and some managers, feel that with time, the current generation of photographers will retire or pass on, and that eventually, a new crop of young photographers will replace them. Everyone expects this new group will be less demanding."

Henri Cartier-Bresson already is rolling over in his freshly turned grave.

Besides being insulted, young (inexperienced and unreliable??) freelance photographers should think about the real meaning behind these statements and the corporate culture and business climate that generates onerous work-for-hire policies. And shooters of my generation should be inspired to continue the battle for copyright ownership and fair licensing fees.

...a long way to repair this, and all the other damages caused by "the current generation" of corporate leaders at the New York Times.

New TWGA Reports: Sales of Stock Imagery Still Strong

Some new numbers to deal with: TrendWatch Graphic Arts has published two new reports detailing the growth, use, and acceptance of stock imagery.
"Stock photography is one of the few categories that seems to benefit whether the U.S. economy is strong or not", said Heidi Tolliver-Nigro, TWGA Analyst, "when the economy is good, clients do more projects, which equates to a greater need for more images. When the economy is bad, clients do fewer projects, but tight budgets mean less money for commissioned photography and artwork, which translates to increased need for more stock photos. Thus the strength of the stock photography market." Stunning analysis.
Package price of $1,895 for both reports. More details here.

Getty Images Creates Online Resource For Industry Defense Against E-Data

What some people in the last months considered to be a bad joke, finally became an unpleasant reality: the attempt of E-Data to make money with their FREENY-patent ("Edata seeks royalties from all those who use its "patent" in internet transactions", so PACA). Getty Images yesterday created a webpage with lots of information about this problem:

Getty Images, in cooperation with Corbis and the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), has established this compilation of current facts and resources for companies challenged by E-Data Corporation.
E-Data is actively demanding money and filing lawsuits against imagery companies it claims are infringing on its patent.

Related Articles/Introduction:
"E-Data sues Getty Images and Corbis"
"PACA Cries Out Loud: E-Data Against The Stock Photo Industry, Part II"
"E-Data: Settlement with Apple Computer, Pending Litigation Against Getty Images And Corbis"

That Getty Images has decided to create this webpage, is clearly a sign how dangerous this matter might become one day. Apple has already agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money... (see the links above). Where will this end? If Getty and Corbis will have or agree to pay one day, E-Data would be mad (from their point of view) not to sue the next imagery companies: "We have a very strong track record enforcing our intellectual property rights...we will aggressively enforce our rights" (Bert Brodsky, chairman of E-Data Corporation). As we all know, there are some others out there. So again the question ("Getty Images and Corbis ... believe that the intent of the litigation is to set a precedent with the industry, and that money collected as a result of E-Data's demands will be used simply to fund future lawsuits against others"; Link):

How small has your photo agency to be not to get hit?

See also: "Getty Images institutes online resource for industry defense against E-Data" (pdf-file).

Pure Images: The Next Big Fish Hunter With The Marketing BlitzWorld Picture News: First Round Financing

Time for Start-Ups again! After the new UK-based Photo Agency TheImageFile ("Groundbreaking new image library to take on Gates and Getty empires" [btw: big words!] and here), new US-based Photo Agency UpperCut Images (and here) the next Newcomer is the scottish Photo Agency Pure Images with a strong emphasis on "Looking for more realistic images from photographers across Britain? Looking for stock photos that depict the variety of British life?". The SundayHerald/Steven Vass writes in "Scottish photography library targets US giants" (This sounds pretty like the 1999 party -- founded just yesterday in the evening, the next morning a serious competitor to Getty and Corbis):

Scott Davidson, co-founder of Pure Images, said: “We are trying to bridge what we see as being a gap in supplying photography between small specialist libraries and extremely large websites like Getty and Corbis.”
[...]
Although there are British libraries, such as Alamy, that already offer this kind of service, Pure Images is the first in Scotland.
Scott Davidson and his brother Darryl have been building up their stock data base since last November, when they received a loan and a year’s free office space in Denny, near Falkirk, as a runner-up prize for an enterprise competition held by Falkirk Enterprise Action Trust.
Although Scott Davidson says the company still needs a much larger database of images, they now have enough to start targeting customers. The company is gearing up for a marketing blitz on the creative industries to officially launch the site next month, and will be offering generous discounts for the first four weeks.
Pure Images hopes to grow quickly by offering 70% of the licence price to photographers – which Scott Davidson said is higher than competitors’ rates. “There’s quite a variation with competitors. Our rate is on the generous side.
“Percentages paid to photographers by different libraries go down to 40%. Most photographers seem to think 70% is pretty attractive,” said Davidson, adding that photo graphers also get access to how their images are performing.
[...]
As well as the enterprise loan, the company is being funded by the Davidsons’ existing web-design company, Oldhand Media [Link], which they hope to wind down if Pure Images takes off.

Looking back in the history of some stock photo agencies, we had the 90% cut, the 80% cut ... all gone and blown away. Now 70%. And the question remains: Will it work? There had been various posts in the Editorialphoto and Stockphoto Yahoo email groups in the last weeks, so for further informations try the search buttons there.

[Update August 10] Another company in this field who recently received funding is World Picture News ("World Picture News Gets Funding, Ramps Up Operations"): "Focused primarily on photojournalism news and features...the agency will make its first official presence at the Visa pour l'Image photo- journalism festival the following week."
One of the few examples that VC is back in business ("Having acquired several million dollars in investment capital in June", PDN), however not at seed stage ("the agency made sales "in the neighborhood" of $1.1 in 2003", PDN).

[© Image around here]

Zefa Visual Group: Bought For €6 Millions, Sold For €90 Millions?

The Financial Times/Peter Smith today has a somehow surpringing article: "Getty and Corbis to battle over Zefa library".
The article reports that 3i, still the biggest (and for some still the best) VC company in Europe, might have plans to sell the german-based photo agency Zefa:

Zefa, owned by 3i, the private equity group, and its management, led by Erwin Fey, this month selected LongAcre, the corporate finance boutique, to undertake a strategic review.
3i acquired Zefa in 1998 for about €6m. Since then, its group's sales have quadrupled to about €35m. Based on a multiple of two-and-a-half times sales, Zefa is worth close to €90m ($111m).
All options are being considered, including an outright sale, a recapitalisation, and a partnership with either a trade or financial party.

Related: "Fading Distinctions And One Image Like The Other: Digital Vision Links With Zefa"

No Photos, Please: AMERICA, WHEN WILL THIS END?A Guest Comment by Adam Davis

A recent comment from Adam Davis, a semi-professional photographer and physician at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago to "YOU ARE NOW ON THE NO-FLY LIST: Photographers, A 90-Pound German Shepherd And The Patriot Act", worth to put it on Page One:

"Whiteequalsterrorist as well....

I was detained for taking photos.

Fortunately or unforunately depending on the part of the comment you focus on, it's not only minorities being harrassed, intimidated and having there rights trashed for taking photographs.

First allow me to introduce myself briefly. I am Adam Davis, I am a physician at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and a semi-professional photographer. My work can be seen at www.adamdavisphotography.com.

On July 29th at approximately 7pm I was driving south on Larabee, stopping occasionally to take pictures of subjects such as an open fire hydrant and an evening soccer league. I saw the sun setting to my right in front of some high voltage power lines which I thought may have made an interesting photograph. I pulled into the parking lot across from the power station, the parking lot of the district 18 police station. There were police officers milling around and I stepped out of my car and took two to three shots of the sun behind the power lines. I got back in my car exited out the south side of the parking lot and took a right on Elm St. I crossed one intersection when I saw flashing lights pull up behind me.

I pulled over and asked him if I had made a moving violation and he said no. He asked me what I had been doing. I told him I had been taking photographs. He asked me of what. I told him of those power lines and the sun behind it. He asked me why. I told him because I thought it was pretty and I am a photographer and I handed him my photography card. At some point I also told him that I was a doctor at Children’s Memorial Hospital and handed him my business card there as well. He aggressively inquired to as what was I thinking after September 11th of taking photos of a power station and from private property no less. He stated that this was all highly illegal. I told him that I believed what I had done was legal. He stated that I was wrong and that he should have me locked up. I again told him I thought it was legal. He told me if I said that again he would lock me up.

He took my information back to his car and ran my information in the computer and apparently called Children’s as well. He came back to my car told me he was giving me a break because I was a doctor as long as Children’s confirmed my employment there. I said thanks I appreciate the break and asked if I could have his name and badge number before I left. At this point he said alright you’re coming in and asked me out of my car and to his hood where he handcuffed me. I learned later by reading his badge that his name is officer Doyle, badge #10677. At no point did he disclose this to me. Another cop had arrived and I requested that he move my camera equipment to my trunk as my car does not lock and he was obliging but having a difficult time figuring out the idiosyncrasies of my car he asked me questions about how to get the key out and how to open the trunk, when I attempted to answer him officer Doyle threatened that he would spray me. I got into the car.

While bringing me to the holding area he said that normally they call the FBI in cases like this and I was real lucky because if they got involved I’d be in all sorts of trouble. Later he told me that if they called the FBI I would be “practicing in Cuba”.

Officer Doyle locked me to the desk in the holding area and went to talk to his commander. After approximately 15 minutes he returned and told me that because I was a doctor they were going to give me a break and just fill out a contact sheet and let me go. He told me that none of this would have happened if I didn’t run my mouth. I told him at this point that I didn’t run my mouth, I did not swear, I simply asked his name and badge number and I used the analogy of an upset patient asking for my name and my professional duty to provide it. He stated that I threatened him. I stated no I simply wanted your name and badge number to which he replied “for what?” I stated “for whatever I would choose to do with it.” To which he said “No, no you arrogant little fuck, you’re definitely coming in.” He left again to talk to his commander and returned again 10 minutes later to tell me that they were giving me a break because I was a doctor and if not for that I definitely would be locked up. He unlocked my cuffs and escorted me out of the station to my car.

Interestingly, while waiting for him to get my wallet and cellphone I went to the sidewalk to take photos of the moon above the skyscrapers downtown and another cop told me I couldn’t take pictures of the federal building across the street (The Cabrini projects). I did not speak, put my camera to my side and drove home.

The issues as I see it...

1) Perhaps most importantly is the blatant retaliation that I received for asking Officer Doyle for his identifying information. This type of transparency is essential to a free and safe society. At no time afterwards did he provide me with this information.

2) The police officer in this case either does not know the law or made up the law in order to intimidate and harass me. There is indeed no law against taking photographs of federal buildings or power stations.

3) One cannot be arrested for walking across assumed public space such as the parking lot of a police station or the lobby of a hotel unless they refuse to leave after requested. I was already off the property when stopped and never stated that I planned any return trip to the property.

4) Empty threats of my livelihood (the practicing in Cuba comment) as a means to intimidate and harass threaten my ability to have trust in our public institutions and to feel free to be an active member of American society.

5) What if I were not a doctor, at every turn I was told I was receiving a break for being a pediatrician at Children’s, what does that have to do with my actions?

I thank you for your time and look forward to hearing from you…

Adam Davis, MD
adam@adamdavisphotography.com"

Just some thoughts: Adam, did you talk to a local newspaper (Chicago Tribune etc.)? And reg. “practicing in Cuba”, did you talk a lawyer? This is a public case... .

[Update August 10: see also the new website Photopermit.org, "keeping photographers out of trouble, and supporting them when trouble looms". The site has a link to another site called "Photo Talk Radio", but there are no relations between this Phototalk here and that Photo Talk Radio over there! Only sympathy... .]

[© Image: Touchstone Pictures]

Update August 30, 2004: Read also "No Photos, Please: AMERICA, WHEN WILL THIS END? A Guest Comment by Adam Davis, PART II"

The Moment of Silence:Henri Cartier-Bresson Died On Monday This Week

The decisive moment. Henri Cartier-Bresson died. Silence. Sela.
[© Photo: HCB/Magnum Photos]

E-Data: Settlement with Apple Computer, Pending Litigation Against Getty Images And Corbis

Yeah, still holidays here, but they are really boring for real workaholics. So some fresh news from E-Data (1; 2), the company that states "We have a very strong track record enforcing our intellectual property rights", they just can´t stop it: "E-Data Commences Litigation Against 14 Companies in the United States; New Litigation Follows Successful Settlement with Apple Computer in Europe" (BusinessWire). See also "E-Data Sues Over Downloading Patent", Susan Kuchinskas/internetnews.com:

The Apple agreement sounds impressive. However, intellectual property attorneys agreed that the secrecy about terms limits its impact.
"How significant the E-Data/ITunes settlement is turns on the details of the settlement itself," said Robert Badal, a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. "If Apple paid a substantial sum or provided other significant consideration, that would make it more significant than if the settlement was a mere walk-away."