StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

Advertising Agency DDB Berlin Refuses To Pay For Possible Photo Usage In Advertising Campaign: The Very Special Story Of A Superb Flickr Photo

The story of the image to the left from the Flickr user Lorenzo D. Dominguez (here you can watch his photos on Flickr) starts with:

"I work for a big company, a Fortune 100 [financial services] company [in Manhattan], as a director of marketing and communications. In fact, I’ve worked in advertising and marketing for twenty years now.

Thus, I well know that the standard and most ethical business practice is that you get your photos from either internal sources for art, photos and design or your company purchases images from stock photo companies or independent photogs for both internal and external presentations, storyboards and mock advertisements."

Lorenzo´s user name on Flickr is lorenzodom, and he is apparently one of Flickr´s most succesful photographers with some 17,000 images online:

QuickLinks For 2006-09-28

• Status of the Orphan Works bill:
  We have great news! The latest Orphan Works bill appears to have died in committee. On Wednesday, Sept. 27, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), announced that he was withdrawing the bill from consideration at that markup session, which is likely to be the last one this year. He said that he did not see any reasonable chance that it would be signed into law in the current Congress. He also said that he plans to introduce another bill when the new Congress convenes next year. [...]
  This battle has been won, and we can breathe easier for a while. But the war is not over. ASMP will be watching closely to be sure that the bill does not suddenly reappear in any late-fall, “lame duck” session. And we will start drafting our own version of a new bill, favorable to photographers and artists, for possible introduction in the next Congress.
  ASMP.
  Tags: Orphan Works ASMP

QuickLinks For 2006-09-27

• AP Images Rolls Out New Web Site:
  With the new web site, customers will be able to search the agency's wire service, an archive of 500,000 historical photos, and creative stock images provided through a partnership with Jupiter Images. [...]
  At a demonstration of the web site at the AP's New York headquarters last week, Cameron invoked Getty by name several times, saying AP Images will go head-to-head with Getty for editorial customers. The AP, however, is not trying to compete with Getty for the lucrative market of advertising art buyers. [...]
  Pictures are sold a la carte, by subscription, or at metered rates – say, letting a customer download up to 200 images a month for a fixed price, then charging per image beyond that.  [...]
  The agency is also offering a carrot to make the new marketing effort more appealing to AP photographers. A clause added to AP staffers' contracts in February lets them shoot stock images on their own time, submit them for sale through AP Images, and share 35 percent of the royalties.
  Daryl Lang/PDN.
  Among the growing list of AP content partners are Tim Graham, the UK Press Association, VII Photo and Women's Wear Daily.
  •Related: AP Images Launches New Website (AmPhoto)
  Tags: Associated Press AP Images

QuickLinks For 2006-09-26

• Interviewed: Adelheid Mers on Vilém Flusser:
  Flusser proposed a revolutionary new way of thinking about photography with the publication of his book, "Towards a Philosophy of Photography", in 1983.
  Adelheid Mers is currently Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I recently asked Mers to comment on the late media philosopher Vilém Flusser, and to give me an overview of his ideas as they relate to visual communication and photography.
  Christoph Bakke/LuckyPix.Blog.
  Tag: Vilém Flusser visual communication and photography

Photokina 2006

I´m off to the Photokina, the world's largest and most famous imaging fair, for meeting other handsome jerks and witty geniuses at the "Meet the Professionals" area, the contact forum for representatives of the creative worlds of photography, advertising, press content services and electronic media, in Hall 1.

And in case I got enough pocket change, I got to get me one of these.

Present news coverage from the Photokina:

New Yahoo Group For Selling Stock Photography

selling_stock_photography is a new Yahoo group created by Fred Voetsch of Acclaim Images. In one of his first posts Fred noted that "I started this group on a whim, mainly because I was tired of the censorship at the STOCK PHOTO forum. Yes, I actually had posts that were not approved by the moderator. I also want this group to have a more progressive attitude but that will depend on its members".

QuickLinks For 2006-09-23

• Whose content is it anyway?
  Media executives are embracing user-generated sites, encouraging amateur talent to upload photos and videos. But who should own the copyright?
  At recent industry fest IBC in Amsterdam, Robert Amlung, head of technology at German broadcaster ZDF, said its programme to encourage viewers to upload photos and videos to the ZDF website had proved a success, and was clear on rights. "We want to own the rights, so if someone puts images up on our site, they are giving their rights away," he said. It seems viewers can have the fame; the broadcaster wants the money.
  Guardian Unlimited Technology.
  Related:
  
  • MAX Magazine Feels Really Sorry: How To Use Flickr Photographers To Maximize Your Company´s Profit (June 24, 2006)
  Tags: user-generated content copyright

After Taking Pictures For Fun French Police Arrests Fotolia´s CEO Thibaud Elziere, Terrorism Allegation

I don't know if it ever happened to you, but in case you ever had to report from a Greenpeace demonstration in Paris, then you probably have experienced that the police men in Paris are very tough and robust guys, at least for european standards, and sometimes don´t care if you have a press card and carry two Nikon bodies.

Today of course, out of security concerns and out of that omnipresent anti-terrorism surveillance thing, it´s much more easy to run into trouble with the french capitals´ police.

QuickLinks For 2006-09-21

• Again Pino Granata: "Is there any future for photographers and agents?":
  After Karsten Risseeuw of Zurich-based stock agency Kursiv responded to Pino Granata and Pino later reaffirmed his position, Jim Pickerell has written a long follow-up in Story 873, "Is There A Future For Stock Agents?" (subscription requ.).
  Pino´s opinion was even quoted on Yahoo´s Finance Message Board/Getty Images.
  Tags: Granata Images, Granata Press, Pino Granata

QuickLinks For 2006-09-20

• Getty Tightens Its Belt or does the phenomenon of crowdsourcing create unemployed crowds?:
  Ever since Getty's stock price began its quick descent from $80 a share to around $50 earlier this year, the normally cash-flush company has been looking to cut costs. Employees have been told to watch their expense accounts, and rumors abound that layoffs are coming, with 10 percent* cuts being bandied about. Nobody wants to hear talk of job cuts, except maybe Wall Street.
  Jay DeFoore/State of the Art, in the new NSA powered Gossip Roundup corner of AmPhoto.
  * 2005 number of Getty employees: 1,823.
  Tag: Getty Images