StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

Teen Photographer Lara Jade Sues Pornographers TVX Films Over Unauthorized Image Use

What a sad and bizarre story (compiled):

Lara Jade Coton is an 18 year old photographer and college student who resides in England. Her work has been featured in a range of magazines and e-zines. She took up photography at the age of 14 and also works in photo manipulation and digital art. She discovered that an innocent self-portrait, taken when she was 14 years old, was obtained off the Internet and used without permission as the DVD cover and face art for the sexually explicit movie "Body Magic", produced by TVX Films. [...]

QuickLinks For 2007-07-31

• Crowdsourced thoughts on "Microstock Photo Agencies -- What Do You Think?":
  "Selling any stock photo for less than it costs to produce them is thievery by any and all of the stock photo agencies that do it, period.
  How the entire stock photo industry has been all be destroyed by the few mega-stock agencies (i.e. Corbis and Getty) is well documented. These large agencies have all but totally purchased all but a very few small agencies, and basically turned the economics of an entire industry on its head."

QuickLinks For 2007-07-30, II

• Street Photography And Privacy Rights, Part II:
  There also has been quite a bit of discussion about the New York film permit requirement; many blogs that I read and like a lot have asked people to sign a petition against it in the last few days (e.g. Magnum Photos, Alec Soth, Amy Stein, Conscientious, just to name a few.  [...]
  I believe an informed discussion about these issues requires at least some knowledge of the law. As a former lawyer I won´t bother you with legal details here, but let me just outline the backdrop of what I think is at stake.
  Jens Haas, Notes From Nowhere, in a long and precise follow-up.
  ·Related: "OK, So, about this Permit-Thing in NYC" (John Harrington today)
  Tag: New York film permit requirement

Flickr + Economist on photopreneur

Many sources track down where and how intensively microstock and also Flickr photos are published on websites and, more valuable for certain reasons, in print publications.

The relatively new photopreneur blog (general announcement about their future), quoted here earlier when Adam Brotman of SnapVillage was interviewed, runs today an article on "Economist Website Turns To Flickr As Photo Source" and quotes Graham Douglas, Economist.com' s Head of Graphics:

QuickLinks For 2007-07-30

• The state of the pro-photo industry at 2007.5:
  Based on what I saw at the Microsoft Pro-Photo Summit earlier this month, the industry as a whole is healthy. But based on what I heard there, don’t assume that your rights-managed business model will survive into the next decade. Also don’t assume that the copyright laws as we know them will stay intact are much longer ... The "Catch Me If You Can" business models based on infringements of your work in Web 2.0 continues to grow ... The trade associations should be publicizing this nightmare scenario to anyone using micro or free stock.
  Pro Photo Business Blog with a follow-up on US Presswire, and more.
  Tags: Web2.0 Web 2.0 Let the others do the work US Presswire

Summer 2007: From Dawn Till Dusk, Just One Day

QuickLinks For 2007-07-29

• US Presswire, from Introduction over Contract Anaylysis to A Few Final Thoughts:
  John Harrington over at Photo Business News & Forum runs an extensive story in seven parts on the business practices of US Presswire, "The Premium Sports Newswire": "I have to say that I want to be an agent of that change". (Thx GS)
  Tags: US Presswire USPW Bob Rosato WireImage

Veer: Art Director (New York, JAD002)

Veer provides visual elements for use in professional creative work, such as graphic design, motion design, advertising, and filmmaking. The image industry is a driving passion for the management and employees of Veer.

With thousands of satisfied customers, years of industry experience, and an unparalleled set of skills, the people at Veer have what it takes to deliver exciting, innovative products to enhance creativity. Want to join us?

Veer is currently looking for an:

• Art Director based in their New York office.

All details and contact information here at Worldwide Stock Photo Industry Jobs.

Creative contempory photojournalism: Lunatic Magazine by Luna Photos

 

 

QuickLinks For 2007-07-26

• Photola - New microstock site, but who really needs it?
  Nearly two months ago Tim Donahue of BigStockPhoto was quoted with the words "the microstock market is nowhere close to saturation" and one of his colleagues elsewhere added "there´s enough space for several players", whereas Thibaud Elziere from the same microstock agency noted over 1 1/2 years ago "only one or two big micro stock sites will survive".
  This is now microstock agency number 36 on the list and Peter Galbraith asked recently "they [the new microstock agencies showing up all] fail to answer one question: "Why you?".
  The new venture albumo might be successful with its policy of paying contributors for uploading images.
  We wish UK-based Photola all the best on its way to success.

Karl Marx is back, on iStockphoto, but the Revolution refuses to happen on Punctum Day

Now, how poor is that, regarding its historical approach and visual reference, only for your very own selfish commercial purposes? Go back to school, kids. That won´t drive GYI´s stock over $60 again. Dream on.

 

 

ImageTrail.net: The first microstock only photo portal, Q&A with Founder & CEO Peter Galbraith

Towards the end of the microstock session during the CEPIC conference in Florence I wanted also to present and to discuss with the panelists the specific impact of a dedicated micropayment stock photo portal, showing microstock photography only, but after 2 1/2 hours we finally ran out of time.

Some readers know that I had been working on a micropayment stock photo portal myself, but could not procede with full power due to other events.

Peter Galbraith, 27 years young, Founder & President of ImageTrail.net and based in Corrales, New Mexico, started instead about one month earlier in summer 2006 to work on his vision of a microstock only photo portal, and recently I threw some questions at him.

Stock Footage World: Sales Representative

Stock Footage World is a small, friendly Los Angeles-based online stock footage company.
Stock Footage World currently has an opening for a:

• Sales Representative

All details and contact information here at Worldwide Stock Photo Industry Jobs.

AuroraPhotos: Royalty Free Manager/Sales Manager

Aurora Photos is a small, but growing commercial stock and editorial company.

Aurora Photos currently has openings for a:

• Royalty Free Manager (Portland, ME)

• Sales Manager (Portland, ME or NY)

All details and contact information here at Worldwide Stock Photo Industry Jobs.

Pino Granta: Everybody wins but not the photographers

Many photographers complain these days that they see their pictures published in very important newspapers and that they don´t get paid for the usage.

What they do is that they call the agencies which distribute their pictures and ask for some explanation. Most of the times these agencies don´t know anything about the usage, so they call the publication and after some discussion they decide to bill the unauthorized usage.

Pino Granata: I´m so sad for Alexandra Boulat

I just read the sad news about Alexandra Boulat. A few days ago she was hit by a brain aneurysm and now, after a few operations, she is in critical condition in a Paris hospital.

I happened to meet Alexandra when we were both working with Sipa. I remember a day, more than 10 years ago, when she got in Goksin Sipahioglu´s office wearing roller-skates.

QuickLinks For 2007-07-23, II

• Albumo grows fast:
  Albumo is quite recent in the landscape of micro stock photography, still the platform announce today that they have more than 100,000 images available online.
  The model of Albumo is a bit different from traditional stock sites. It is designed to buy and sell pictures (like everywhere else) but also to host and share pictures (like flickr, Zooomr), in fact it is the opposite of Zooomr, which is a sharing platform where selling is a possibility. Albumo is a microstock where sharing is a possibility. 5GB hosting accounts are free [actually it´s 1GB] and upgradable up to 30GB (for 30 credits). It might be interesting to see if there are synergies from those two offers. It is to early to say since the platform is not finalised and community still limited.
  All Stock Photo.

QuickLinks For 2007-07-23

• Interviewing Nandini Ranjit Kumar, Director of SnapVillage:
  
  • Question: Why did Corbis decide to create a social media platform like SnapVillage from the ground up, opposed to buying a property like Getty did with iStockphoto?
  • Kumar: We created SnapVillage after an extensive review and analysis of existing microstock sites. By building rather than buying, we have retained the flexibility to introduce unique pricing and design features. We´re also better able to make quick site enhancements to respond to user feedback. We had a real opportunity to create a differentiated product, which is what we have done with our ‘Pick Your Own Price’ model. [...]

QuickLinks For 2007-07-21, III

• The 12 Step Course To Cash Free Pictures:
  "My name is James Watson and I am a first time editor on a Yorkshire newspaper. I was wondering if anyone could advise me on how to get my hands on free images for general news stories?"
  So how on earth can he reasonably be expected to find money for photographers?
  
  • Open an account with Alamy. Remember that they don’t report sales to photographers with enough precision to check, so if you ‘forget’ to notify Alamy of usage, nobody is likely to be any the wiser.
  • When all else fails, just take ‘em yourself. Like many so-called professions, photography is very over-rated. There’s lots of information on the internet about how to become a professional photographer, and really it’s very easy if you follow a few simple rules. First you’ll need a high-end cameraphone, one that takes interchangeable lenses.
  "Good morning!" on Sqweegee´s blog@EPUK.

QuickLinks For 2007-07-21, II

• EU Google Competitor Gets $165 million Kick Start:
  Theseus, a German based project that is aiming to develop "the world’s most advanced multimedia search engine for the next-generation Internet" will receive a cash injection of $165 million from the German Government [...]
  According to an AP report, the German Government will initially fund Siemens AG, SAP AG, Deutsche Thomson oHG and EMPOLIS GmbH to kick start the project [...] Theseus was inspired by a perceived need by European countries to challenge American hegemony on the internet by Google.
  Like just about everything in the history of Europe, France and Germany disagree. France is said to be discussing a similar subsidy plan with the European Commission that is aiming to deliver $112 million to a French Google competitor Quaero, a project previously supported by the Germans, which is led by French video-technology company Thomson.

QuickLinks For 2007-07-21

• New Sizes & Pricing Structure for 2007: iStockphoto to raise prices in August:
  iStockphoto, the Getty Images "microstock" subsidiary that sells low-cost imagery and video, will announce Monday plans to raise prices and therefore photographer revenue next month along with a number of promotional activities.
  The company sells credits that give customers rights to use contributors' photos in materials such as advertisements, Web sites or brochures. The higher the resolution, the more credits an image costs, and the credit cost will increase from $1.20 to $1.30 on August 19 [...]

QuickLinks For 2007-07-20

• The Most Expensive Celebrity Photos:
  The past few years have seen an explosive rise in the prices paid for exclusive celebrity photos. Driven by the public's desire for the nitty-gritty of celebrity life and celebrities' moves to control -- and profit from -- their images, the photos on our list are testament to a maturing market worth tens of millions. [...]
  Since the entertainment magazines are notoriously tight-lipped about such sales, we were forced to rely on published reports and only considered photo sales where information was available. [...]
  Francois Navarre, who as the owner of X17 agency employs teams to trail a cadre of A-listers (think Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan) almost 24 hours a day, says this kind of extreme surveillance is necessary to beat the competition.
  Forbes with the full list, and more "In Pictures: The Most Expensive Celebrity Photos" (thx JO).
  Tags: Celebrity photos Forbes X17

Real life

 

 

... and forget about the rest:

QuickLinks For 2007-07-18

• Jupitermedia acquires mediabistro:
  While Jim Pickerell sold, now officially, his "newsletter to MediaPost.com, a company that provides a variety of services to those involved in the communication and publishing industries", and in terms of $$$ Jerry Kennelly as well as Mike Watson will probably not go green with envy, the NYT reports today -- there is still no official press release yet -- that Jupitermedia has acquired Laurel Touby´s Mediabistro.com for $20 million in cash and an additional $3 million over two years.
  Mediabistro went online eleven years ago in 1996, but despite its Alexa ranking of 7,446, the NYT notes that the site had only 600,000 unique visitors in the whole year 2006, equivalent to only 50,000/month. There must be a mistake with this number as it does not correspond to its marvellous Alexa ranking.
  NYT, Web Site for Job Seekers Is Sold. [Update: here´s the press release]
  LA Observed added: "The kids at Gawker are going to go crazy tomorrow".
  Related:
  
  • Jupitermedia Announces Closing of a $115 Million Senior Credit Facility Arranged by KeyBanc Capital Markets (July 13, 2007)
  • Jupitermedia Corporation Announces the Acquisition of JustTechJobs.com (Dec. 28, 2006)

QuickLinks For 2007-07-17, II

• Is Photojournalism Dead? A panel discussion on preparing for the future of photography:
  For those who will be in NYC in three weeks: "Photojournalism is changing quickly. This panel will address cutting-edge thinking on issues ranging from high-definition video to online slideshows, ethics, and marketing. We'll look at the role of the video still. How much of what news photographs produce will eventually go to video? How does the popularity of online slideshows change how photographers approach assignments and organizations deal with payment?"
  Full list of panelists here at the Mediabistro for the event on August 7th.
  Tag: Photojournalism