The participation of the three largest stock agencies in the industry further demonstrates an industry-wide commitment to create the PLUS international licensing standards, including a universal licensing language that is easy to understand, and easy to use.
Los Angeles, CA. (PRWEB) July 17, 2006 -- The PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) Coalition has announced that Getty Images and Corbis have joined the coalition as Charter Sustaining Members, and that Jupiterimages has committed to a second year of Sustaining Membership in the PLUS “Leadership Circle.” Although new to PLUS Membership, both Getty Images and Corbis have been involved in the PLUS initiative from its inception.
The participation of the three largest stock agencies in the industry further demonstrates an industry-wide commitment to create the PLUS international licensing standards, including a universal licensing language that is easy to understand, and easy to use. The support and involvement of these agencies is a milestone in the Coalition’s progress towards its goal of simplifying and facilitating the image licensing process.
Other PLUS Sustaining Members include Adobe, Pentagram Design, Digital Railroad, PicScout, NewsCom, Belay Development, Workbook Stock, and PACA (Picture Archive Council of America). These members are part of an impressive industry-wide international list of companies and organizations supporting and participating in the PLUS Coalition.
“We are very excited and grateful to have Getty Images, Corbis and Jupiterimages as Charter Sustaining Members of the PLUS Coalition,” said Jeff Sedlik, president and co-founder of the Coalition. “The participation of these and other influential organizations has been critical to our progress in developing the PLUS standards and in achieving global awareness and support of the PLUS initiative. Their membership in PLUS has encouraged many others to participate,” Sedlik continued. With the support of major industry stakeholders and trade associations worldwide, we will achieve the broadest possible use and acceptance of the PLUS standards, making the process of rights-managed licensing easier for everyone, everywhere.”
"Getty Images fully supports the need to simplify and facilitate the image licensing process for stock agencies, artists, art directors, designers, publishers and everyone that creates or uses imagery," said Robert Gubas, vice president, product marketing at Getty Images. "We encourage other companies and organizations to take a good look at what the PLUS Coalition is doing in respect of these important issues.
“The PLUS Coalition has tackled a growing problem in this area head-on, from an unbiased perspective, and is creating standards that we believe will serve everyone in the image licensing industries well for years to come,” said Patrick Donehue, Vice president/photographer services at Corbis, and a PLUS Coalition board member representing the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA).
“We are committed to the PLUS Coalition and their goals,” stated Alan M. Meckler, chairman and CEO, Jupitermedia Corporation. “This is a subject that must be addressed for the sake of the entire industry and we will continue to work cooperatively with other PLUS members to produce the standards.”
Last October, the PLUS Coalition published the Universal Picture Licensing Glossary, a free resource providing industry standard definitions for more than 1300 terms used in transactions involving photography and illustrations. The new PLUS Glossary is available free for use online at www.usePLUS.org. The Glossary is the first component of the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS) created and approved by a worldwide coalition of art buyers, photographers, illustrators, publishers, graphic designers, advertisers, artist representatives, stock picture agents and their trade associations
“We are well on our way to developing other PLUS standards, including the PLUS License Format and Media Matrix,” Jeff Sedlik confirmed.
The PLUS License Format will allow standardized license information to travel as metadata within digital images, easily accessible to any viewer. With the PLUS Media Matrix, media selection will be quick and easy, with internationally uniform media categories, organized by type and identified by universal billing codes.
Collectively, the PLUS Glossary and other PLUS System components will exist as the most comprehensive standards in the world of image licensing, creating a new, universal licensing language that is easy to understand, and easy to use.
To learn more about PLUS, visit www.usePLUS.org
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