What happened ?

August 13, 2007 by pmelcher.

The year is 2050. The city, Metropolis. Image usage is gone. Everything is video at microstock prices supplied by wealthy conglomerates of videographers . In order to have more power over the owners of the portals and reduce their production costs, “microvidegraphers” have regrouped into syndicates. They own studios, model agencies and are starting to purchase landmarks in order to secure property release in high volumes and block their competition. There is no more still photographer as there are no more magazines, or newspapers. Everything is online and billboards only display videos. The TV and the internet have finally merged as one. No one watches a show anymore as much as they subscribe to video feeds. Clips, or footage, are selling in the lowers teens for Super HD high resolution, high quality RF. Due to the endless offering, no one really cares about RM as chances of using the same content as your competition are much lower than winning the lottery. Some websites will go as far as showing you who else downloaded the clip so you can avoid using the same. With decillions of clips available, its not like there is no choice.
Corbis has long gone, turned into a non for profit on line gallery of exquisite vintage photography. Bill Gates has retired and besides his charity work, is seldom ever seen. Getty has been sold, and re sold as it struggled to redefine its role and future in an ever changing chaotic environment. Luckily for them Mark Getty and Johnathan Klein, along with a few of their most faithful executive have cashed in on time and are happily enjoying a sunny retirement. As if he still had something to prove, Jonathan Klein is still struggling with a few starts up that seem on the verge of collapsing. Mark Getty, however, is never heard of again.

Alan Meckler has succeeded in getting rid of all his visual content offering them to third parties, mostly in Europe, and his company is enjoying a regain of popularity for his websites during the rise of “web 12.0″.

Still photography is just a faded memory and left for a few hobbyists and Sunday afternoon clubs composed mostly of aging middle class suburban housewives.

Anyone can submit videos to these 3 or 4 sites who license clip electronically. You can enter what you need, for how long, and it will credit your account accordingly. Should you desire to secure an exclusive for your industry for a limited time, no problem. The site will block anyone else from from the same industry as yours from even seeing the clip while your footage will simply vanish at the end of your license period. With their Upload TO Website from camera features, Sony and GE are the top makers of video cameras. This features allows for a high speed upload of clips to your microstock of your choice directly and while you are shooting. Works great for news websites too, by the way. The editing is made automatically by a simple algorithm that scans the video and readjust any lighting or focusing issue. It can recognize patterns, thus immediately creating tags on the fly in multi languages.
Because of an extremely aggressive competition and because the content is pretty much the same on all suppliers website, prices remain at rock bottom and no one really makes any money anymore, unless if they are part of the Syndicates. Some lawyers, representing the MAA (Microshooter Association of America) have lobbied the US Senate to try to pass a legislation to secure a law that would make contributing to microstock websites illegal for foreigners. Needles to say, it failed. For now.
However, a law is being introduced that would reduce the length of a copyright to only a couple of years  and  declare public domain any video that would look too much like another. The underlying thought is that, if the concept is identical, then it a common concept. Therefore no one should claim copyrights. If passed, that would be a blow to the industry as most of their content is extremely similar. Some video bloggers are up in arms, headed by  Jim Pickerell III.
Europe had passed legislation, in 2040, forcing any company with a website that had more than a million unique visitors to publish a print version in order to protect the dying industry. Since most videographer couldn’t care less for print, most still images taken from the online videos are free and hardly, if never credited.

And Me ? Well, If I am still alive, I will be playing with my grandkids and taking lots of pictures.

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