March 3, 2009 by pmelcher.

“Copyright owners tend to focus on the aspect they see of piracy, which is the lost revenue. They therefore think what drives users to do it is the desire to get something for free. But iTunes shows that people will pay for stuff online, if you make it easy. A significant component of piracy is simply that it offers a better user experience.” From Paul Graham_Why TV Lost_

Al thought written more for music and video, the above quote is true for photography. The next big step is figuring how to monetize the huge demand for visuals while avoiding piracy. No numbers officially exists on how many images are “stolen” either by a simple “copy paste”, “save as” or database hacking.  Agencies, as well as independent photographers will never admit publicly on how many of their images are floating around without being properly licensed.

A few solutions are slowly emerging but they offer more a reaction rather than an offer. Piscout, for example, will help you after the fact as well as Tineye.com. Imagespan, Gumgum, Piccapp, and others to come, offer an option, but not a solution. Most  copyrights owners are still hoping that metadata will save them, forgetting so conveniently that it can be so easily stripped away. Finally, organizations like the dying Plus Coalition are trying to  standardize archaic and complicated options in the ultimate hope to freeze in time antiquated models. None are making licensing easier.

Rather, by proliferating in multiple directions, these companies (who do not own any copyright) confuse and distract the marketplace even more. What we need is to encourage consumption, not add more leashes. And, as such, stop making our images so incredibly difficult and complicated to purchase. The microstock sector, taking cues from the traditional RF sector, has succesfully understood how important it is to empower the customer with a simple, smooth process.

That is the next evolution of our industry.

Posted in idee, copyright, Plus, technology, commercial stock, gumgum, license, IPTC, law, Royalty free, transaction, finance, keyword, prosumer, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

March 3, 2009 by pmelcher.

The blog rumor mill is busy these days with the possible lay off of some 400 JupiterImages employees. We had expected that to happen months ago. It makes sense. Getty already has the operation and distribution in place, why would they need to double it ? To make this acquisition successful, they need to get rid of the debt and cost ( read staff ) and absorb the imagery. Since JupiterImage was running about $120 million a year, it will not take long for Getty to pay back the cost of acquisition and post a profit. Especially if they add no cost. Makes perfect sense.

Alan Meckler’s blog is remaining quiet about this, at least for now.

While Getty consolidate its strenght, at least in imagery, on the commercial side, it is starting to hurt on the editorial side. More top talent photographers have left Getty in the last weeks and it seems  it is only the beginning of the defection. This year should see more mistreated photographers throw their contracts in the air and resume having pleasure in photographing  ( is that a verb ?). Not that we haven’t said it before, but the corporate world is really not conducive to creativity. The environmental of “little bosses”, politics, backstabbing and other petty time wasters is really not what a good photographers is looking for in a company. And because mediocrity tends to rise to the top in these big companies, most staff photographers get confronted daily by small-minded-ladder-climbing ambitious middle managers that will do anything to put their careers in front of  inspiring creativity. Most of them probably never look at pictures, as they are too busy running from one meeting to another, in a desperate attempt to destroy any any ideas that is not theirs.

It will be interesting to see if Getty destroys the acquired sub brands of Jupiter Images and let the collections die of a slow death or will instead invest in producing some new images. We all know that traditional RF is suffering badly from microstock and JI is mostly made of traditional RF. However, if Getty is successful in maintaining the brands and growing them, then we will know it was just bad management.

Posted in Jupiter, commercial stock, finance, editorial, Royalty free, getty, Microstock | Print | 1 Comment »