©Lynsey Addario/VII Network/VII/Corbis--from the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan, October, 2007.

Corbis announced today that it has struck a deal to syndicate the work of photojournalists represented by VII Photo Agency. Stephen Mayes, managing director of VII, says the deal is “co-exclusive,” also allowing VII to syndicate its images directly to clients. The contract is for three years, and replaces VII’s syndication deal with Associated Press.

“AP has been good to us. This doesn’t represent a failure on their part, but they are not able to offer the global depth of distribution that Corbis offers,” Mayes says.

VII considered several distribution partners, according to Mayes. The decision to select Corbis “wasn’t just about money,” he says, but about strategy, service, and mutual interests. “Corbis seemed to get the most out of it, and offer the most in return.”

VII represents more than 30 photographers who specialize in documenting social, environmental, and political issues and conflicts around the world.  The VII collection includes about 50,000 images from the 1990s to the present day.

“For the past decade, VII photographers have immersed themselves in the story and captured stunning images that have made an impact around the world,” said Anil Ramchand, Director of News, Sports and Entertainment at Corbis. “Our new agreement with VII underscores our commitment to providing Corbis clients with exceptional photography to tell inspired stories.”

Corbis and warehouse retailer Costco have announced a deal to offer print-on-demand photographs, posters, and giclée canvas prints through nearly 600 Costco stores around the world. Corbis has made more than 20,000 travel, nature, landscape and other images available for the program, which has alarmed some of its contributors.

Costco and Corbis expect customers to purchase images as decor for homes and small businesses, including restaurants and hotels.

Corbis described the deal as a “large new market opportunity for contributors” because Costco has “tens of millions of customers.” Spokesman Dan Perlet says Corbis has licensed images for posters in the past, but the Costco deal is the agency’s first print-on-demand deal. (more…)

Microstock distributor (and Getty subsidiary) iStockphoto has announced plans to change it’s royalty structure to reward contributors who bring in the most revenue over the short term, instead of rewarding contributors for accumulating downloads over time. The new system, which is designed to increase iStock’s gross profits, takes effect in January.

iStock COO Kelly Thompson’s announcement about the changes on September 7 drew hundreds of responses from contributors. Many concluded that they would lose income under the new system, and expressed their outrage.

(more…)

The freelance photographer we told you about yesterday who was dropped by Getty after one of his images of a golf tournament was found to have been digitally altered has offered an explanation of what happened.

Marc Feldman, whose freelance status with Getty was terminated over the altered photo, told the Dallas Morning News he made "a fatal mistake."

"There was absolutely no intent to pass this off as a real image," Feldman explained to Dallas Morning News photo editor Guy Reynolds for the paper's Photography Blog. "Only a moron would have sent both."

A photo Feldman captured of golfer Matt Bettencort was distributed by
Getty Images even though a caddie had been digitally removed from the
background. Getty, which has a strict policy against altering its news
images, later put out a "mandatory kill" notice on the photo after Reynolds alerted them to it, and dropped
Feldman from its roster.

Feldman, 61, told Reynolds that he was in the press tent processing the images when Bettencort and his caddie stopped by to look at the photos. The caddie then suggested the photo would look better without him in it.

"So I showed them how easy I could do that," Feldman told Reynolds. "I thought I just saved it to the desktop not to the send folder. I certainly did not mean to send both of them to Getty."

What do you think about Feldman's explanation? Does it sound like a plausible, honest mistake? Have you ever done anything similar? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Getty Images has severed ties with a freelance photographer after an image he captured of a golf tournament was determined to have been altered with software.

The photographer, Marc Feldman, was cut by Getty after the manipulated image was discovered by a photo editor at the Dallas Morning News.

"Getty Images actively advocates and upholds strict guidelines pertaining to the capture and dissemination of its editorial content," Getty's public relations manager Jodi Einhorn wrote PDN in an email.

"As such, when Getty Images was made aware of (the) altered image in our coverage of this event, it was immediately removed…from our website and a mandatory 'kill' request was sent to our feed-based subscribers. In adherence with our zero tolerance policy on photo manipulation, we terminated our relationship with freelance photographer Marc Feldman."

The story broke when photo editor Guy Reynolds of the Dallas Morning News stumbled on the altered image while perusing photos of the Reno-Tahoe golf tournament. Reynolds found two Getty images of golfer Matt Bettencourt, one showing him with a caddy behind him, the other with just trees.

At first Reynolds thought the images were shot by two different photographers from slightly different angles but, as it turns out, both were credited to Marc Feldman, a Getty freelancer.

After inspecting the images more closely, Reynolds discovered they were the same shot but "one had been doctored with software to remove the other man."

Reynolds contacted Getty's picture desk in New York about the images and a "Mandatory Kill" advisory (to the right, above) was sent out shortly thereafter.

(Via Dallas Morning News' Photography Blog.)

Seattle photographer Mike Hipple reports that he has run out of money to defend himself against a copyright infringement claim by a sculptor, and he's now trying to raise money by selling a self-published book.

"My lawyer recently [quit] on me because I cannot keep up with the legal costs," Hipple says. "I've found another lawyer to assist me, this time on a pro-bono basis thankfully, but I still have a lot of costs" for expert witnesses, depositions and other expenses.

Hipple is being sued for infringement over the stock image shown here. It depicts a dancer interacting with bronze footprints embedded in a Seattle sidewalk.  Jack Mackie, one of the sculptors who created the footprints to illustrate the "Mambo" dance, filed the claim against Hipple last year.

Hipple shot the photograph in 1997, and distributed through his stock agency, AGE Fotostock. Mackie discovered it in 2007.

Hipple says he has tried without success to settle the case with Mackie.

Hipple's first lawyer argued that the sculpture is a "derivative" representation (of dance step instructions) that lacks enough originality to qualify for copyright protection.

Hipple said he's also arguing that his use of Mackie's work is allowed in this case under the Fair Use doctrine. "If this doesn’t qualify as fair use of the sculpture, I don’t know what does," he said.

Fair Use is an exemption in the copyright law for certain uses, such as criticism, comment, and news reporting. It is decided on a case-by-case basis.

Hipple's fund-raising book, called Dailies, is a 40-page collection of personal images that Hipple is selling for $32.95 on Blurb.com. More information, including a preview of the book, is available at http://www.blurb.com/books/1386481.

Hipple also maintains a blog where he has set up a legal defense fund.

Update June 11, 2010: Mackie's original complaint is available here. Hipple's motion to have the case dismissed, which was denied, is here. A more complete file of the case documents can be accessed at www.pacer.gov.

May 11, 2010

In Copyright Case, Court Rejects Corbis's Bulk Registration Practices

Photographers who have participated over the years in Corbis’s copyright registration program may have less copyright protection than they think—or need. The reason is because the bulk copyright registration forms that Corbis filed starting in the mid 1990s are missing a crucial piece of information: the names of most of the photographers.

Photographers Marc and David Muench learned that the hard way last week when a federal court in New York rejected their copyright claim (09-CV-2669) against textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The Muenchs alleged that the publisher used approximately 180 of their images beyond the scope of a usage license. But the court said the Muenchs didn’t have grounds to sue because their images weren’t properly registered.

Corbis had registered the Muench images as part of various compilations in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2006. By contrast, the court said that 20 images that David Muench had registered himself “appear to be properly registered,” so the Muenchs can pursue their infringement claim for those images.

“Because the Copyright Act is clear on its face, i.e., a copyright registration must contain certain pieces of information, including the author’s name, the registrations at issue here cover only the database as a whole (the compilation), but do not cover [the Meunschs’] individual contributions,” the court said.

The compilation referred to was a collection of images Corbis created in order to registering copyrights all at once. Corbis started the bulk registration program so it could pursue infringers on its own behalf, but the program was also billed as a benefit to photographers because it streamlined the cumbersome copyright registration process.

Under the terms of the program, photographers were asked to assign their copyright temporarily to Corbis for the express purpose of the bulk registrations. Corbis then registered the images as a compilation under its own name, without listing the individual photographers whose images made up the compilation, and then transferred copyright ownership back to the photographers.

The company’s decision to forego naming each photographer was based upon an advisory letter from the US Copyright Office. On behalf of Corbis and other stock agencies, the Picture Archive Council of America had asked the US Copyright Office to affirm the validity Corbis’s bulk registration process. The copyright office responded that it preferred–but did not require—registration applications to name all of the photographers.

Marc and David Meunsch cited that letter in support of their claim, but the court flatly rejected the Copyright Office’s interpretation of the registration requirements. “The interpretation [of the Copyright Office] conflict with a plain reading” of US Copyright statutes, the court said.

Corbis Director of Communications Dan Perlet says that “Corbis, PACA and others believe that this decision regarding the bulk registration process is incorrect and that it will be reargued, in which case Corbis will likely file an amicus brief supporting the bulk process.”

But he notes that Corbis has been listing the names of all photographers in its bulk registrations since February 2009—the month before the Muenchs filed their lawsuit. The Corbis bulk registrations since then aren’t affected by the Muench ruling, Perlet says.

For photographers who participated in the agency’s registration prior to that, “Corbis recommends that contributors wait to see the outcome of the appeal,” Perlet says. If the appeals are unsuccessful, he adds, then Corbis will go back and provide any supplementary information or re-register the images to make sure the registrations are valid.

Corbis has not said how many photographers—or images—are part of its bulk registration program.

Meanwhile, Advertising Photographers of America (APA)—which questioned the validity of Corbis’s bulk registrations several years ago—said in a press release yesterday,“[Corbis] ineffectually ‘registered’ an unknown large number of images that has resulted in a significant increase in vulnerability for photographers that have used this system through Corbis.”

APA added, “This emphasizes the importance of registering ones own images.”