ImageMultipliers.com
"That's life," as Frank Sinatra would sing. And life in the stock photography world comes down to a race between the two giant stock photo agencies, CORBIS (owned by Bill Gates) and GETTY
Like the view under the microscope of the ever-expanding organism dividing and reproducing itself, the G-men present a macro view of how the world of commercial stock photography is expanding. And it's not through photographers tramping the globe, taking more photos. Instead it's an incestuous technique (like cloning sheep) that the Digital Age has given birth to.
A short history of how THE G-MEN ACQUIRED ALL THEIR IMAGES
CORBIS
Summer 1989, Company Is Formed, " Interactive Home Systems" Later called "Continuum," Later To Be Called, "Corbis."
October 10, 1995 Acquires Bettmann
February 3, 1998 Acquires Digital Stock
May 5, 1998 Acquires Westlight
July 29, 1998 Corbis And AltaVista Launch The World's Largest Consumer Online Picture Search
December 2, 1998 Corbis Launches Authorized Ansel Adams Web Site And Store
June 15, 1999 Corbis Acquires Sygma, the World's Leading News Photography Agency
February 29, 2000 Corbis Acquires TempSport and Saba
March 22, 2000 Corbis Acquires The Stock Market Photo Agency
May 8, 2000 Sharpshooters Acquired
GETTY
Spring 1996, company formed as "Getty Communications," later, "Getty Images."
May 7, 1997 Getty To Represent The Haas Collection
July 16, 1997 Acquires Slim Aarons Collection
September 16, 1997 Getty and PhotoDisc, The Major Royalty Free Company, Join Forces
February 6, 1998 Getty Agrees To Acquire Allsport, A Leading Sports Photographic Agency
May 7, 1998 Getty Acquires Australian Sports Photography Business
August 6, 1998 New Agreement For Tony Stone Images' Contributors
December 1, 1998 Getty Images Acquires Sporting Pix; Continues Expansion in Australia
February 10, 1999 PhotoDisc Launches Redesigned E-Commerce Website for Creative Professionals
March 15, 1999 Getty Images, Inc. Announces Corporate Headquarters Move to Seattle
April 27, 1999 Getty Images' PhotoDisc Ink Deal with Amazon.com
May 5, 1999 Getty Images Acquires Leading Online Consumer Art Brand, Art.com
May 25, 1999 Getty Images Broadens Access To Hulton Getty Collection Through Art.com
June, 17, 1999 Getty Images' Liaison Agency Enters into Content Agreement with Discovery Channel
August 9, 1999 Getty Images Acquires EyeWire, Leading E-Commerce Site for Royalty-Free Visual and Audio Content and Design Resources
August 24, 1999 Getty Images Acquires Digital Press Agency, Online USA September 21, 1999 Getty Images to Acquire the Image Bank
October 14, 1999 Getty Images Partners with Prestigious Bridgeman Art
Library to Bring Art Imagery to Vertical Portal
October 25, 1999 Getty Images Signs With AltaVista
November 4, 1999 Getty Images Acquires Digital News Agency, Newsmakers
November 24, 1999 Getty Images Completes Acquisition Of The Image Bank
February 7, 2000 Getty Images Expands Strategic Alliance with AltaVista
February 28, 2000 Getty Images Acquires Visual Communications Group, Its Largest Competitor
Source: PhotoStockNotes and corporate press releases.
The G-men hold a hidden trump card each time they buy up another stock photo agency:
Each time the G-men acquire a new stock agency, they gain certain electronic rights for that agency's photos. They also take steps to gain the right to digitally combine those images with other images in their files by use of a waiver clause in their contracts with photographers. In section 106A (see this at http://www.photosource.com/106A.html) subsection (a) e "Transfer and Waiver" (in their photographer contract), photographers who are not aware of what they are signing can inadvertently waive the attributions and integrity rights to a single photo or group of photos.
The mathematics of this process are ingenious. Not only do the G-Men acquire new companies and new images, but an exponential expansion of certain of those images, whose copyright can become their property, according to current Copyright interpretation.
As we move into the Digital Age of photography a new genre of photo is emerging. It has not arrived on main-street-digital yet -- but we see prototypes of it in print ads and especially on TV.
I call this the Kaleidoscope Strategy. (Remember the tube toy you used to raise to the sky and then marveled at the changing myriad images as you turned the tube?) In terms of arithmetic, it goes like this:
Photographers who signed contracts with the G-men, signed in good faith expecting their pictures to continue to belong to them. Their original contracts may discuss not altering their original photos, but never mention extracting parts of an image to produce a new image of separate copyright. Some "work for hire" contracts, for example stipulate "we retain usage rights in any medium now known or hereinafter developed for no additional payment." As you can see, the photographer loses control of his/her picture when it is combined with parts of other photographers' images.
No doubt court cases will toss the Kaleidoscope Strategy back and forth for years to come. The U.S. Copyright Law is a balance of interests: the user, the creator, and the publisher. In the end, those in judicial command who interpret the Copyright Law, will probably decree that it would interfere with "creativity" to disallow the process of combining images to make new images, in the spirit of how Picasso and other artists would combine images and items to make a collage or sculpture.
 Tommy Thompson |
 Kerry Kolb |
 Jon Saban |
 Jake Nelson |