Key words in this issue: Key words in this issue: | Orphan Works | Copyright Works | Copyright Office | Copyright Law | Dan Heller | Inventory | Peachpit Press | Filling Deadline | Taxes Travel Photography | NYFD Firefighters | Marketing Guidebook | Stockschlock | Getty | Video Card | Google’s AdSense | B&W |

News Words: | Orphan Works | Privacy | Classic Photography | Visual Brand | National Portrait Gallery | On-Line Photo Gallery | Earliest Photographs | Mira | Student Photographers | Stock Photo Search Engine | Digital Photographers | Reviews of Cameras |

	PhotoAimLite, the monthly newsletter from PhotoSource International. http://www.photosource.com ISSN 1530-0511 Feel free to forward this issue of PhotoAimLite to your photographer friends. As a subscriber, you can search back issues of PhotoAimLite. On your Web browser go to: http://www.photoaim.com/list and type in your keyword. To cancel your subscription, send email to: info@photosource.com with PhotoAimLite UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject line.

Copyright Office Concludes Study of "Orphan Works" and Proposes Legislation
By Joel Hecker, Esq.

As I previously reported in February 2005, the Copyright Office, in response to a Notice of Inquiry from Congress, examined issues raised in connection with "Orphan Works". This term is used to describe the situation where the owner of a copyrighted work cannot be identified and located by someone who wishes to make use of the work in a manner that requires permission of the copyright owner.
The Copyright Office received over 850 written initial and reply comments from the public and held three days of round table discussions. In addition, it met informally with various organizations in what was called an effort to explore more specific issues raised. The Copyright Office has now issued its Report on Orphan Works which is a culmination of these efforts.
The conclusions reached were that the Orphan Works problem is real; it is elusive to qualify and describe comprehensively; some situations may be addressed by existing copyright law but many are not; and that legislation is necessary to provide a meaningful solution to the Orphan Works problem as we know it today.
As a result, the Copyright Office has recommended that the Copyright Act be amended to provide a solution to this problem. The proposed amendment follows the core concept that many commentators favored as a solution. This core concept is that, if the user has performed a reasonably diligent search for the copyright owner but is unable to locate that owner, then that user should enjoy a benefit of limiting the remedies a copyright owner could otherwise obtain against them if the owner showed up at a later date and sued for infringement.
Thus the Copyright Office recommendation has two main components:
1. The threshold requirement of a reasonably diligent search; and
2. A limitation of remedies available if the user proves a reasonably diligent search was in fact conducted.
The proposed legislation does not define the term Orphan Work. Instead it refers to "a good faith, reasonably diligent search to locate the owner of the infringed copyright and the infringer did not locate that owner". It should be noted that once an owner is actually located the work is no longer considered to be an Orphan Work and the proposed legislation would be inapplicable.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/legal113.html

Are We Losing Control?

In blustery winter storms in the last century, farmers out here in northern Wisconsin used to tie a long rope between the farmhouse and the barn. During a blizzard, without holding onto the rope, a person could get lost in the whiteness just trying to get over to the house or barn. The rope was a life saver.
Do stock photographers need a similar lifeline today, in the face of the storms within the stock industry?
The “storms,” of course, for stock photographers, are the introduction of Royalty-Free, subscription services, and micropayment sites on the Internet, along with digital cameras, which together with bandwidth on the Internet, have introduced a new way of supplying images to formerly sleeping segments of the marketplace. Once the price of photos came down, the market expanded, thanks to technology and the innovative spirit of both buyers and sellers.
The only guideline we need for these storms of change (“Are we out of the storm yet?”) is history. The invention of the sewing machine did not put the seamstress out of business. Those who could not afford hand-tailored clothing in the past could now own three or four dresses. This technology phenomenon repeats itself as any industry adapts and progresses.
And how have they fared – the managed-rights photographers who had a monopoly on the industry in the 80’s and 90’s? Are they out in the cold or have they ridden along with the flow and adapted?

SAME OL’ SAME OL’

The equation hasn’t changed all that much. In the 80’s, the market for stock photos was small, and commercial stock photographers were selling RM photos for $1,000, while editorial photographers were selling and re-selling the same picture 20 times for $50 each time. Postal delivery of images was sufficient.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen711.html

How Do I Declare My
Stock Photo Inventory?

A reader inquired:
Q. I'm told that if you have inventory in your business you have to use the accrual method for your accounting. How do you value your stock inventory? By what you hope to make by selling each photo? By how much it cost you to get the photo? I'd appreciate any input you can give. Thanks.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A. We checked with our taxexpertand columnist, Julian Block. He advises that since you, as a stock photographer, are not manufacturing anything, declaring inventory is not necessary in your stock photo business. And up are "renting" your photos, not physically selling them. You deduct expenses in the production of your stock file as you spend the money (cash basis). This includes the usual expenses such as film or memory cards, postage, cameras, computer-related costs, a percentage of your business meals, location costs, models, lodging, telephone, travel, and so forth.
It's not necessary to work on an accrual basis. Most stock photographers work on a cash basis, unless for some reason they prefer an accrual basis. If you wish to switch from a cash basis to an accrual basis, you'll have to contact the IRS to get permission to change to that accounting system. -RE

Did You Miss Form 1040's Filing Deadline?
by Julian Block, Esq.

Were you late with your taxes this year? That can prove costly. The law authorizes the Internal Revenue Service to impose hefty, nondeductible penalties if you submitted your 1040 form after the deadline of Monday, April 17 (the 15th fell on a Saturday) and did not obtain a six-month automatic extension that moves the deadline back to Monday, Oct. 16 (the 15th falls on a Sunday).
How much is the penalty going to cost you? Generally, the late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance due (the amount on line 75 of the 1040 form) for each month that return is late, up to a maximum of 25%. The IRS calculates the penalty after subtracting taxes previously paid - most commonly, through withholding from your salary and your estimated payments.
And there's more. Another rule applies if your return is at least 60 days late. The late-filing penalty is at least $100 or the balance due with the return, whichever is the lesser figure. That means the IRS does not exact a late-filing penalty when there is no balance due.
And now the good news. There are times when the agency will forget about penalties for late filings or payments. To induce the tax collectors to undo an overdue-return penalty, you have to persuade them that there was "reasonable cause" for your tardiness.
So what cause is reasonable? The government's list of acceptable excuses includes a serious illness or death in your immediate family, postal delays, wrong advice from IRS employees, agency tardiness in providing tax forms and instructions, and the destruction of your home, photography studio or records as the result of a fire, other casualty or civil disturbance.

THE MONEY ANGLE

But what if you just don't have the money? The lack of sufficient cash to settle the tab at filing time, even if you are able to demonstrate that, is not reasonable cause that will relieve you of a penalty.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/txtct106.html

Whose Photo Is It?
A photographer recently wrote, "I work for a mid-sized newspaper. If I get a photo in the process of working for the newspaper, and the photo turns out to be a blockbuster, does the copyright belong to me or the newspaper? "
You may have found yourself in this position. If you are a freelancer, operating on your own, and you have not signed any document that says you are "working for hire," the Copyright Law says you own the copyright to that photo.
But if you are an employee of a newspaper and are under contract with them to produce photos for them, you no doubt have signed a work agreement with the newspaper. Unless you have some kind of written agreement or contract with the newspaper whereby, after a certain time, you receive ownership of the photos you take, the newspaper owns the copyright to the photos.

The NYFD Firefighters

Take the case of the famous firefighter photo of the three NYFD firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001.
A fund was established and collected more than $350,000 from use of the photo by manufacturers of items such as T-shirts, coffee cups, medallions, pins, and other "illegal" items, and the funds were turned over to two charities. An equal amount was received by the fund in royalties and from legal items. The actual copyright of the photo is held by The Record (a newspaper in Bergen county, NJ) and not by the photographer, Tom Franklin, who is an employee of the newspaper and no doubt under a standard "work for hire" contract with the paper.

Robert Cranston

Stockschlock has come of age…..
Want to Work for Getty ?

Here’s a recent job listing. It gives you an idea of what drives stock photography at the major stock agency level. Aren’t you glad you’re a photographer? Or would you rather be an administrator?

The Getty Help-Wanted ad we recently found: Mission: To provide operational and administrative support to the VP and DoPs of Creative in the creation of new content. This position typically reports to a regional Creative Operations Manager with a dotted line report to the local DoP.

Responsibilities:
· Maintain and update local data of global shoot list for Imagery
· manage local content in concert with local DoP
· report on local shoot program and budgetary effectiveness
· serve as a liaison with other parts of Creative and the business
· Issue appropriate contracts to artists and coordinate all internal data requirements to set up artist on Getty systems and related reporting.
· Maintain Creative data as required and related reporting.
· Coordinate advances and commissioned shoot budgets. Coordinate all internal requirements for payment to artist and monitoring final invoices
· Assistance to other departments regarding creation of new images as required.
· Validate all model and property releases accompanying accepted images before handing over to another department.
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen700.html

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This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Aaron Hightower (http://folio.photosource.com/2680)
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On-Line
by Bill Hopkins

More on Hazardous Waste Disposal
Last month we told you about Greendisk, a company that, for a fee, will recycle your small electronic waste, including rechargeable batteries. Here is another solution for (dead) rechargeable batteries, cell phones, and inkjet cartridges B take them to your nearest Best Buy store. There you'll find self-service kiosks where you can drop off your acceptable items for recycling. You can also pick up mailers for returning used laser toner cartridges. Best Buy also hosts recycling events where you can drop off computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, TVs, audio equipment, VCRs, and DVD players (some fees may apply so check first). More info is online at www.bestbuy.com/recycling.

Picture Post-It Notes
Here's something you may even have fun with. Make up your own sticky-notes with this special photo paper. It's coated on the back with that magical Post-It stuff and comes in matte and glossy finishes. I've even added a link in the Bookstore to get you started: www.photosourcefolio.com/bookstoreone.htm
#B000CSZ8WA. You could use this just around the office, as a marketing tool (a note on your delivery memo, for example), and other personal and professional uses I'm sure you can come up with. If you've used this as part of your marketing approach, drop a sample in the mail to us (Attn: Bill).

Tips for Designing Your Web Page
Of course volumes of books (did I mention our Bookstore?), and even some college curricula have been devoted to this topic. But here's a quickie: According to a recent Canadian research article, Internet users (your customers) can give a Web site a go/no go in less than the blink of an eye. Yep, in one-twentieth of a second, folks make aesthetic judgments that can influence the rest of their experience with your Web site, or whether they even venture beyond that first page. So you need to make sure that your visitors are not visually offended by what they see. Of course, beauty is in the beholder's eye, and the vicissitudes of personal taste will ensure that the world has a very diverse (and interesting) landscape on the Internet.

Bill Hopkins is the Webmaster of PhotoSourceFolio* (www.photosourcefolio.com) and a regular contributor to PhotoStockNotes. Send comments via e-mail to wh@photosourcefolio.comFax: 1 818 831-0916. For on-line questions, contact Bill on the Kracker Barrel at www.photosource.com/board

*Display 6 of your own images for photobuyers to view, on your page on the PhotoSource website.

How Do I Speed Up My Computer?
by Nathan Segal

Part 1
This relatively simple question isn't easy to answer.
Nor does this problem affect only graphics users, but also
pretty much anyone who has a computer with multiple
software programs, music, etc. and is connected
to the Internet.
Let’s look at how to improve the performance of your computer without spending
your hard earned cash. Many people think that adding more RAM, a faster video card
with more memory, or a hard drive or a motherboard upgrade is the best solution. That may be true, but it could be a waste of money too. Spending money should be a last resort, not something you do first.
Before you shell out any cash, let me ask you two questions:
1.) What was the last thing you did with your computer before it started to slow down?
2). When was the last time you defragmented your hard drive? (If your system goes down, work doesn’t get done and money and time are wasted. System crashes; slow file access and even blue screens are often due to “fragmentation.” Fragmentation in your hard drive causes rapid declines in the stability of your computer. You might think your computer is “getting old” and wearing out. It just might need ‘defragging’. With defragmentation, you’ll solve problems before they occur. More about this later.
Your answers to these two questions will help determine why your computer is slowing down. If it's related to having too many programs installed, here are a couple of quick fixes.
If you work on the Windows platform and have msconfig installed, execute that from the
Run menu. (To learn what each item below is, do a “Google search” for each. That way, you'll learn what can be turned off.) In the System Configuration Utility dialog box,
click on the Startup tab. This shows you what programs are loaded at startup. Turning off unnecessary Startup items will speed up your computer!
Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/dn5.html

My Love Affair with Google’s AdSense Program
A few years back I was looking for ways to support the large cost of making a website available for stock photographers. Having written two books on marketing stock and producing a newsletter on the subject for more than a dozen years, I had a lot of great content to share with fellow stock photographers.
However, providing a website is one thing, and keeping it fresh and updated is another. In the process of establishing the website, expenses began to pile up, and I considered getting funds through the “donations” route. That didn’t work out, so I began looking into banner ads. But they detracted from the website content, and also, the revenues were minimal.
Before considering dropping my website entirely, I started looking into Google. Their AdSense program was just starting out. I signed up, but only a few dollars trickled in at the end of the month. Things looked bleak.

Cheney’s program also shows you ways of getting more traffic to your site to view your photos and in the process gets more exposure for your AdSense ads. Google’s AdSense has become the answer to getting support for my website. The support dollars are now coming in, and more than I ever expected!
If you’re looking for ways to support the ongoing cost of your website, or even to open up new profit areas for your Internet enterprises, I think you’ll find Michael Cheney’s video series beneficial. He’s created a free AdSense mini-course that people can go through to learn the four cornerstone principles that he has used successfully to build up his Google AdSense empire. –Rohn
Here’s an interview with him:

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/04pe15.html

What Ever Happened to B&W ?

If you’re an emerging stock photographer and have never entertained the idea of taking a black & white stock photo, I’d encourage you to try it. But, fair warning though, it’ll be more an experience for the soul, not for the sale.
B&W is no longer popular among photo editors at books and magazines (our targets here at Photosource International). In rare cases (about 5%), b&w still claims attention in commercial photography. And b&w claims even more attention in fine arts photography, where the photographers take a day job to be able to sustain their efforts to produce art photography.
If you flip through current newsstand magazines, you’ll see very few b&w photographs. The general public, it was proved long ago, prefers color to b&w. (Is your TV still b&w?) Editors always conform to management’s marketing research.
The change to color started in the mid-80’s, and by the mid-90’s the changeover was almost complete. Only small publications with limited budgets or a special focus use b&w today.
You may wonder how well b&w fared in the early days of stock photography. In my own case, back in the early 60’s I put my b&w photos with one of the few early stock agencies, called “Photo Researchers.” (The agency still exists today.)
When we moved to our farm in 1966, I began selling my b&w’s via the mailbox. The delivery system was simple, and I encouraged photobuyers at publishing houses to keep my b&w pictures on file at their central library. They would send me a check each time they used one of my pictures. The honor system worked.
When I wrote the first edition of my book, “Sell & ReSell Your Photos,” in 1981, I advised photographers to use the mailbox as their delivery system. The system was easy. I would send off a package of my b&w’s “for consideration” to a potential photobuyer whose photo needs matched one of my specialization areas. If my photos were accepted, very often that meant I’d found a client for life, unless the theme of the publishing housed changed, which rarely happened. From time to time, I updated my collection of photos at the publishing house with new b&w prints, and the photobuyer returned photos that were no longer needed. These I placed in a file in our barn, which my grandchildren one day can sell to PBS or an historical photo archive.
Slowly, in the mid-80’s the preference for color grew. Photobuyers now wanted color transparencies. This gave rise to the age of “lost images.” Many photographers and photobuyers alike, found they were incapable of tracking the transparencies they were handling. It wasn’t pretty. Lawsuits multiplied and photobuyers began dealing only with a circumscribed number of stock photographers who were savvy in their business acumen. Veteran stock photographers who are reading this will well remember the turbulent transparency mess we had to live through before the Digital Era came along and gave us a break.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen712.html

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS

Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL.

The Stock Asylum has uploaded a special section on ORPHAN WORKS, a proposal that could affect visual artists for years. http://www.stockasylum.com/ow.htm

Privacy and photographing strangers. If you publish them on your blog or Flickr stream, does it violate their PRIVACY? Wired Magazine says no - in general.
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/digital-photography/
privacy-and-photographing-strangers-173746.php

CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPHY enthusiasts unite- It was a loss most photographers could live with, except for a few who dreaded the loss of Azo, a paper with unusual characteristics that Kodak had made continuously since 1898. Other papers "just are not as beautiful," said Michael Smith,
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/cctimes
/news/nation/14577383.htm?source=rss

OnRequest Images Launches "The VISUAL BRAND Project" to Measure Impact Imagery Has on Brand Equity. http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/060515/0129084.html

Sleeping Beckham, Redesign Livens Up NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY images hang in London's 150-year-old National Portrait Gallery. Once, subjects had to be dead at least a decade to be on the wall;
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=10000082&sid=avqDeBpoUFIU

Taipei, May 14 (CNA) The National Science Council (NSC) has launched a new "Cyber Island" project to construct an ONLINE PHOTO GALLERY of Taiwan in which perspectives of the island can be shared through digital photography, an NSC official said. http://www.cna.com.tw/eng/cepread.php
?id=200605140018

EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHS on show at British Library
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/
uk_news/story/0,,1774428,00.html

MIRA has announced it will move forward with a core group of about 200 participating photographers. After 2007, the cooperative hopes to be self-sufficient, according to Chairman and CEO John Greim. http://www.stockasylum.com/text-pages/articles/a6sp052006-mira.htm

Microsoft Helps STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHERS Make the Jump From Student to Pro
http://www.creativepro.com/story/
news/24262.html?cprose=daily

StockPhotoFinder.co.uk, the STOCK PHOTO SEARCH ENGINE specifically designed for search of content from multiple photo web sites, has launched its web site in the United Kingdom. http://www.prweb.com/releases
/2006/5/prweb383055.htm

Scott Kelby Launches Online Photoshop for DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
http://www.creativepro.com/story/news
/24252.html?cprose=daily

Camera Review, a place on the Web where photographers can share REVIEWS OF CAMERAS, lenses and other photography gear. www.camerareview.com/

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