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Getty Images Group goes Public
Daily Ink
Stored in: Flickr News
Posted On: January 22 2009
By: Bryan Partington
Getty Images has a program for soliciting images from flickr members and has recently unveiled a public discussion group to supplement these efforts. In the grand tradition of Flickr news, this has sparked a variety of protests.
Some complain that Getty only returns 20 to 30% of each sale to the photographer. Others complain that Getty is undermining Creative Commons Licenses by forcing photographers to change their CC licensed works to an "all rights reserved" status. Still others are complaining that Getty is too aggressive in going after publishers who might accidentally republish a work from the Getty catalog.
Some of these complaints are inevitable, akin to the complaints that accompany virtually any change to the flickr service. Other complaints are legitimate. Getty Images is a huge operation built around exclusivity. Exclusivity isn't a necessarily bad thing, but it is certainly at odds with Flickr culture. Even the most die-hard, watermark slinging, copyright maximalist on Flickr retains control over who they license their photo to, and when. Signing up with Getty requires a relinquishment of control that is likely to bother even the most commercially oriented photographers on the site.
At day's end, most of these complaints will subside, as they always do. More photographers will make money than before, even though it is increasingly clear that very, very few, if any will be able to make a living off the arrangements Getty makes with Flickr photographers.
1 comments on this Ink
On February 15, 2009, chuck norris said ...
I think it's unfortunate that people post images as their own, especially when it's clear they are from large entities such as the AP. I know of one person in particular that has done as such, and because I do not own the photo, filing a ticket with the administrators at flickr was futile. The picture is still online.
When someone has captured a quintessential photo that has a resounding evocative effect on scores of people, that shouldn't be diluted or bastardized by those looking to glean a little recognition or make a quick buck off of it. I understand why there are people who would have difficulty with Getty Images as a co-partner.
I certainly hope it is a mutually beneficial arrangement for those who choose to partner with them, though.
Piracy on the Hudson
Stored in: In Situ
Posted On: January 16 2009
By: Bryan Partington
Photo © jimdavidson
Discussing the implications of copyright infringement following major news events could be a bit insensitive after a major disaster, like the US Airways flight 1549 crash into the Hudson river yesterday.
I knew I wanted to write a post about the crash, since a good deal of attention has been directed to how twitter and Flickr members posted the first photos of the disaster. What i found most striking when going through the Flickr search results, was just how many copied and re-posted versions of photos there were. People were uploading images lifted from news sources, or posted to twitter and other services.
Still, some Flickr members were posting their own photos, many of which were comparable in quality to the pool photos that had been illicitly uploaded to Flickr alongside them.
Interestingly, the cross pollination of images runs both ways. The media borrows from the people, and the people borrow from the media. The photographer of the image that illustrates this post noted that CNN had republished his photo in a slideshow on their site. I'm not sure if they had his permission, as the photo was under a non-commercial creative commons license. The photographer has since contacted me to say that permission to re-post was sought by CNN
One photo on Flickr, uploaded by a rescue diver has only one line in its description, "*Do not use this photo without permission*". It's a really good photo from a source close to the action, so he probably has quite a few people asking.
It is interesting to watch the back and forth flow of images play out in the search results and comment on Flickr. You can visualize in your head all the emails, Flickr mails, file nabbing, screenshotting and other methods of securing these photos and republishing them in every available nook and cranny of the web.
Photo Stereo Synthesis
Stored in: Photography
Posted On: January 14 2009
By: Joan Hill
Archival Photo
Awhile back, a friend of mine was sharing some amazing 3-D images that he'd acquired over the years. Some of them were double images, to be viewed with colored glasses or glass lens stereo viewers. One was an 8" cube, lit from within, and filled with a dozen or so plates of glass, each containing the same photographic image, but with different planes of focus, thus creating an astounding stereo effect.
After some research, he discovered they were likely based on the work of the multi-talented Lumiere Brothers, from Lyon, France (in photo, a wiki commons image), both, as was their father, true pioneers of photography and cinematic photography.
The name of the artist is not known, as the item was a gift from a friend, who had "found" it in a store room at his art school. Web searches proved fairly fruitless, although it does appear that there is an artist making similar pieces in England, known as shardcore (there is a rumor that this artist is a former cast member of "Real World: London!), but it is doubtful that this is his work. shardcore's work, which exists "at the intersection of art and science" is, however, worth a look. His photo stereo synthesis cubes look gorgeous!
Flickr has dozens of stereo groups, however, there is no mention of this sort of work that I could find. I believe that these circumstances are what is sometimes called "a mystery wrapped in an enigma". I cannot even show you a photograph of his cube, because the last time that we spoke, the cube was destroyed during his last move. My interest is definitely piqued.
