New stock agency
Posted by: William Hannum (IP Logged)
Date: March 19, 2002 01:18AM
In Reply to: Royalty Free Images posted by Bill Morgenstern on March 05, 20102 at 21:20:22:
: I received a call today from a person I know who is setting up a photo bank to service a certain geographical area. He invited me to be a part of this and wants as many top quality, subject diverse images as I can supply for a 6 months royalty free "beta run" of his service. As a photographer I can set my own price per image. His commission is 50% of the asking price per use. My slides will be kept in his image bank, scanned at low res for clients to source, and then scanned at high res when ordered out. Slides will be held for 3 years. : The person starting the bank is seeking images from as many photographers as possible to service the intended clientel in this geographical area. He is in partnership with a major and wide spread accounting firm who is putting up the web site used to distribute and show case images.: Does anyone out there have any experience of this type? If so, what do you see as the positives and negatives of such an arrangement?: Before I jump in I want to know the pros and cons as I have not been in a venture like this before. What are the key questions/issues for an arrangement like this before I go into it? I have some - what would you ask?: Thanks for your suggestions.-- There can be several "problems" that come into play,with this kind of arrangement.
questions that you shouold ask.:What kind of track record does the publisher/owner have? Or is the owner going to "learn-as-you=go ?
Do you submit originals or hi-res digital images.?
If the organization fails, what happens to the pictures while litigation takes place? Are they locked into a vault somewhere? To get background on this, just type "bankrupt publisher" on a major search engine and you'll learn what others (writers and photogrsaphers) have gone through in the past in dealing with a 'newbie publisher'.
Royalty Free: Are the pictures released with a very strong release? Otherwise, if your publisher is not protected well, a wrongful lawsuit could be filed against him (and you) if the picture got into the wrong hsands and were published without your and the publisjhers' consent.
Always ask, "Is this publisher really just in the disc scanning business and the stock photo part of it is just a front? Other organizations are a film development front... and pretend to be a stock agncy.
Sincerely
William Hannum
