News
UpperCut Images offers you its protection
Miles Gerstein (founder and CEO of PunchStock) has recently
launched a new Rights-Protected stock agency called UpperCut Images. UpperCut claims to have a not-so-secret
weapon: great images by great photographers. (The image above is not from UpperCut). Many stock agencies make similar
claims to offer only the best images, but what makes UpperCut different is that
every image includes "spot rights protection" (see definition below). This means that every image licensed
through UpperCut will come with certain protections similar to an Industry-Exclusive license without any additional fees. In plain English…
If you plan to use the image for the Insurance industry, UpperCut will protect
you by restricting others in the insurance industry from using the image as specified below. Currently
UpperCut offers approximately 13,000 images and has stated a goal of
increasing that to 20,000 by the end of 2005.
Definition of Spot Rights Protection.
UpperCut Images guarantees to make commercially reasonable efforts
not to re-license the same image (or its similars), to any other customer for
the same use, in the same industry segment, in the same geographic region, and
during the same time period.
Here is a sample image from Uppercut Images. For more images like this check out www.uppercutimages.com.
This image was shot by Chase Jarvis.
Also reported by:
Stock Asylum
Posted in: News, Photographers, Stock Art Buyers, Stock Photo Companies
Comments(1)
post a comment »Bahar Gidwani, September 22, 2005 [#]
This approach was standard for years, in many overseas markets. For instance, I have been told that agents both South Africa and Japan have an understanding with their customers that they will not license an image to two customers in the same industry.
This made sense in smaller markets (such as South Africa) or in markets where many industries are highly concentrated among just a few players (Japan). It has never made sense to me, as a practice for the U.S., where the economy is so huge and diverse.
It also seems to me that exclusivity of any type should be paid for! I guess the idea is to distinguish RM from RF, by making it more automatically exclusive. I hope that Uppercut has combined the feature with higher-than-normal pricing. That would make sense, to me.