News
PACA releases metadata standards
The President of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), Roger Ressmeyer, has published a letter to its membership concerning Metadata Standards. The new metadata standards, if they are widely accepted, would aid anyone involved in stock image licensing (Stock Photography Agencies, Photographers, Art Buyers, Etc...), to manage their image licensing activities more efficiently. In addition PACA hopes the new standards would prove beneficial for those who wish to submit their work to any of the anticipated global image registries intended to protect the copyright owner in the event that Orphan Works legislation is enacted. Ressmeyer’s letter, in its entirety, follows:
MESSAGE FROM PACA'S PRESIDENT
PACA’s Metadata Standards Released
Dear PACA Members,
On July 12th, PACA’s Board approved the release of PACA’s Metadata Standards version 1.0, outlined below. Furthermore, the Board directed PACA’s technology committee to develop a metadata panel based on these standards. This “PACA Distributor” XMP panel will power the consistent entry of embedded text about a picture’s distributor, model releases, etc. into image headers which are viewable in Photoshop’s File Info screens. It will complement existing IPTC and future PLUS licensing panels. By mid October it will hopefully be downloadable from PACA’s website and available for immediate use.
Finally, the Board directed PACA’s technology committee, headed by Drew Maclean, to set up a mechanism for periodic input into these metadata standards by PACA’s membership, and for the generation of updated releases when required.
Background
Benefits abound to embedding metadata within the electronic structure of every digital image. In the case of professional Rights Managed (RM) pictures, easily-accessible distributor, rights, model release and caption information makes images easier to sell while also protecting RM’s topmost pricing levels.
Therefore, when I co-chaired PACA’s DISCo (Digital Standards Committee) with Dexter Lane, our work quickly focused on creating universal metadata standards for picture archives. Starting at PACA’s 2003’s annual meeting in Montauk NY, DISCo solicited feedback from the membership as well as from other organizations including ASMP, ASPP, Adobe and Pixel Genius. The resulting recommendations were posted on PACA’s website in 2004.
Shortly thereafter, PACA was asked by the PLUS organization to delay the release of formal metadata standards in order to avoid confusing the membership about PLUS’ separate though related initiative. PACA supports PLUS via endorsements, an annual contribution and participation on the PLUS advisory board. Among other benefits, PLUS and other metadata standards may help to curtail the illegal use of images.
This fall, PLUS intends to release its universal media matrix and standardized image licensing format. PACA will work closely with PLUS’ CEO Jeff Sedlik to coordinate the two sets of recommendations. It’s important to note that PACA’s Metadata Standards do not extend into PLUS’ specific domain of licensing matrixes, vocabulary and formats.
Other pressing industry developments including SAA’s recent “Metadata Manifesto” led PACA to release its official metadata standards at this opportune moment. At last month’s meeting with CEPIC (the coordinating association of Europe’s picture distribution associations), the two organizations re-confirmed their joint interest in universal metadata standards.
With PLUS, SAA, CEPIC, PACA and other groups working together, the rapid adoption of global metadata standards becomes possible. Such standards can protect distributors’ and creators’ interests alike while also supporting the intrinsic value of professional images.
Words, Dates & Dimensions… Who, What, Where, When, Why?
Good old search terms—keywords and other text associated with stock images—are still the best way for customers to find our wares.
And once customers find the right image on your website, they need more information before they decide to purchase. Is it RF or RM? Are exclusive rights available? Are there releases? When was the picture taken? Is it risky to use? Is the text reliably accurate?
A Data Entry System for the Rest of Us
Until now, none of this information has been available in the form of standardized distributor-embedded metadata. That’s about to change. The PACA Distributor panel, described below, is as important to image distributors as the IPTC panels are to news organizations.
Within Photoshop, the new metadata panel could be found here:
The next image, downloadable in greater detail here, shows a mock up of PACA’s Distributor metadata panel version 1.0. It’s hoped this will be available for download from PACA’s website within three months.
Today, many of the fields shown above simply don’t exist elsewhere within File Info. Until now, the needs of stock image distributors haven’t been incorporated into the growing number of IPTC and other metadata panels. By themselves, the IPTC panels unnecessarily create conflict between photographers and their distributors. Since distributor data fields don’t exist, artist data fields are sometimes overwritten.
PACA’s panel will live side-by-side with IPTC panels covering creator contact and copyright information. When added, PACA’s panel is expected to foster increased cooperation and goodwill between photographers and their photo agencies.
Metadata, Registries and Orphan Works
Please note the panel’s two fields circled in blue. Together they enable any professionally-licensed image to be immediately and uniquely entered into one or more of the anticipated global image registries. Such registries have emerged as the most viable answer to Orphan Works legislation.
Nancy Wolff, PACA’s legal counsel, regularly drafts important advisories about the “Orphan Works” legislation now under fast-track consideration by the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Some version of the legislation is likely to pass in the next few months or perhaps, within a couple of years. Any new law will almost certainly place extra burdens on image licensors, distributors and creators—burdens that one or more global image registries could relieve by providing a mechanism to check whether or not an image has been orphaned.
In the past, little headway was made on image registries. While many proposals have been brought forward, they’ve generally been opposed for economic and competitive reasons.
On the economic side, the landscape is changing. New and relatively inexpensive technologies (reliable terabyte storage, broad bandwidth connectivity and rapid-fire batch data entry) will enable future registry services to be built inexpensively rather than with corporate-sized budgets requiring significant registration and/or user fees.
Registries Level the Field between Licensors and Buyers
In the end, registries make it necessary and extremely simple for image publishers to locate the origin of any image before using it. If they don’t, penalties remain severe for publishing an image prior to licensing it. A registry draws a long overdue and very visible line in the digital sand.
Without a registry, the proposed Orphan Works law inexorably weakens image distributors’ collective ability to do business. Pricing could be relentlessly undermined. Without a registry, image publishers will find it painless to hijack pictures without significant penalties. When and if caught, they’re relieved of legal responsibility by simply paying a standard licensing fee.
Under the proposed law, an opportunistic image user could reasonably conclude that many (if not most) pictures will slip through the cracks without costing a nickel. Why license pictures in advance of publication, when you can safely publish and pay licensing fees later, and only if caught?
Digital Image Identifiers
For registries to work, commercially licensed digital images need globally unique image IDs recorded in their metadata and ideally, used as their filenames.
While many new image ID systems are under consideration, there’s a system that already exists. PACA recommends the use of URLs—already proven to be unique—to define each image’s “source” whether it’s an archive, the photographer or other author. This URL-driven image ID system can be used today, avoiding potential delays caused by new-system development and roll out schedules.
Until something significantly better becomes operational, PACA recommends using an image’s “Source URL” combined with an image’s regular, existing ID to generate a totally unique Digital Image Identifier (DII). While this creates longer filenames and paths, current operating systems can easily handle them.
Over time, it will become widely known that a filename beginning with a URL signals image registration. Then, it’s a simple matter to track down the picture’s official licensor, since every image’s ID displays the address back to its distributor or other source.
Assuming this approach gains acceptance as PACA feels it must, over time most professional images will have their DIIs recorded at one or more of the registries under development by PLUS, idée, PicScout and other companies.
What-Ifs
Change of Ownership or Control - When a new distributor takes control of an image, the first part of the DII… the Licensor’s URL… must be replaced in three places:
1. Within the image’s metadata,
2. In its filename and
3. In its registry record.
The rest of the metadata remains the same.
Today, such modifications are quick, precise and painless. “Find and replace” digital text editing routines are commonplace and increasingly easy to execute, even when thousands of pictures are involved. Powerful new metadata editing and file renaming tools have been added to Photoshop and Photo Mechanic, among others.
Images with Many Distributors – PACA’s proposal easily accommodates images distributed through multiple channels. These images would be registered many times, once by each distributor. Via embedded metadata and a unique filename, each digital copy refers itself back to that copy’s correct licensor.
Metadata Manifestos & More
Last month at Microsoft’s Pro Photo Summit, the Stock Artist Alliance of photographers (SAA) released a white paper entitled “Metadata Manifesto”, downloadable here.
SAA’s compelling paper documents the quick adoption of embedded metadata by the majority of stock photographers. It promotes standardized metadata usage across the board, from the software developers who create imaging tools to end users. It demands respect for already-embedded metadata and complains about companies that strip, over-write or modify the original creator’s information.
Suddenly the increasingly functional tools for embedding metadata are being utilized by vast numbers of photographers, stock archives and customers.
Last month, Alamy announced the insertion of metadata into every one of their image files. Recently, Getty Images added metadata to online image previews. These and similar advancements in embedded metadata are reshaping the universe of stock photography.
Metadata Miracles
With these changes and the adoption of PACA’s metadata template, images will no longer end up on customer servers without data indicating whether they’re RM, RF, subscription-based or public domain. Customers who’ve renamed their image files can still track back to the original licensor, making it easier to renew old licenses or to purchase new ones.
PACA believes the slide of RM image valuations can be arrested and reversed with the help of today’s metadata efforts by PACA, PLUS, CEPIC, SAA, UPDIG, ASPP, ASMP and other organizations. Not trying harder is simply not an option.
How often do PACA members hear the words, “But we can buy similar pictures for much less at (insert company name)?” All too frequently, customers ridicule reasonable pricing proposals by misrepresenting what they actually pay Corbis, Getty Images, Jupiter and other PACA members for similar licenses. Consistent metadata combined with PLUS’ standardized licensing terms and matrix can take the edge off destructive pricing battles.
With timely strategic planning and action, technology becomes our friend rather than a destabilizing threat.
Respectfully yours,
Roger Ressmeyer
PACA President
Posted in: IPTC, Keywording / Metadata, News, PACA, Photographers, Stock Art Buyers, Stock Photo Companies
