pressure mounts on Getty to alter $49 web-use product
Another prestigious photographer organization has joined the coalition of photographer groups putting pressure on Getty to images to retract at least part of the company’s $49 web-use product. The UK-based Association of Photographers (AOP) has added its support to the growing protest movement. The new product has met with severe criticism from almost all quarters, not least among them, Wall Street, where Getty’s stock closed at a nearly five-year low of $26.79 at the end of last week.
The AOP, a forty-year-old photographer trade association, has voiced the same objections to the new product as have the SAA, the ASMP and the numerous other organizations that have joined the protest; that the $49 price does not give proper value to the web-uses included in the license and, furthermore, that it devalues stock photography, especially RM and RR collections for all other uses.
The AOP released a number of stinging quotations from member photographers who currently have contracts with Getty:
“I have been becoming increasingly disenchanted with Getty for some time and this $49 'promotion' is the final straw. I find it truly insulting that I might receive approx £12.50 per image sold. I do not want to be associated with a company who would sell off my work in such a cheap and crass manner. This is not what I got into photography for and I know I am not alone...every other photographer I have spoken to, including many of their major contributors, feels the same way. I shall no longer submit images to Getty and will withdraw my existing collection at the soonest opportunity.” AOP Awards Gold Winner and IPA Professional Photographer of the Year 2007, George Logan
“I deplore what Getty are doing and have done to their contributing photographers. I deplore also what they have done to their staff, most of whom enjoyed good working relationships with their photographers. I have seen all the friends I have made at Getty over the years leave or be made jobless. I fully support any action direct or indirect, which may provoke a dialogue with Getty or their representative.” AOP Member and AOP Awards winner Nick Daly.
“I feel this whole Getty saga is deplorable. Their desperate scramble to placate shareholders is detrimental to the whole industry and this makes me question whether public ownership is the best business model for our industry. My Getty image sales pay my mortgage. Their move will cut heavily into this revenue and as a result, I feel that I'll now have place future images with another stock image provider that has more respect for its photographers.” AOP Member, multiple AOP Awards winner, Frank Herholdt.
The recent decent of Getty’s stock price, which began immediately following the release of its 2nd quarter ’07 results, which showed declining volumes and prices in RM and declined volumes in RF, took a steeper dive upon the announcement of this new product.
Web-site: AOP
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