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Stock production companies form International Stock Producers Alliance (ISPA)
Representatives from a group of royalty free and rights managed production companies held a separate meeting at the PACA International Conference in Key West to discuss issues of common interest. The meeting resulted from a building sense of frustration with distributor companies the suppliers share who have not met the obligations of their representation contracts; specifically, late reporting and even later paying of commissions. The participants decided to form a trade organization, tentatively named the International Stock Producers Alliance (ISPA,) to address these problems.
In private conversations several of the supplier principals realized they experienced the same difficulties with the same distributor companies, but had found themselves powerless when acting as individual entities to induce the distributors to comply with contractual terms. They agreed that collective action might achieve better results and decided to discuss the matter as a group. The participants decided to first share information regarding their experiences with distributors. Based on that information they will consider other options including the hiring of accountants to conduct audits of the distributors’ accounting records and the retaining of attorneys to bargain on their behalf.
According to Paul Henning, who participated in the meeting on behalf of Tetra Images, the members of the alliance do not want to take a confrontational stance with the distributors, who he declined to name, but only to convince them to adhere to their agreements. “The group currently controls about 250,000 RF images, and produces at a rate of 100,00 images per year; a significant chunk of these distributors’ RF offerings,” Henning said, adding “We’re tired of having them play us off each other and we think we’ll have better luck getting their attention if we approach them as a group.”
The participants have yet to decide whether they will create a formal alliance or simply seek professional assistance collectively. Jack Hollingsworth, of Blend and 40260 Images says they intend to address the immediate problems with the distributors together, “but the future of the alliance is wide open and may include standardizing contracts and even selling imagery directly to clients.”
In addition to Tetra, Blend and 40260 Images, representatives from rubberballproductions, and Hola Images, among others, have joined the alliance. Hollingsworth says any RF companies who feel they may benefit from the alliance are welcome to join.
Posted in: News, Photographers, Stock Photo Companies
