Dana Downie's blog

The Copyright Office is now accepting electronic registrations.

From a John Harrington July 8 post on http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/

So I went looking for a link to the Copyright Office's Form VA today, and when visiting this link:
http://www.copyright.gov/forms/formva.pdf , I saw that the Copyright Office is now phasing out paper registrations in favor of their eCO (i.e. electronic Copyright Office) system. They want you go to their eCO Online System http://www.copyright.gov/eco/ to learn more, and begin your registrations that way.

The site directs you to use the Form CO http://www.copyright.gov/forms/index.html#formco, as noted here:

Photographer Gets $12 Million Verdict!!!
Saturday, June 21, 2008

Liz Ordonez-Dawes, an accomplished architectural and interior design photographer, recently was awarded more than $12 million dollars for copyright infringement of seven photographs. In brief, the court found that the defendants distributed Ms. Ordonez-Dawes' photos of high-end houses to various third parties for advertisements to sell the houses without authority and with knowledge that such act constituted copyright infringement. The court's Order provides some background of the case as well as the calculation of damages.

NYC museum sued over Iwo Jima photos

NEW YORK (AP) — A history buff sued the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, claiming it lost several
World War II-era photographs that he had loaned it, including the famous shot of a U.S. flag-raising
on Iwo Jima. Rodney Hilton Brown says the photos were part of the World War II memorabilia that he
loaned to the museum.

Brown, a mortgage broker who collects historical artifacts as a hobby, said at least eight out of
52 pictures were missing when the museum returned his collection to him in November 2006.

The museum is based on a retired aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid, usually docked in the Hudson
River but now in dry dock for repairs. The museum returned most borrowed items to owners while it

April 2, 2008 5:25 PM PDT

i Stock reveals revenue, photographer payouts

For the first time, iStockphoto has revealed how much money it pulled in by licensing large numbers of photos, videos, and other imagery for relatively small fees, and how much it paid out to the producers of that content.

In a forum posting Tuesday, iStockphoto head honcho Bruce Livingstone said the Getty Images subsidiary had 2007 revenue of $71.9 million, and it paid $20.9 million to those who contributed the imagery it licenses.

That's a pretty interesting illustration of what user-generated content can sell for, at least in one context.

"We are now selling an image every 1.4 seconds through this industry-changing marketplace," Livingstone said in the posting.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/getty-images-to-sell-itself...

Getty Images to Sell Itself for $2.4 Billion
FEBRUARY 25, 2008, 8:43 AM

Getty Images, the world’s biggest pictures and video distributor, agreed Monday to sell itself to the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $2.4 billion including debt.

The price, based on a $34 a share bid in cash, represents a 55 percent premium over the company’s share price on Jan. 18, the day before it announced it was “exploring strategic options.” Hellman & Friedman’s offer 39 percent higher than Getty’s Friday closing stock price of $24.45.

When one hears that an event is "great" and "not to be missed, " I tend to wait and see. In short, SB2 in Los Angeles was much better than I expected.

SB2 was an excellent example of "being there." One could not leave the gathering without a sense of energy and enthusiasm, in addition to sound business advice! While not much brand- new biz info (for photogs that have been in business for more than 10 years), presentations were effective, well-packaged and reinforced through mini groups and role playing.

Every minute was filled. All National staff and speakers actively encouraged participants to network and talk business with other photographers during the breaks and evening socials. And they did!

Monthly events at "Photonight" provide excellent free programs in documentary photo-journalism. Could you help this excellent organization?

The Exposure Gallery is located in a small, ground-floor room of a retirement complex. The rent is free, but they use the donated help of three custodians to help keep the Exposure Gallery ready for the monthly events. They are seeking help with donations to buy gift certificates at Burlington Coat Factory.