Seeking Licensing Solutions
[by Richard Kelly]
For imaging professionals the issues of copyright, licensing and compensation are forever intertwined.
For the past three decades this model – licensing a specific use for a specific amount of money – has served us well. In the print days we could limit use based on audited periodical circulation, a fixed number of road-side billboards or limited broadcast airtime. It was possible to look at the media buy as a guide for license fees. But with the abundance of space and time on the digital platform these antiquated print systems don’t work.
As we quickly advance into digital platforms, our clients are requesting broader and less restrictive licenses. Many clients are less inclined to pay upfront for uses that they may never need or pay later for images that go viral over the web. These changes raise many questions for the creative professional:
How do we track and monetize these uses? How do we, as professionals, calculate our value? Or evaluate the value of our unique images? And then, how do we build licenses for these limitless platforms? Are the days of specific licenses over? Is every license a worldwide use?
For several years now, I’ve been talking with industry insiders and seeking outside viewpoints on these issues on behalf of the ASMP. Our first symposium, which focused on Copyright, was held in April 2010. Recordings of the sessions are available through ASMP’s video library.
The Future of Art & Commerce webinar series also addresses these issues and will focus specifically on these questions in our last two programs (tomorrow and on March 14). I am also working with Susan Carr to produce our second symposium, Sustainable Business Models: Issues & Trends Facing Visual Artists, which will be held September 27th at the Times Center in New York.
I don’t believe there will be any one size fits all answer but by listening to people on all sides of the issue, we can each find the best solution for our business.
Richard Dale Kelly is a photographer, producer and past president of ASMP. An associate professor at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and frequent presenter at industry events on Copyright and Releases for ASMP, Kelly will serve as moderator for the The Future of Licensing and (re)Imagining the Future, the final webinars in the Future of Art & Commerce series.
