The Revised Artists Supply Agreement and You
After consulting with contributor representatives globally and conducting extensive research into industry trends, we recently made some changes to our Artists Supply Agreements (ASAs) to improve our offering in a competitive marketplace. We truly appreciate the valuable feedback that contributors across every file type gave us while we were making these important changes.
As our collection approaches 10 million images, we know that many great files are not being seen. We want to resurface those images to get them soldand the best way to do this is to place them on our partner sites where theyre more likely to sell.
Our first step towards achieving this goal is sharing all non-exclusive photos and illustrations with photos.com and Thinkstock.com, as well as all exclusive video content with gettyimages.com. By bolstering the collections of our partner sites, well also ensure we are able to serve customers in every market at every budget level. This is an important business decision that we believe is necessary in order to continue competing in a diversified environment. We understand that your own objectives in licensing your content may be different and hope that these changes strike the right balance for you. If not, we hope this at least helps you make informed decisions about what content you choose to place with iStockphoto.
In addition to strengthening ties to our partner sites, we have a massive project that started over a year ago to improve the infrastructure we use to ingest and inspect files, and to replace the connector we use to move files to other Getty Images sites. We know that the existing Partner Program has not been as responsive as it needs to be when it comes to moving your files to and from partner sites and are working to address that.
Many of the changes to the ASAs are related to the issue of file movement and will have a larger impact on you as a contributor, while others are relatively minor.
Weve put together this overview to address the most significant changes and what they mean for exclusive and non-exclusive contributors.
For more detailed information regarding the changes to your Artists Supply Agreement, please refer to the redlined versions below. If, after reading them, you have any further questions or concerns, please contact
[email protected].
* Non-Exclusive Artist's Supply Agreement
* Exclusive Artist's Supply Agreement
* Non-Exclusive Sound Artist's Supply Agreement
* Exclusive Sound Artist's Supply Agreement
Im an Exclusive Contributor
File Movement and Mirroring
Perhaps the most significant changes to the ASAs involve the movement and mirroring of files onto other sites that are part of the Getty Images family or its Master Delegates. This is in line with our goal to put the right imagery, at the right price, in front of the right customers.
As an exclusive contributor, your content can be moved into higher-tier or similarly priced collections on notice to you by iStockphoto, but not into lower-tier collections without your consent. Audio content, regardless of exclusivity can be moved to lower and higher price tier collections on notice to you.
Partner Program
As an exclusive contributor, you reserve the right to make your files available to certain Getty Images partner sites, such as Thinkstock and Photos.com by opting-in to the Partner Program. Your files can be opted-in or opted-out of the Partner Program at any time.
Premium Distribution Channels
Unless there is some other indication on the site or upload process (like in the case of Vetta and Agency, where we will continue to allow you to opt your files in and out of those collections), iStockphoto reserves the right to make your content available on similar or higher-priced distribution channels, such as gettyimages.com, Punchstock and Jupiter Images. You will not be able to opt your files out from these partner sites but we will notify you prior to moving your content. All exclusive iStockphoto video files will be made available on gettyimages.com under the terms of the revised ASA.
Master Delegates
The revised ASAs allow for content to be licensed through an existing Getty Images collection via Master Delegates (partners that license Getty Images content in specific geographical areas). For instance, Gallo Images (galloimages.com) licenses certain Getty Images collections in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Brazil. You will be notified before your files are made available through these channels.
Extended Licenses
As our file collection has grown, its become difficult for our customers to understand which files are available for purchase under what licenses. In order to simplify our process, under the revised ASAs, all files will now be available for purchase under our Extended Licenses.
Promotional Use
You will no longer be able to opt-out of the Promotional Use provision of the ASAs, which allows us to use our contributors content for marketing and promotional purposes without compensation. We use your images, video, flash, audio and illustrations to promote the site, bring in traffic, drive people to portfolios, and ultimately sell more content. Wherever possible, iStock will provide attribution for all files used. We want to be able to showcase the best of iStockphoto, including your files.
Notice of Changes to Royalty Rate
Weve put into writing what weve already been putting into practice, committing to give you at least 30 days notice before making any changes to the Rate Schedule.
Fraud, Returns and Overpayment
As you know, under the prior ASAs, iStockphoto was able to remove royalties in your account that were attributed as a result of fraudulent purchases. We have cleaned up the language a bit to make it really clear that royalties will be removed from your account if a purchase is deemed to be fraudulent, is returned for any reason, or if an overpayment of royalties has been made. Were constantly improving our fraud prevention to ensure the best possible protection against fraudulent purchases.
Application Program Interface (API)
As you may know, we currently have an Application Program Interface (API) that we use with certain partners to allow those companies to deliver iStockphoto content to their customers in a way that is integrated into their sites. Moving forward, content available through APIs or other means that are not currently contemplated may be at an additional royalty structure different from what is currently in the rate schedule.
The reference to the additional royalty structure is a forward-looking provision designed to anticipate our customers future needs and potential business opportunities that arise with the introduction of new technologies. As with any royalty change, we will always give you 30 days notice.
Im a Non-Exclusive Contributor
File Movement and Mirroring
Perhaps the most significant changes to the ASAs involve the movement and mirroring of files onto other sites that are part of the Getty Images family or its Master Delegates. Your files may move to similar, higher or lower-tier priced collections on notice to you. This is in line with our goal to put the right imagery, at the right price, in front of the right customers.
Partner Program
Your files will continue to be sold on iStockphoto, and will also be made available on Getty Images partner sites, such as Thinkstock and Photos.com. As a non-exclusive contributor, all of your files will now automatically be included in the Partner Program.
Premium Distribution Channels
Unless there is some other indication on the site or upload process, iStockphoto reserves the right to make your content available on similar or higher-priced distribution channels owned by Getty Images, such as gettyimages.com, Punchstock and Jupiter Images. You will not be able to opt your files out from these partner sites but we will notify you prior to moving your content.
Master Delegates
The revised ASAs allow for content to be licensed through an existing Getty Images collection via Master Delegates (partners that license Getty Images content in specific geographical areas). For instance, Gallo Images (galloimages.com) licenses certain Getty Images collections in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and Brazil. You will be notified before your files are made available through these channels.
Extended Licenses
As our file collection has grown, its become difficult for our customers to understand which files are available for purchase under what licenses. In order to simplify our process, under the revised ASAs, all files will now be available for purchase under our Extended Licenses.
Promotional Use
You will no longer be able to opt-out of the Promotional Use provision of the ASAs, which allows us to use our contributors content for marketing and promotional purposes without compensation. We use your images, video, flash, audio and illustrations to promote the site, bring in traffic, drive people to portfolios, and ultimately sell more content. Wherever possible, iStock will provide attribution for all files used. We want to be able to showcase the best of iStockphoto, including your files.
Notice of Changes to Royalty Rate
Weve put into writing what weve already been putting into practice, committing to give you at least 30 days notice before making any changes to the Rate Schedule.
Fraud, Returns and Overpayment
As you know, under the prior ASAs, iStockphoto was able to remove royalties in your account that were attributed as a result of fraudulent purchases. We have cleaned up the language a bit to make it really clear that royalties will be removed from your account if a purchase is deemed to be fraudulent, is returned for any reason, or if an overpayment of royalties has been made. Were constantly improving our fraud prevention to ensure the best possible protection against fraudulent purchases.
Application Program Interface (API)
As you may know, we currently have an Application Program Interface (API) that we use with certain partners to allow those companies to deliver iStockphoto content to their customers in a way that is integrated into their sites. Moving forward, content available through APIs or other means that are not currently contemplated may be at an additional royalty structure different from what is currently in the rate schedule.
The reference to the additional royalty structure is a forward-looking provision designed to anticipate our customers future needs and potential business opportunities that arise with the introduction of new technologies. As with any royalty change, we will always give you 30 days notice.
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