Time to put words into action! 

CEPIC has joined 78-strong coalition to demand robust EU budgetary measures for the cultural & creative sectors, among the hardest hit by the covid19 crisis. Millions of creative businesses and jobs are at stake!
We should act now.

Europe’s cultural and creative sectors call for ambitious EU budgetary measures to get through the COVID-19 crisis  Europe’s cultural and creative sectors were among the first and hardest hit by the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis.

Read the letter signed by 82 organisations here ...

Members and Industry News

TopFoto representing Graham Keen

TopFoto has secured exclusive rights to organise and represent this small but fascinating collection of Graham Keen's 1960s, much of which has never been seen.

Read more here ...

Photo: Muhammad Ali with Michael X

ddp offers new copyright tracking service for authors

Since 1 May 2020, the ddp group offers copyright tracking in the online sector not only for authors of the agency group but also as a service for third parties.

The media accounting team in Hamburg coordinates the approach of potential rights infringers and any necessary queries to authors. For the technical part, there is a cooperation with various tracking service providers.

The aim is to turn an infringer into a client by informing him about the applicable copyright law and its significance for authors and media. The ddp group is committed to respecting intellectual property and supports the "Copyright Lives" initiative of the BVPA (Federal Association of Professional Image Providers).

The ddp team is experienced in the image industry. It ensures with a sense of proportion that even difficult cases are solved in the interests of all parties involved. Should this not succeed, it will be decided individually which further steps are to be taken with the help of a lawyer. Cooperation with various partners is in place.

Anyone interested in this new service should contact us:

Nadine Grimm
media accounting services
Tel.: +49 40 73 44 60 261
E-Mail: infringements@ddpimages.com

Shutterstock's financial outlook

On 28th April Shutterstock reported first quarter 2020 financial results.

"Given the significant uncertainty that remains regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, including the pace of recovery, the severity of the impact on the global economy, our customers' ability to maintain marketing spend, and the resulting difficulty in forecasting, we are withdrawing the 2020 financial guidance we previously announced on February 13, 2020."

Read more here ...

Photographers News

Telephoto or wide angle?

Photographers Ólafur Steinar Gestsson and Philip Davali conducted an experiment for the photo agency Ritzau Scanpix. Using telephoto lens or wide angle gives a very different view of "reality".

Read more here ...

News from Sweden

The Swedish Association of Professional Photographers surveyed their members in March. They have about 1 800 members and got 700 answers: 83% of the photographers said that they have lost deals/orders and 20% of the firms will not survive more than 3 months.

Also the Swedish Union of Journalists have made a survey: almost 50% of their members (writers and photographers) have lost their job.

Read more here ...

Photographers initiatives in the coronavirus crisis

Some German initiatives here: https://www.digit.de/corona-und-die-fotobranche/

UK: Support for Freelance Journalists

Support  includes press (but not commercial) photographers: They must be able to prove that they are professional press photographers..

The Chartered Institute of Journalists has a fund to support press photographers who are in difficulties in the COVID-19 crisis. If any of your contributors fit into this category then please advise them to visit this site: http://cioj.org/advice-for-journalists-through-the-covid-19-crisis/

The fund will be paying out until it runs out.

Tony Vaccro

Legendary World War II veteran and photographer Tony Vaccro overcome coronavirus at 97. 

Read more here ...

Reuters wins Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News

Reuters photographers Adnan Abidi and Anushree Fadnavis were among a group of journalists awarded for documenting the Hong Kong protests last year

Read here ...

Covering the coronavirus crisis

Abuses from the public or aggressive obstruction from security operatives: reporting on COVID-19 is not an easy Task for photo-journalists.

Read more here ...

Press Agencies News

EANA stands for an independent, pluralistic and free press

May 3rd was declared International Press Freedom Day in 1993 by the United Nations, at the recommendation of UNESCO. Its purpose, which is still applicable today, was to remind governments to respect press freedom and also to remind media professionals to reflect on their professional ethics and principles.

"We salute all the hardworking journalists who are doing their job even in the most difficult circumstances, driven by the constant search for the truth." 

Read more here ...

Visa pour l'Image

Visa Pour l'Image is now in a position to confirm that the 32nd Visa pour l'image will be held this year, from August 29 to September 13, 2020, provided that health conditions and restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic can be met! Details below...

Online Search News

Dreamstime's litigation against Google going into next stage

Google has urged a US federal court to throw out the remaining claims filed by Dreamstime, in a lawsuit going back to 2018 accusing Google of suppressing Dreamstime in search results. Dreamstime will be filling their response by Friday this week.

Read more here ...

How Google indexes stock photos

Google indexes images that are used multiple times usually only once and inspects the image files. For stock photos appearing on many websites this means that images used multiple times without any change will be recognized by Google Image search as duplicates and will not be indexed.

Read more here ... (in German) …
(or Google Webmaster on Youtube here …in English...)

Publishers News

South Africa: publisher of Cosmopolitan to close shop from 1 May

Associated Media Publishing, the publisher of Cosmopolitan, House & Leisure, Good Housekeeping and Women on Wheels, is closing its doors permanently on Friday 1 May because of the "devastating" impact of Covid-19, which has resulted in the closure of printing and distribution channels.

[Quote] "... the unexpected and devastating impact of #COVID19, causing the closure of printing and distributing channels, the global halt on advertising spend as well as the inability to host events for the foreseeable future, have made it impossible to continue trading ..." 

Read more here ...

Canada: dramatic shifts in publishing

More than 100 media outlets in Canada have made cuts in 11 provinces and territories in a six-week period, with nearly 50 community newspapers shuttering. Upwards of 2,000 workers have been laid off. Everything from local journalism outlets to broadcasting, independent papers and community radio have seen dramatic shifts as the coronavirus pandemic precipitates a slow-motion crash across the news business.

Read more here ...

Digital revenues: a mix bag

The Guardian’s reader revenues have grown + 23% since the coronavirus crisis began and one of the UK’s biggest regional dailies follows in its footsteps in asking for contributions.

The Guardian is one of a number of UK news publishers hitting online traffic records because of the pandemic, with the Financial Times also reporting digital subscriptions are “surging”.

But digital revenues are suffering nonetheless as fewer brands can afford to advertise and many of those who are have been stopping their adverts from appearing alongside coronavirus stories.

Read more here ...

Public Policy/ Lobbying

Germany: Fighting for ancillary copyright for picture agencies

In the context of the consultation process in Germany on the Integration of the EU Copyright Directive into German law BVPA seeks to have picture agencies receive the same scope of rights as Publishers. Letter of April 30th to the German Ministry of Justice may be found here.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to find the urgently needed clarification of the term "publisher" in the draft that was briefly published on the website of the German Ministry of Justice on 1 April 2020, and then withdrawn again. Although book and magazine publishers are referred to by VG Wort [collecting societies for text works], publishers and picture agencies are not included by VG Bild-Kunst [collecting society for visual works], although they were affected by the "Reprobel" decision of the European Court of Justice and the publishers participation ("Verlegerbeteiligung") (decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court (BGH) decisions in the same way as traditional publishers."

France: Looking into visual recognition technology

In France reflexion on the use of content recognition tools for the recognition of copyrighted content online continues. After the publication of the "Rapport Mochon" in January 2020 (also available in English here …), a new investigation has been launched on April 30th. These reflexions fall within the context of Article 17 (ex Article 13) of the European Copyright Directive of 17 April 2019. This article provides that, in the future, in order not to incur liability for unauthorized content to which they give access, sharing platforms will have to make their best efforts to block or remove them.

Read more here … (in French) ...

EU: Safe harbour in question

A recent study published by the European Parliament explores how the Digital Service Act may impact the liability of platforms and what still needs to be done.

The E-Commerce Directive (ECD) is 20 years old and is no longer fit for purpose given the rapid transformation and expansion of e-Commerce in all it its forms. We have a multitude of different platform services that have differential social and business affects across the EU with innovative business models that defy the categorisation set down in existing the regulatory framework.

Read more here ..

Send us your NEWS at newsletter@cepic.org!

AGENDA

June/ July

June 17th: Virtual CEPIC Annual General Meeting (This time you can join!)

June 29th - July 5th Les Rencontres d'Arles - Cancelled -
Read announcement here: https://www.rencontres-arles.com/

August/ September

29 August - 13 September : visa pour l'image
https://www.visapourlimage.com/en

September/ October

29 September - 02nd October: CEPIC Congress 2020, Palma de Mallorca,

25-27 October 2020: DMLA international conference, New York

CEPIC and Industry News here.