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A storm is brewing between Jupiter Media and Stockxpert.com contributors.

Stockxpert have announced that from the 4th August onwards, Stockxpert contributors cannot opt out of

• Partner Licensing
• Subscription on Stockxpert.com
• Extended License settings

What does it mean? For now it means that contributors Stockxpert portfolios will be displayed on photos.com (and I’m sure more to come) with no opt out clause to the member, and they will be forced to sell their Stockxpert images at $0.30 to them.
More worrying again , one member involved in the discussion at http://www.stockxpert.com/forum.phtml?f=showtopic&n=15291 has stated that the Photos.com licence agreement allows unlimited resale to downloaders.

Lisafx, who many have long admired as a leading stock photography professional has stated the following during the discussion:
“My business plan is about elevating the quality and price of my work over time, not devaluing it at bargain basement prices with no usage restrictions.”

If this move goes ahead with the support of Stockxpert contributors, it certainly sets a dangerous precedent to how much our ownership of the image copyright is actually worth. Or, once we upload to a stock photography web site in the future, do we give away:

1. Any rights we have to those images.
2. The price we wish to sell them at.
3. The web sites we want to share them with.
4. The terms and conditions of use for downloaders.

It will certainly be interesting to see what happens, but I for one will be pulling my gallery on Stockxpert.com, as I do not agree with my images ending up on a web site, with terms and conditions of use that I have not agreed to or verified. And of course, at a price that I have not agreed to or verified. I need more control over my property than that.

To compare this move by Jupiter Media/Stockxpert.com with their market leader istock.com, istock are currently offering an opt in/out clause to all members eligible for sublicencing/partner licencing.

Should Stockpert.com succeed in this devaluation of contributors rights over their images, it may be only a matter of time before the rest follow. And so Jupiter Media will have practically achieved a copyright holders rights over the images, without having purchased the copyright from the contributor.

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