STOCK PHOTOS, CAPA AND THE COPYRIGHT

A few months ago, I got an e-mail from Maria Rosa Vila, the DESCOBRIR CATALUNYA magazine picture editor. She was looking for Terrassa modernist buildings photos to publish in the August issue.

This fact made me think, once again, of the capital importance the stock has for a free lance photographer. When I started my career, an article written by Manuel Lopez,, the REVISTA FOTO director, got my attention. He said “The stock is the photographer’s retirement pension”. Since then, I kept, and organized, with great care all the pictures I was taking and nowadays my stock it’s a very important part of my annual photo sales. I manage my files myself and also I sell them through two stock agencies.

The photographer is the owner of his images and only sells the copyright of them each time they are published. In fact, the inventor of the images copyright was Robert Capa, one of the founders of MAGNUM, as I explain in an article published in EL PERIODICO, “Capa, el cierre del círculo”.

My good friend, the photographer Jeff Sedlik, former president of the Advertising Photographs of America, and now Plus Coalition president, say very clearly in his interview to Rangefinder Magazine . “The photographers retain copyright ownership and limit their customers’ right to reproduce their images”.
But now, dark clouds hang over this universal right. Powerful media groups intent, after publishing picture stories, to keep this copyright to be able to use photos and articles all the times they need in their different publications and platforms, without paying again for it

This happened recently, with RUTAS DEL MUNDO magazine, and affected a lot of photographers and journalists. This travel magazine belonging to HYMSA was absorbed by MC EDICIONES. This media group has about seventy different publications and all the professionals publishing in any of them have to sign a contract allowing MC EDICIONES to use their photos in any of his publications, in Spain or out of Spain, in different platforms, etc. (Follows the original contract in Spanish).

Importe de las creaciones referenciadas más abajo para su edición, distribución, reproducción, comunicación en versión digital, traducción, publicación y reedición, por sí o por terceros, en cualquier medio nacional o extranjero. Asumiendo cualquier tipo de responsabilidad incluida aquella por cesión de la propiedad intelectual de un tercero frente a su publicación por/en cualquiera de los medios mencionados anteriormente.
Las presentes condiciones serán tambien de aplicación a todas las creaciones entregadas con anterioridad a la fecha de suscripción del presente documento.

It’s fantastic! MC ediciones keeps the right to publish, all the times they want, in its magazines and digital platforms, pictures and articles although the prize paid for them falls below, or is barely, the Minimal Rate recommended by EL COL.LEGI DE PERIODISTES DE CATALUNYA and the UPIFC.

Robert Capa would roll over in his grave!