Sally Wern Comport - Hamlet

Many illustrators have received a letter from Images.com, Inc., a stock house which is comprised of the brands SIS (Stock Illustration Source), Spots on the Spot (illustration) and Graphistock (illustration and photography). According to the letter, Images.com will be "...entering into distribution agreements with some of the most important and creative image selling organizations: Corbis Images, PictureQuest, Creatas, Media Bakery, NewCom and Veer. These new arrangements should particularly boost our sales efforts in non-traditional industries and non-U.S. markets."

The IPA predicted several years ago that SIS/Images.com would eventually become yet another stock house to be absorbed by either Corbis or Getty Images. These two stock house conglomerates have been spending billions to consolidate our industry under their control. And although Images.com does not currently sell illustrations royalty free, these agreements could possibly change the way existing images and new submissions are sold and priced.

Creatas and Media Bakery describe themselves as royalty-free companies. And Corbis offers contracts which in the opinion of many are unfairly balanced and offer inequitable terms to artists. For three years Corbis has been contacting the IPA in an effort to enter into a similar "distribution agreement" with our proposed Artists' Licensing Group (ALG). Their most recent overture to partner with them occurred last summer. The IPA rejected their proposal, as we have before, because we believed the terms were bad for artists.

The IPA is issuing this alert to our members to suggest that you give serious attention to the details of the Corbis/Images.com development. We urge artists who have images with SIS or Spots on the Spot to study these announcements. If you have concerns, contact Images.com and be sure to understand how they mean to assign your copyrights to a stock house conglomerate or royalty free company.

Other illustrators who have not placed images with this stock house, but are considering doing so should proceed with caution. Understand the contract they offer you. And pay particular attention to the "Grant of Authority" and "Compensation" clauses in the Artist Agreement.

If you know illustrators who are in SIS, Spots on the Spot, or Graphistock, alert them. We believe it is wise to understand what any stock house does with the work entrusted to them. But it's particularly important to understand how existing arrangements will be changed by any "new distribution agreements" Images.com enters into.

IPA members have been discussing these developments on our members-only forum for some time. Please feel free to visit the website for information and opinions and please feel free to share your own. The discussions are contained in the members-only "Forums" section under the heading "Stock."

http://illustratorspartnership.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

For the record, we acknowledge that there is no industry-wide consensus on developments of this sort. Each artist is free to do whatever he or she wants with their own work. But we believe the interests of competition are best served if artists each make informed choices. And since the business decisions of stockhouses affect every aspect of our future careers, the members of the Board of the IPA wish to provide this forum for members to express their own individual opinions.

The Board of Directors of the Illustrators' Partnership of America
http://www.illustratorspartnership.org
used by permission of the IPA