zaterdag, maart 29, 2008
Rechtbank veroordeelt Corbis tot betalen forse schadevergoedingen
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has hit stock photo agency Corbis with two separate orders to compensate photographers for lost images in recent weeks. Photographer Arthur Grace won a $667,685 judgment on January 30 for the loss of 45,000 images, while photographer Chris Usher was awarded $157,121 February 29 for the loss of 12,640 of his images.
In both cases, the awards were the court’s estimates of income the images would have generated had they not been lost. That method of valuation differs from many other lost slide cases, which have based damages on estimates of the dollar value of the lost images.
In the Arthur Grace case, the court revised a 2005 ruling in which it had set damages at $472,000. Grace covered major news events, politics, sports and celebrities during the 70s, 80s and 90s. He submitted the images for worldwide distribution through Sygma, the French news photo agency acquired by Corbis in 1999.
In 2001, Grace quit the agency and asked for the return of his images. Although Corbis returned many images, it was unable to account for thousands more, so Grace sued for damages in 2002.
The same court ruled in November that sloppy record keeping caused Corbis to lose 12,640 transparencies belonging to photographer Chris Usher. In late February, the court set damages at $100,000 for lost income—both past and future—plus $57,000 interest on income lost in the past.
Corbis recruited Usher in the spring of 2000, when he was covering major news and political events as a freelancer for various magazines. He left the agency in November 2001, dissatisfied with the agency’s performance. He asked the agency to return his images when he left, but Corbis was unable to locate about 25 percent of them.
The court instructed Usher to calculate his average monthly earnings while at Corbis, and then multiply that figure by 25 percent. He then had to extrapolate that product over a 30 year period to arrive at the estimated total income he would have generated from the lost images. It was on that basis that the court arrived at the $100,000 judgment, plus interest.
Lees meer bij Photo District News.
In both cases, the awards were the court’s estimates of income the images would have generated had they not been lost. That method of valuation differs from many other lost slide cases, which have based damages on estimates of the dollar value of the lost images.
In the Arthur Grace case, the court revised a 2005 ruling in which it had set damages at $472,000. Grace covered major news events, politics, sports and celebrities during the 70s, 80s and 90s. He submitted the images for worldwide distribution through Sygma, the French news photo agency acquired by Corbis in 1999.
In 2001, Grace quit the agency and asked for the return of his images. Although Corbis returned many images, it was unable to account for thousands more, so Grace sued for damages in 2002.
The same court ruled in November that sloppy record keeping caused Corbis to lose 12,640 transparencies belonging to photographer Chris Usher. In late February, the court set damages at $100,000 for lost income—both past and future—plus $57,000 interest on income lost in the past.
Corbis recruited Usher in the spring of 2000, when he was covering major news and political events as a freelancer for various magazines. He left the agency in November 2001, dissatisfied with the agency’s performance. He asked the agency to return his images when he left, but Corbis was unable to locate about 25 percent of them.
The court instructed Usher to calculate his average monthly earnings while at Corbis, and then multiply that figure by 25 percent. He then had to extrapolate that product over a 30 year period to arrive at the estimated total income he would have generated from the lost images. It was on that basis that the court arrived at the $100,000 judgment, plus interest.
Lees meer bij Photo District News.
# posted by Jan-Edward : 22:26
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