[Commons-l] Corbis Sygma

[Delphine Ménard]

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 3:20 AM, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com> wrote:
> Responding to Gnangarra - this is a very interesting issue indeed, and one
> that we might be able to make a big impact with, but I don't think this is a
> Wikimedia FOUNDATION issue as it involves the creation/purchase of content.
> Rather I would suggest that this is an issue that falls within the scope of
> the Chapters - in this case WM-FR. Either money could be spent directly from
> a chapter(s) budget or potentially the chapter(s) could run a specific
> donation-drive to fund such a purchase? Besides, how much are we talking
> here? $50,000? $500,000? $5million?
>
> Response to Jon - the way I read that, it means that 75% of the photographs
> were taken under contract with Corbis and therefore the copyright would come
> with the purchase of the collection. Any purchase could presumably be
> specified to only those images which come WITH the copyright.

It's not exactly clear to me.
One thing though, if the copyright lies with an agency, it lies with
Sygma, and not Corbis. Or rather, with the company that resulted of
Sygma's buying and that is being dissolved.
But the phrasing is very strange, and talks about a contract not being
signed, so I am really not sure what the exact copyright status of
this collection is.

One thing is certain, it's a huge amount of photographs (some 12,5
millions, 7km of shelves!), which means that as such there is little
chance that Wikimedia (France or other) has the financial potential to
on the one hand buy the collection (although Gnangarra has a point in
that it's probably not too expensive), but more importantly to
preserve such a collection.


Delphine


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