Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven De Lisser
First of all, anyone who would agree to this is an idiot.
Secondly, ANet is in no position to be telling the hundreds of photographers how things are gonna go down.
Teach them a lesson and pull your photos - they dont have any leverage.
Steven De Lisser
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I'm not a big fan/user of A.net other than an occasional browse for certain aircraft/liveries, but I'll "chime in" and offer my two cents worth here.
Since the takeover by
Demand Media, like
most acquisitions, they go through a 'peaceful' status quo
transition phase where nothing changes - and the new owners
always go out of their way to emphasize that fact.
In the second phase, this is where things get interesting, or in layman's terms, get
UGLY.
Things are going to get
UGLIER because their new "terms/conditions" makes NO SENSE to any/all of their photographers who have dedicated themselves to this hobby of aviation photography. They all take pride and joy in their efforts, and the results speak for themselves. They have made A.net what it is, and without their enthusiastic participation, it would NOT be the leading aviation photography website on the face of this planet.
Having said that (how I loathe that phrase - but I thought it would be appropriate here), the new terms/conditions was written by a hired gun (attorney) with absolutely ZERO interest in the website, and was merely requested to fulfill his obligation to generate a completely ONE-sided legal agreement which basically, if I'm understanding it correctly, SCREWS all the photographers from any possible royalties from
Demand Media's future use of their work.
Clearly, what
Demand is
demanding, is to sell the database to outside concerns, and profiting handsomely from the exchange. This has probably been their plan from Day One of the acquisition from Johan. They paid him a pretty penny, and now they are implementing the business plan to recoup their investment. Selling a MASSIVE quality database is probably worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not MORE. Let's just say that at a mere one dollar ($1) per photo ... well ...
YOU do the math!!!
I think what
Demand is doing is ALL wrong.
But it's business - however
unfair it is to the talented photographers it is.
And like what
Kaitanium said earlier, it's no different than what
ebay has been doing to their populace for a long time.
A.net
sans Johan Lundgren is following a very similar flight plan ... so
brace yourselves for a rough landing!!! 