Royalty Free is not Free

Yesterday one of my photo agents sent me an email with some very bad news. It seems The National Geographic Society has succumbed to greed and has changed it's contracts with photographers to include a "royalty free" clause for themselves. In other words, when they hire a photographer to shoot any job, then those photos becomes theirs to use as they see fit, without any further payment to the photographer. Photographers, RTF is not free to you. It cost you lost revenue, It creates new expectations in the industry that does not favor the photographer and it sets the standard for the RTF photographer to be "Cheap". I reallllllllly encourage all who read this to watch out for these rights grabs by greedy self serving businesses. Oh and beware of the red herring promise clauses to pay you even though they have the right to not pay you. LOL Do they think we are just plain stupid. Well, I guess I shouldn't laugh since so many have proven that yes, there are a boat load of stupid photographers out there willing to completely ruin our industry...for what, 15 minutes of fame and 30 pieces of silver!

Kevin Vandivier