PhotoShelter Says DRR Site Shuts Down Tomorrow

Digital Railroad as a company has closed up shop, but Web sites and photo archives that use its technology are still functional, at least as of this morning. Nobody expects this situation to last long. Below is a press release – issued by Digital Railroad competitor PhotoShelter – about when the DRR site might go dark for good.

For more background, please read this PDN story: Confusion as Digital Railroad Shuts Down; Sites May Go Dark.

PHOTOSHELTER CLARIFIES DIGITAL RAILROAD SITUATION
WITH DIABLO MANAGEMENT GROUP: COMPLETE DRR SITE SHUTDOWN PROBABLE AT 11:59PM PST ON OCTOBER 31

Photographers & agencies to get more time to save their work

New York, NY, October 30, 2008 - In an effort to bring some clarity to the Digital Railroad shutdown situation, PhotoShelter CEO Allen Murabayashi has engaged in multiple discussions with Diablo Management on behalf of the community of over 1,500 Digital Railroad customers. The outcome of these discussions is an understanding that more time will be provided for Digital Railroad customers to access their work. The official statement from PhotoShelter and Diablo Management reads:

"As part of the process of terminating the business operations of Digital Railroad, Diablo Management Group has informed PhotoShelter of their intent to shut down the DRR site as early as 11:59PM, PST, on Friday October 31. After this point, it is very likely that all the images located on the Digital Railroad servers could be permanently inaccessible. Given the strong possibility of this event, PhotoShelter, on its own initiative, is strongly suggesting that customers migrate their files from Digital Railroad immediately. Digital Railroad, at the present time, has no plans or resources to accomplish this task."

Upon announcing the termination of operations on Tuesday, DRR stated it would provide only 24 hours of server access. Across the industry, this tiny window of time was deemed unacceptable. Although the extension through October 31 is brief, it will provide more time to help photographers find backup options and transition their online presence. This statement also represents the latest definitive information to be shared with impacted customers, directly from the group that is controlling DRR. Both parties stress that the situation is highly fluid and this deadline could be altered with little or no notice.

Since the announcement, PhotoShelter has welcomed DRR customers with a special 3-month free offer and ftp solution to help migrate their images. The offer can be found here: http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/200810/drr.html.

PhotoShelter management encourages all DRR photographers to use this time extension to access their images and ensure backup using any chosen method. And, PhotoShelter calls on photographers industry wide to help contact peers travelling in the field who may not yet have heard the news.