Copyright Clearance Center Launches Stock Service With Alamy (Updated)

The Copyright Clearance Center and Alamy today announced a stock imagery subscription service called ReadyImages. Here's what we know so far.

The CCC describes the ReadyImages service this way:

"Pay one annual fee and everyone in your organization gets access to more than a million high-quality images, pre-approved for use in internal communications and client, partner and tradeshow presentations. Employees no longer need to use unlicensed images found on the Web. With ReadyImages, they get the high-quality photos they want in the sizes they need, and the rights to use them."

This is not a new concept. Jupiterimages, Getty Images and micropayment stock sites such as ShutterStock have been offering royalty-free subscription programs aimed at corporate buyers for several years. It hasn't always been a smooth ride. Last month a group of photographers sued Getty over its subscription service.

The CCC has been involved with image licensing issues before, including experimenting with the idea of starting an orphan works database, but ReadyImages appears to be the company's first foray into stock image licensing. The CCC is best known for clearing the rights to reprint printed material, such as academic papers and magazine articles. It is one of the few groups in the U.S. recognized internationally as a "reproduction rights organization" as a member of IFRRO. Three photographers sued the CCC several years ago for allegedly authorizing customers to reproduce their photos that had been published with magazine articles; a judge threw out the suit in 2006.

The images in ReadyImages are coming from Alamy, an unedited U.K.-based stock library that has a vast collection compiled from many contributors. Alamy gives its contributors the option to allow their images to be licensed under "novel use" schemes, which so far have including a low-cost web usage package. This subscription service is considered a novel use scheme.

Here's what we don't know: The price. It appears to be set on a client-by-client basis. Alamy has also not revealed details about royalties paid to photographers.

For more information, here are the press releases from Alamy and the CCC.

UPDATE Nov. 13: We just had a briefing on the ReadyImages service with Jeff Hodnett and John Billington of the CCC. The service has a very specific market: Providing a legal source of presentation images for people at medium- and large-sized companies. Pricing varies depending on the size of the company, but will be thousands of dollars a year. This is for an enterprise license that everyone in the company can use. Image usage is restricted to internal company communication and presentations (including those made to outside clients). In other words, you can't download something from ReadyImages at your company and use it in an ad or put it on your public Web site. Access is restricted by IP address (or VPN login) and there is a cap on the number of downloads per year. The CCC might expand the service in the future to include more collections (beyond Alamy) or to offer packages for smaller businesses.