Corbis Pays $7.93 a Frame Penalty

The court ruled on Chris Usher's case against Corbis. The penalty for Corbis' negligent loss of 12,640 original film images is $100,237 plus interest. The Judge has placed the value of each frame at $7.93.

Read case background and comments at Black Star Rising or Photo District News.

Today, PDN reports a New York Appellate Court has denied further arguments from Usher's attorneys. The $100,237 ruling stands. The court's response to valuing the uniqueness in the images is counter intuitive to how a photographer would value transfer of copyright. Transfer of copyright and the loss of an original image are similar in that the artist will cease to make money on the work. Responses from within the photo community express outrage, based on that fact.

Usher also argued that the uniqueness of his images should have been taken into account, but the appeals court said that "was impractical or impossible to evaluate" because the images are lost. "A district court is entitled to account for uniqueness by estimating the photographer's licensing revenue," the appeals court concluded. (Link).

Paul Melcher:

Why is the Usher case important? Because, like any judgment, it will become a judicial reference. It will affect how photographs are valued in future cases. And that affects every single photographer out there.

This ruling means that from now on, any agency, any magazine, any publisher will never have to worry about losing your photographs, since it will cost them peanuts to pay you back. It will be cheaper for them to trash them than to return them to you. (Link).