Corbis to shut down legendary Sygma photo agency (update)
Sygma, a 37-year-old prestigious press agency now owned by Corbis, is bankrupt and will be put into liquidation, its parent company confirms
Author: Olivier Laurent
24 May 2010 Tags: CorbisPhoto agenciesStock agencies
In a statement released to BJP, Corbis has announced that it will seek the liquidation of the Sygma business entity in France.
"This is a very difficult decision because we've spent more than a decade investing time and money to preserve and make accessible to the world the work of Sygma photographers," says a Corbis spokeswoman. "We've been forced to seek liquidation of the business because, despite our best efforts and investment of tens of millions of Euros, we have been unable to resolve issues that Corbis inherited with the Sygma acquisition."
She adds: "Prior to its acquisition by Corbis, Sygma lost a relatively small number of images as a result of lax library management procedures. Some photographers have subsequently taken legal action against Sygma."
However, Sygma was hit with a massive €1.5m fine after it was found guilty of losing 750 images that belonged to Dominique Aubert, a French photographer. Aubertworked for Sygma from 1987 until 1995. In 2003, he asked Corbis to return his images, but found that 750 of them went missing from the 250,000 he had shot while at Sygma. Under French law, a photographer retains his rights on all of his images, including when he works for a press agency.
Finding the fine "immensely disproportionate to the revenue opportunity with the images" and given previous decisions, and other likely future lawsuits," Corbis came to the conclusion that "it is no longer possible to maintain Sygma."
In addition, Stefan Biberfeld, Sygma's director, has said that the agency lost €2m last year, bringing the company's debt, over the past 10 years, to €73m.
While the Sygma brand is expected to survive through Corbis' collections, operations in France will cease. "We are working closely with French authorities to make every effort to minimise impact on clients, employees and photographers," says Corbis. "We have communicated to our French clients and plan to continue to serve our advertising and marketing clients normally, as well as select media and publishing clients. This has no impact on operations outside of France."
Sygma was launched in 1973. It quickly became one of the leading photo agencies in the world, representing photographers such as Allen Tannenbaum, Les Stone and Andrew Lichtenstein. The Sygma archive also includes images from the 1950s and 60s obtained from Apis, Universal Photo, Interpress, Spitzer, Reporter Associes and other agencies.
In the 1990s it changed hands several times, but in 1999 Bill Gates acquired it through Corbis. It was not a painless acquisition. In 2001, 90 employees, including 42 photographers, were made redundant after weeks of protests and strikes. Since then, the agency has been inactive, with no new content submitted in the archives, and former Sygma photographers now known as Corbis contributors.
Last year, Corbis moved to benefit from Sygma's large archives by opening the Sygma Preservation and Access Facility, designed to preserve the agency's classic images and open them up for research and publication.
Corbis now says that it will continue its preservation efforts "for the photography, including maintaining the Sygma Access and Preservation Facility, and will continue to offer a Sygma photo collection on the Corbis website."
Comments
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Jews stealing copyright in Hollywood
We worked for Shooting Star Inc. in Hollywood and realised that they were "misleadingly" given "copyright promo materials. All of our people are in jails in Hollywood - do you want to fuck with them in their hometown???
Akos Varga worked at Shooting Star Photo Agency. At the same time operations included to send MOVIE/TV PROMO MATERIALS to Sygma in France. And suddenly we were arrested, and Corbis destroyed Sygma.
Phone: ++20-594-2222
ALL JUDEA AUSSTEIGEN, LIES, LIES, GEBEN SIE MIR BITTE, GEBEN SIE MIRE BITTE, WIENER BLUT
FUCK YOU NIGGERS..........
THE JEWS TOLD US THERE WOULD BE NO BLACKS (??+)
MORE N8IGGERS ARE LOST OVER WORLD HISTORY THAN OVER ANY OTHER POSITIONS
AFTER 12 YEARS, WE ARE WAITING FOR THE JEWS WHO INITIATED THIS TERRIBLE DISASTER TO DIE, UNLESS THEY RETIRE TO JERUSALEM. ANIMAX BUT UNGARN
Who wil take care of your photos when you die?
ANIMAX INTERNATIONAL GMBH, ANIMAX A.S. AND OTHER CONTRIBUTORS WILL TAKE ANY OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE YOUR "KÁRTYAVÁR" DOWN.
ÁKOS, A SHAREHOLDER OF ANIMAX INTERNATIONAL, BECAME DIAGNOSED WITH SCHIZOFRENIA AFTER THE U.S. EVENTS. PLEASE CONSIDER HIS COMMENTS IRRELEVANT...
50.000 IMAGES BELONG TO ANIMAX
Ákos might be schizo after all that happened, but it is true that under the operations of Animax Internation Inc. he submitted 50.000 MOVIE/TV/MUSIC PROMO images to the world's than largest and most prestigeous photo agency, Sygma, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (awarding the Golden Globes) and the State of California stepped in. And what next? Corbis, a subsidiary of Microsoft stepped in... What to do now? Better duck (and pray that the Holocaust never happened)!
The press has been widely seen as a powerful actor in the measures leading to political and economic outcomes, but in the case of Bill Gates we can imagine (despite his bullshit foundations) that this is all about losing his underage-ugly-littleboy-loser-image (no spun intentded, he will die before I or my friends or their sons and grandsons). Well, Bill is nothing against the power building up against up him and his little friends. (EU/RUSSIA/CHINA/JAPAN) AND THAT'S WHEN YOU WILL PAY FOR SYGMA
-האינטרנט.org.il
seems like you are a little late to cry out for your friends
see you in tel aviv?
DISCGRACE OF EUROPEAN FILM INDUSTRY
AND LET US NOT FORGET THE TOTAL DISGRACE OF THE EUROPEAN FILM INDUSTRY, FROM WHICH ALL MEMORIES WILL BE WIPED OUT BY CORBIS AND GETTY, SHOULD WE ONLY WORRY ABOUT OUR TOOTHPASTE AND MORNING BREAKFAST
MAYBE IT IS A LOST BATTLE AGAINST US CONGLOMERATES LIKE MICROSOFT AND THE GETTY GROUP, BUT ANIMAX CRIES AND WEEPS FOR THE LOSS OF EUROPE AND ASIA. ECONOMIC TERRORISM, NOTHING LESS WHAT DESCRIBES THIS EVENT. AND NO GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL LAW SPECIALIST OR LAWYERS WILL GO AGAINST THEM, BECAUSE THEY WILL BE PAID OFF BY MICROSOFT, THE HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATON, OR OTHERS. SEE YOU IN OTHER FORUMS.
EASTERN EUROPA DOES NOT FORGET. WW1 IS NOT FORGOTTEN. WW2 IS NOT FORGOTTEN. AND NEVER FORIVEN. AND NOW THE TAKEOVER OF EUROPEAN MEDIA IS BEING INTERFERED - TO OUR BEST EXTENT. BUT IF FAILED IN OUR ENDEAVOURS, OUR NEXT GENERATIONS SHALL KNOW WHAT THIS HAS BEEN ALL ABOUT. ANIMAX BT
FOR OVER 5 YEARS WE SAW HOLLYWOOD MEDIA MAKING DOLLARŁŁŁ FOR SELLING U.S., EUROPEAN AND GLOBAL PROMO MATERIALS FOR 0% ROYALTY LIABILITY. BUT WHEN WE TRIED TO SELL THE SAME NON-EXCLUSIVE PROMO MATERIALS IN PARIS, HAMBURG OR BUDAPEST, WE WERE SOOOOOOOOO..... DESTROYED.
SOME PEOPLE IN CENTRAL EUROPA WHO UNDERSTAND THE HOLLYWOOD MACHINERY
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