Plus Coalition?

xris

I've just been researching the Plus Coalition, a licensing and rights standardisation organisation that appears to be getting quite a bit of notice these days.

If I have it right, members can rather quickly build and embed rights specific licenses right into their photographs and/or XMP files using globally accepted rights standards. I've been fooling with the application they provide and (so far) find it to be the quickest and simplest interface I've yet used.

IPTC and CC are both listed as supporters of the coalition.

Seems it would be a natural for Pro Smuggers (especially once SmugStock comes along) but I was surprised to find nary a peep in these forums.

Comments anyone?
:thumb

OffTopic

I've been playing around with it since it first beta'd last year. It is fairly simple to use (both generating and embedding the license), although it is a bit of extra work. The licensee then needs to download the software to read the license or use the online decoder. I'm not sure yet how I feel about this taking the place of a standard written license (but I like it in addition to), and note that the current beta version (v0.50) will expire on October 1, 2008 - just a few weeks away. It may be replaced by v.060, or they may decide they are ready to roll it out and start charging for it. Unless and until it becomes the industry standard I'm not ready to pay for it yet. Wishful thinking is that it would automatically generate a written license too, but I'm sure that would be a legal nightmare.

BUT, the caveat for ProSmuggers using it with Smugmug files is that Smugmug strips our IPTC data on the resized versions. The caption and keywords are grabbed for the smuggy search engines, but everything else is stripped (including the all important copyright info). So PLUS wouldn't work with the regular Smugmug digital download thing.

What I do when I want to allow someone to download a file is create a new hidden and passworded gallery and make the original file available since the IPTC data is retained on our originals (and most likely the client will want the original anyway). The client can then download the original (just like an Owner Save). It works okay for RM since the client has to contact you about licensing specifics, and you'd need to upload a new file with the specific license embedded anyway. But it means that payment won't be handled by Smugmug either - so you're not paying commission, but you're getting stuck with the work.

I see that the PLUS Coalition is now also beginning to position itself as a registry service. Interesting. So many companies in a race to create a registry for when the Orphan Works bill is passed, wonder who is going to emerge as the leader?

xris

OffTopic wrote:

I've been playing around with it since it first beta'd last year. ...

Good Post! Many valid points to ponder. I find myself wondering if the coalition is running low on steam. The last update on the site is from June! If I can get a sense that all systems are go, I may join up, just to support the idea.

OffTopic

xris wrote:

Good Post! Many valid points to ponder. I find myself wondering if the coalition is running low on steam. The last update on the site is from June! If I can get a sense that all systems are go, I may join up, just to support the idea.

The Embedder & Reader software was updated in July, but yeah, nothing on the news front since June. I think that's probably because there's been no action on the OWA since it was referred to Full Committee back in May. Of course there's been no progress during the congressional vacation (hubby said the Dems are still out?) but I would think it will be back in the spotlight again soon. If the OWA isn't passed, or is passed with major changes, a lot of the work the PLUS Coalition is putting together may not be quite as important. Maybe important isn't the right word, but I'm not sure how many people will feel the need to pay money to register their images (with an approved registry, in addition to registering their copyright with the LOC) and embed licenses unless the OWA requires it, even though $125 a year isn't prohibitive for a sole proprietorship if it gives unlimited registry privileges. I think it's a given the OWA will pass eventually, but if you had the chance to listen to the last subcommittee meeting it seems that even the members of congress are confused about what a lot of the wording means and the possible implications.

And if you had told me 30 years ago that photography would cause me to pay more attention to politics I would've said you were crazy! rofl

xris

BUMP!

OffTopic

There is a really good article by Jim Goldstein in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro about the PLUS Coalition. Thought of you when I read this xris.

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/studio/the-plus-coalition-standardized-licensing-codes.html

xris

OffTopic wrote:

There is a really good article by Jim Goldstein in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro about the PLUS Coalition. Thought of you when I read this xris.

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/studio/the-plus-coalition-standardized-licensing-codes.html

Thanks Lori. In fact is was my intention to provide the same link to you. That's the article that clued me in. (Darn mag ALWAYS has something interesting in it!)