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Online Journalism News

'World's first' as community site helps sell pics

Posted: 08/09/06 By: Oliver Luft
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Citizen journalism picture agency Scoopt and MoblogUK claim to have created the world's first community photo-sharing site where contributors can sell their work directly to the mainstream media and still share images with friends.

The deal allows MoblogUK users - currently it has 10,000 - to uploaded cameraphone images to their shared folders on the Moblog website where they are covered by a creative commons licence, which allows free sharing.

Those who have signed up as Scoopt members can also add their images to a shared Scoopt moblog from which the agency can licence them commercially to publishers.

Kyle MacRae, Scoopt's co-founder, said: "What we are trying to do here is distinguish between sharing and commercial use, but try to get away from this hard definition of either.

"Now you can do both things, you can post it on the web as a public shared image and sell it commercially.

"We want to make an easy way for that to happen, to create an easy route to market for these images."

He said effectively pictures work with two licences - one commercial in the Scoopt moblog and one for non-commercial use in the user's shared folder. Any revenue would then be split 50/50 between creators, who retain copyright, and Scoopt.

He added: "There are millions of pictures on the web and none of them are available for sale. That is where we are heading with this; it is the first step towards getting that vast amount of photography to be used commercially."

Alfie Dennen, MoblogUK co-founder, said: "Through our collaboration with Scoopt, MoblogUK is the only photo-sharing community site in the world offering its members a direct route to market.

"By partnering with Scoopt we are opening up a new service for our users, who these days are among those creating the news."