Posted by David Bostedo on February 27, 2007 at 2:52 PM
This topic is taken from a post by Craig Ruaux over in the PNWNP forum (hope you don't mind Craig). The text here is mine.
About a week ago, there was an article/interview with a photographer who was chosen by Microsoft to take images that were to be used as Windows Vista wallpapers. The article is available here.
It's pretty interesting in and of itself. But the really interesting thing to me is that, while Mr. Darwish received an undisclosed flat fee for his work, he also makes the images available in ~1900x1200 resolution for free on his website. (Link is at the bottom of his page.) I've downloaded all of them, and I think they are wonderful.
This brings up some interesting thoughts about how Microsoft may have licensed the images (what terms), and how much they may have been willing to pay. (My guess? Not much. But I have ZERO idea really.)
Posted by Lori Kincaid on February 27, 2007 at 5:06 PM
I don't know what this guy was paid, but I remember quite a bit of buzz about the payment for the "Bliss" wallpaper. I think it was one of the biggest ever for a single rights-managed photograph and was on the order of $100K or more. I don't know what rights Microsoft got for that amount, but I assume it was at least exclusive use for a specified time period if not outright copyright transfer.
Lori
Posted by David Bostedo on February 27, 2007 at 6:07 PM
I wasn't into photography at all when XP came out Lori - so it's interesting to hear that. Especially since Microsoft doesn't seem to have exclusive rights to these shots - because they're available for free (I have them as my XP desktop now via Webshots).
Looks like someone-at-Microsoft's idea of how to handle this kind of thing changed over the last few years.
Posted by Richard Wong on February 27, 2007 at 8:20 PM
What the heck? I just went over to webshots and saw that guy's photos submitted by different people for free public download. The photog himself isn't even the one doing that as far as I can tell. Classy operation they have going on at Webshots.
Posted by David Bostedo on February 27, 2007 at 8:32 PM
Not sure what you're referring to Richard. I downloaded them via the photographers own website. I only mentioned Webshots meaning that I use it to manage my Windows XP backgrounds. I'm not sure what you found on Webshots, but I didn't find anything with the basic search. I suppose that's always a risk of making pictures free to download - I don't know what the legalities are though.
Discussion
4 repliesAbout a week ago, there was an article/interview with a photographer who was chosen by Microsoft to take images that were to be used as Windows Vista wallpapers. The article is available here.
It's pretty interesting in and of itself. But the really interesting thing to me is that, while Mr. Darwish received an undisclosed flat fee for his work, he also makes the images available in ~1900x1200 resolution for free on his website. (Link is at the bottom of his page.) I've downloaded all of them, and I think they are wonderful.
This brings up some interesting thoughts about how Microsoft may have licensed the images (what terms), and how much they may have been willing to pay. (My guess? Not much. But I have ZERO idea really.)
Lori
Looks like someone-at-Microsoft's idea of how to handle this kind of thing changed over the last few years.