We use the Pickerell "Negotiating Stock Photo Prices" book and an old
ASMP guide for quoting fees. 

 

We deal with quite a few repeat customers, so we've established a set of
rates for them which apply every time. I usually ask what they generally
pay in order to get to a basis that works for their budget and to
encourage them to come back again. 

 

Very often, we waive or seriously reduce license fees for sister
institutions and worthy "mission" oriented projects and charge a staff
administration fee of $30-$50 for processing the order or just ask for
credit. 

 

We rarely waive reproduction fees, as they represent a cost to us. We do
re-purpose existing scans and that's a boost to revenue.

 

Other consideration we sometimes ask for if we're waiving or reducing
fees:

* publication of a short promotional piece about a given collection,
e.g. our Rosenfeld Collection (www.rosenfeldcollection.org
<http://www.rosenfeldcollection.org/> ) or the Museum itself - we call
this our "evergreen language" 

* with the copyright notice/photo credit, publication of our website and
collections email address 

 

For purely PR and promotional uses, we usually waive everything and just
get the credit. We work in concert with our Communications Dept. on
this. 

 

It's a constant balance between "mission" and "market" considerations,
but the overall test I use is to ask if it's "commercially reasonable"
in sharing the financial costs involved and looking at what
consideration is exchanged. 

Louisa Watrous 
Intellectual Property Manager 
MYSTIC SEAPORT 
The Museum of America and the Sea 
75 Greenmanville Ave., P.O. Box 6000 
Mystic, CT 06355 USA 
Tel: 860-572-5383, ext. 4703 / Fax: 860-572-5328 
URLs: www.mysticseaport.org / 
www.rosenfeldcollection.org 

________________________________

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Pickering, Felicia
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] defending fees

 

Some fee schedules that I have found useful to consult are the New York
Public Library, see esp. their use fee schedule:
http://www.nypl.org/permissions/  and
http://www.nypl.org/permissions/newpermissions.html .  Also, the
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Image Use Fee schedule available here
http://www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/imageGalaxy_UseFees.cfm .  Even if you
keep your own schedule much simpler, these detailed schedules may give
you some guidance when faced with requests for waivers or reductions.

 

We often waive or reduce use fees for small print run books, especially
for print runs under 1000-2000, but also for under 5000, and many other
institutions do as well, by having a tiered fee schedule. We also
sometimes offer a 20% volume discount, if someone is using 10 or more of
our images.

 

It is also useful to consider who is making the request. Some publishers
now make the authors do the permission requests, in order to save the
publishers money, and we will sometimes give a price break or waiver to
a struggling author, especially of a low print run book, in those
circumstances.  

 

________________________________

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Benjamin Neely
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 3:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] defending fees

Dear List,

 

Our historical society receives a fairly substantial number of
photographic reproduction requests from all sorts of patrons
(individuals, for-profit entities, and non-profit entities).  I have
been getting an increasing amount of requests from every demographic for
a discount or to waive our fees for reproduction and usage altogether.
Some causes are certainly more worthy than others but I want to be fair
to everyone.  I certainly want to help one and all but our organization
is a private non-profit, run by a small staff, and dependent on the
income these fees generate.  

 

I am curious as to how other organizations handle such requests.  I
would certainly be appreciative for any thoughts anyone would like to
share. This is a link to our website where we posted information about
regulations and fees: http://www.achs-pa.org/visit/rules.htm.

 

Thanks,

Ben

 

Benjamin Neely

Director of Historic Collections

Adams County Historical Society

111 Seminary Ridge

P.O. Box 4325

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-334-4723 ext. 203

717-334-0722 fax

www.achs-pa.org

 

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