photos Archive

NY-based Kodak has announced they have filed lawsuits today against Apple and Research in Motion alleging, “the infringement of Kodak digital imaging technology.”

From the lawsuit announcement Laura G. Quatela, Chief Intellectual Property Officer, and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company noted, “In the case of Apple and RIM, we’ve had discussions for years with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue amicably, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement. In light of that, we are taking this action to ensure that we protect the interests of our shareholders and the existing licensees of our technology.

“Our primary interest is not to disrupt the availability of any product but to obtain fair compensation for the use of our technology,” Quatela said. “There’s a basic issue of fairness that needs to be addressed. Those devices use Kodak technology, and we are merely seeking compensation for the use of our technology in their products.”

Also noted in the press release, Kodak has royalty-paying agreements with over 30 companies including: LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

Regarding Apple, Kodak noted, “In the first suit against Apple in U.S. District Court, Kodak alleges infringement of two patents generally covering image preview and the processing of images of different resolutions. In the second suit, Kodak alleges infringement of patents that describe a method by which a computer program can “ask for help” from another application to carry out certain computer-oriented functions. The allegations in the second suit apply to any Apple product that uses the processing method described above.”

Eric Savitz at Barrons has some additional thoughts on the lawsuits.

Update: Justin Whitaker had some good comments regarding the above lawsuit announcement. He notes, “So it this Kodak’s new business plan?” and “Seems to me that “patent troll” is not in line with the proud Kodak legacy.

Here are some photos from Sunday at SXSW. I spent some time in the blogger lounge which was packed most of the day. There are a variety of good looking panels today and I am hoping to learn something new today.

You can check out all of my photos on Flickr.

I wonder what Marshall Kirkpatrick and Louis Gray are talking about…

Amanda Gravel

Here’s Matt Cutts from Google and Tamar Weinberg. Matt traded me the sticker for a pagerank 9 on CN!

Shama Hyder

Scoopt, a site to "sell your photos to the press", has announced that they will be closing the service effective February 6, 2009. The service was acquired by Getty Images just about two years ago. NY-based Mochila is another company in the paid asset space. I’ve said for a while that people should stop giving their rich-media assets (photos, videos, etc.) to media outlets for free. Peter Kafka wrote about this subject last month discussing the Flight 1549 water landing and how CNN was able to get lots of free media that they can monetize the heck out of.

Here’s the full memo sent to users today (courtesy Dean Collins):

Dear Scoopt members,

I am sorry to inform you, as a member of Scoopt, that we have decided to close the business.   We will not be taking in any more imagery after February 6, 2009 and will close the upload application.   We will also cease licensing any imagery through Scoopt on that date.

Our experience with Scoopt has taught us some very valuable lessons.  We remain convinced that there is a demand for this kind of material as part of an editorial product, but for the moment are choosing to focus our energies within Getty Images on our core products in news, sport and entertainment.

It has been a pleasure working with Scoopt, your pictures have provided a fascinating snapshot of the circumstances in which you find yourselves and have added valuable viewpoints to the news service we provide our customers on a daily basis.

A holding page will remain until March 6, 2009 but from February 6 we will not be accepting any new imagery and so the upload path will be closed, and the galleries shut down, at which point all rights over the photos revert to you, the copyright holders.

All Scoopt content that also appears on Getty Images will initially be reviewed and any Scoopt member that has photos deemed to have longer term value on Getty Images will be offered a separate contract.  To be clear, on February 6, 2009 all Scoopt content will be taken down from the Getty Images website and only be reposted, once the relevant contractual relationship with individual photographers is in place.

If your material is selected for continued inclusion on Getty Images, you will be contacted directly.   We will be posting some FAQ’s on the website to try to answer any questions you may have, so please do refer to this section.

Please note that we will be retaining your contact details in order to service any outstanding payments that are due and in case there should be need for a further communication update.  If you would like your details removed from the database, please respond to enquiries@scoopt.com with the words Remove Details in the subject line, and citing your Scoopt member ID.

Please use the email enquiries@scoopt.com for all correspondence regarding the closure of  Scoopt

Thank you for all your enthusiasm and support which have made Scoopt such an exciting place to work.

From the team at Scoopt

Wireless digital memory card maker Eye-Fi has announced the launch of an iPhone application today. The application will be officially launched during Macworld this week. Eye-Fi notes regarding the iPhone application, "(it) will let users aggregate all of their photos — from both an iPhone and a digital camera — into organized folders on a computer and to one of 25 online photo sharing and social networking Web sites."

To use the free iPhone application, you must have an Eye-Fi card for your digital camera. There will be more information on the Eye-Fi site later today. The iPhone application will allow users to tag the photos and they can be geotagged as well. There’s also a map function to view all photos on a world map.

I don’t own an Eye-Fi card but I know others who swear by it. They always tell me how easy it is to upload the photos to Flickr and the other photo sharing sites.

It must be the holidays with all of the photobook and customized book news on the wire the last week. Today we’ve learned that NY-based SharedBook has announced a new partnership with LucasBooks that will bring Star Wars fans the ability to customize and personalize a book. Star Wars: Millennium Falcon is SharedBook’s first personalized front list title. The book will be ready for shipping tomorrow.

The book includes your own personalized photo and dedication. I like these types of distribution deals because it opens SharedBook to a new market and could help drive sales of their standard product line.

Earlier this year SharedBook partnered with Allrecipes on personalized cookbooks and Kidmondo on kid books.

Last week we reviewed collaborative photobook creator Inkubook and we’ve written about Sharedbook several times in the past.

Today I’ve found another personalized photobook creator called Mixbook. Mixbooks seems similar to Inkubook except for a few differences. Mixbook allows you to pull in photos from Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Yahoo Search, Smugmug and Photobucket. The Facebook integration is something we heard from readers that they wish Inkubook had. Mixbook also appears to be a bit cheaper overall than Inkubook. Printed softcover books start at $12.99.

Here’s how Mixbook works: You create a photobook and then invite your friends to join the book. Everyone selects photos to include in the photobook. As the book owner you can select the final photos to be printed. Mixbook recently launched a new book creation option called "Automix". Automix takes your photos and automatically creates a book which you can customize – apparently the Automix feature makes the initial process easier.

Lastly there’s a pretty neat photobook widget which allows you to show off your photobook on your blog or social networking profiles.

Update: I received some additional information from the founder of Mixbook. He notes, "We’ve got a powerful scrapbook editor that lets you use stickers, add your own backgrounds, add effects, and much more – it’s the world’s first online digital scrapbooking editor for photobooks!" He also noted that Mixbook lets your friends collaborate on more than just the photos with pages and stories.

I stumbled upon Inkubook this morning and thought it was worth sharing. Inkubook provides a collaborative space where you can create a photobook with your friends and then send it to print once you are happy with the photos in the book.

Inkubook works with Flickr to grab photos. Basically you connect to your friends on Inkubook and then they can suggest photos to add to your photobook. The company offers a variety of book sizes along with hard- and soft-cover. Pricing starts at $24.95 per book and shipping begins at $9.

The service reminds me a bit of NY-based SharedBook. While I get the idea of moving away from printed photos, these books look like great gifts for family members and friends who aren’t computer people. They also work well to always remember a special trip or event.