Funding fell through, partly because investors no longer trust dot.com companies, but mainly because, in the words of President & CEO Ridgely C. Evers, “investors are afraid of Getty and Corbis. They are perceived as having effectively sewn up the market for rights-protected stock photography, making it impossible for anyone else to build a real business in the space. I obviously think that perception is wrong. But (as we’re fond of saying around here) it is what it is.”

The perception IS wrong, but is no less real and threatening for that, with alarming implications for other alternative stock agencies planned in the near future.

Exactly would have risen above all the rest because its plans and specifically its contract were drawn up in consultation with some of the best editorial photographers in the business, including Seth Resnick, Jeff Schewe, Jack Resnicki, Tim Olive, Jeff Sedlik, and Frederic Neema.

Exactly’s legacy is the dream contract. It would have done for stock photography what the Business Week deal is doing for assignment work – and it still can. Instead of cashing in on their intellectual property, Exactly has waived their copyright on the contract, and placed it in the public domain (http://www.exactphoto.com/contract.html). The Exactly team cannot be the only people in our business who believe it possible, and right, to cut a fair deal for photographers, agents & clients alike. The deal is there for the taking. And it gives the lie to all those who say you cannot get a better deal today than what’s on offer from Gates & Getty.