Corbis To Close Down Sygma

As reported on the British Journal of Photography website, stock photo library provider Corbis (which is owned by Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft) are to close down their French subsidiary, Sygma, a prestigious press agency with a 37 year history.  In part, the move is due to significant losses sustained by Sygma resulting from fines imposed due to their loss of images and lax library management procedures (prior to the Corbis acquisition).  Sygma had heavy debts of €73m also:

“Sygma was hit with a massive €1.5m fine after it was found guilty of losing 750 images that belonged to Dominique Aubert, a French photographer. Aubertworked for Sygma from 1987 until 1995. In 2003, he asked Corbis to return his images, but found that 750 of them went missing from the 250,000 he had shot while at Sygma. Under French law, a photographer retains his rights on all of his images, including when he works for a press agency.” [Read More]

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