Major Publisher Adopt the Plus Image Licensing Standards

New York (USA), 12 NOVEMBER 2008 - Three major publishers have called for the adoption of the PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System) standards by picture archives, photographers and all other image suppliers. Representatives of McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Pearson each announced that they will adopt the PLUS Picture Licensing Glossary definitions in their contracts, and that they encourage image suppliers to begin embedding PLUS license metadata in all images within one year. The publishers voiced their support at the “PLUS Takes Root in the Publishing Industry” event hosted by the Picture Archive Council of America, during their International Conference in New York City.

The PLUS standards were developed by the PLUS Coalition, an international non-profit organization dedicated to simplifying and facilitating the communication and management of image rights. In the PLUS Coalition, publishers, picture archives, photographers, illustrators, designers, advertising agencies, museums, libraries, artist representatives, educational institutions, manufacturers and their associations collaborate toward that shared goal. The PLUS standards allow rights and attribution information to travel within image files in a machine-readable format that provides instant access and universal understanding.

“We are very pleased that these major publishers – the largest image licensees in the industry – are aligned in their support of the PLUS standards,” said Maria Kessler, President of the Picture Archive Association of America.

Bonnie Beacher, Senior Director of Contracts, Copyrights and Permissions at McGraw-Hill Education, said “The PLUS standards benefit publishers and their suppliers by simplifying and clarifying the process of licensing and managing images. We are in the process of implementing PLUS standards, and we would find it very useful for our image suppliers to adopt PLUS standards as well.”

Jeff Sedlik, President & CEO of the PLUS Coalition, said “The PLUS standards will allow publishers to leverage embedded license metadata to increase automation and more efficiently manage images in their digital asset management systems.”


The PLUS Coalition includes participants in thirty countries, and receives significant support from Leadership Circle members Adobe, Adbase, Adobe, Pentagram, Jupiterimages, Digimarc, Belay Development, Getty Images, IDEAlliance, ImageSpan, Photo District News, IPTC, NAPP, PACA, StockPhotoFinder, Swan Turton, WongDoody and Capture. To learn more about PLUS, visit www.useplus.org or contact info@useplus.org.