A new picture agency aims to help the general public sell ?newsworthy? snaps caught on mobile phones and digital cameras to newspapers, magazines and other media.
Scoopt, which is based in Glasgow, takes a 50% commission on the pictures that it sells.
As well as mobile phone pictures the agency will also accept images taken with digital cameras or even, says the Scoopt website, images taken on ?disposable? film-based cameras then scanned to computer.
?We set up Scoopt specifically and exclusively to help amateur ?citizen reporters? sell newsworthy photos taken on camera phones to the media,? said a spokesman, citing the widespread use of camera phone pictures by the media after the 7 July attacks on London. ?Scoopt bridges the divide between pavement and picture desk.?
Scoopt is free to join and its terms state that copyright remains with the photographer.
Commenting on the launch, The Bureau of Freelance Photographers tells its members in its latest newsletter that although the agency is aimed at the general public photographers may find the service a ?useful back-up option? when selling pictures to media outlets.
Pictures can be sent to the agency direct from a mobile phone, using Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), via mobile email or by uploading images from computer.
?Virtually everybody now has a mobile phone and virtually every mobile phone now comes with a camera,? states the Scoopt website. ?This means that somebody, somewhere is in a position to photograph just about anything that happens on the planet.?
Conditions state that once an image is submitted the photographer grants the agency exclusive worldwide license to market the photo for three months, during which time the photographer must agree to not sell the picture anywhere else.
For details visit www.scoopt.com
