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Bill Gates...and Coverage of the War

Techstination feature for Tuesday, March 25, 2003

What Bill Gates has to do with coverage of the war in Iraq. Bloomberg Boot camp, a report on today's technology. Besides being chairman of Microsoft... which has partnered with GE in the MSNBC all news channel, Bill Gates is also the founder and owner of Corbis. Corbis has amassed the world's largest archive of photographic images and has formed business partnerships with some of the top news photographers. Brian Storm is vice president of news and editorial photography at Corbis...

"I think news is a critical piece of Corbis' business because what we do is we have a visual archive essentially of human history. So today's news becomes tomorrow's archive."

And so some well known photo-journalists on the front lines in Iraq... are working through Corbis for the distribution of their pictures...

"And their pictures will appear all over the world. I'm here in Paris and their pictures are in Paris Match and pictures will show up in Time Magazine and Newsweek and Web sites all over the world."

Corbis share the income from the sale of the pictures... which for most part are now digital...

"Digital photography has revolutionized the profession of photo journalism. Being fast is certainly a critical component of it. Being able to transmit from anywhere is obviously important. But it's also the ability to see the pictures you make right as you make them.

The photos are transmitted back to Corbis through satellite phones and can be sent to publications or appear on Web sites within minutes. And while the company owned by Gates retains a license to sell the pictures... .the photographers working with Corbis still own the copyrights. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.