Viral Posts Falsely Claim Danish Siddiqui Sold Cremation Images For Profit

[JackSeal]

It was actually sold by a bapan Money Sharma through Getty Images … Danish Siddiqui was just an employee for Reuters.
 

Photo agencies like Getty, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Press Trust of India have photojournalists on their payrolls on a fixed salary. Like any other media or creative agency, the commercial rights of content created or published by employees are owned by the agency while the employees most often hold the creative rights. These agencies allow users to buy photographs at a fixed price irrespective of the recency or the importance of the news event. Apart from buying photos as a one-time buy, agencies also have subscription rates which allow media organisations to use the images for a fixed price on a monthly or annual basis. Photojournalists have no say in fixing the price of photographs. Siddiqui was employed with Reuters. On his personal website, Siddiqui makes it clear that the rights to the images belong to himself and Reuters. Apart from salaried employees, agencies also tie up with independent photojournalists and smaller news agencies to get images. While independent photojournalists may get a part of the sales, salaried photojournalists do not get a share of the profits.

In India, Getty images has deals with Hindustan Times, AFP and NurPhoto to share images while also providing a platform to independent photographers. Reuters does not have a photo-sharing deal with Getty Images. Moreover, being a Reuters employee, Siddiqui was contractually obliged not to click or sell images to other agencies or media organisations. The screenshot of the Getty Images website does not feature images clicked by Siddiqui. The images were clicked by AFP staff photojournalist Money Sharma