NIST FOIA Response: Names Of Rights Holders Of Images Used During WTC Collapse Investigations
Aidan Monaghan Sat, 09/20/2008 - 6:37am
The following September 15, 2008 Freedom of Information Act response from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) contains the names of the rights holders of images and videos used by NIST during its investigation of the World Trade Center tower collapses.
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Aidan, Thank you for ALL the probing & research...
Aidan, Mucho appreciation from all of us for all of the work that you have been doing.
No Problem At All
Here is some information regarding all of the "CORBIS" references within the list:
"Corbis Corporation is a buyer/seller of high-quality photography and film footage and related rights, based in Seattle, Washington. It has a collection of more than 100 million creative, entertainment and historic images, a comprehensive footage library, extensive rights and clearances expertise, and a roster of elite assignment photographers.
Corbis is privately owned by Bill Gates, who founded the company in 1989 under the name Interactive Home Systems (a name currently held by an unrelated, slightly older company based in Concord, Massachusetts). One major reason for starting the company was Gates's belief that people would someday decorate their homes with a revolving display of digital artwork using digital frames.[1] The company's name was changed to Continuum Productions in 1994 and to Corbis Corporation a year later. "Corbis" is Latin for "wicker basket," which at the time referred to the company's emerging view of itself as a receptacle or storehouse for visual media.
Bill Gates stores his Corbis photographic collection 220 feet underground in a refrigerated cave in the Iron Mountain storage facility.[2]
Wow! That is wild!
That is pretty wild! Amazing what some bucks can buy.
A few years ago I ran into a lady that said she VHS recorded 4 networks the entire day of 9/11 and some of the days following. With different networks "losing" their archives, I was wondering if those tapes might have some important relevance now.
Breakdown stats for NIST photos
The lists of photographers and videographers provided by NIST has 313 records (269 in photographers list and 44 in videographers list). Just a reminder that the list doesn't tell how many photos or videos are contributed by the people and companies (note 'companies' includes media or other organizations) on the list.
Of the 313 records there are 256 that are related to people (individuals) not associated with a company. 32 are related to either companies or people associated with companies. Some of these people have assigned their photos to media or CORBIS (I assume this). More details on this breakdown are provided below:
Photo Owner Photographer Videographer Grand Total
------------------ ------------------- ------------------ -----------
Individual 135 42 177
Indvidual-CORBIS 72 72
Indvidual-Media 32 32
Media 20 20
Media-CORBIS 4 4
Other 6 2 8
=== === ===
Grand Total 269 44 313
25 of the 256 records related to people not associated with a company appear on the list provided by NIST twice. 17 appear twice because they contributed both photos and video (NIST has provided separate lists for these). The others appear twice because they have either: a) apparently provided photos/video individually in addition to photo/video assigned media or CORBIS or b) apparently provided photos/video assigned to more than one media or CORBIS (NIST counts these as two records on their list).
A more detailed breakdown below identifies the companies that contributed photos. Many are shown more than once as they have more than one person associated with them (eg, a person assigned photos/video to them or they have more than one employee listed, or they have provided both photo and video).
Individual 177
CORBIS 72
AP 30
Star Ledger 6
Reuters 3
CNN 3
WTC 1
APTN/CORBIS 1
CORBIS Sygma 1
FDNY 1
Firehouse Magazine Cover 1
ABC News 1
Infraspection Institute 1
Jersey Infrared Consultants 1
NBC 1
New York Newswire-CORBIS 1
New York Transit (Check) 1
NRC Canada 1
NYPD 1
CBS News Archives 1
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp/AP 1
Bettman/CORBIS 1
The Daily Record/AP 1
WABC 1
WCBS 1
WNBC 1
WNYW 1
WPIX 1
Grand Total 313
Clearly, Bill Gates' CORBIS is the single biggest repository of photos (no video is assigned to CORBIS). Also, nearly all of the video used by NIST came from individuals not associated with a company.