Smithsonian announces licensing deal with Corbis for images

WASHINGTON -- The Smithsonian Institution and Corbis Corp. announced a deal Wednesday to begin selling images from the Smithsonian's collections for editorial and commercial use through the digital-media company.\nUnder the licensing agreement, Corbis will provide hundreds of images from the Smithsonian museums, including archival photos and images of cultural objects, paintings, sculptures, aircraft and space vehicles. A photograph of the 45.52 carat Hope Diamond is among the first images being made available on the company's Web site.\nSmithsonian officials said they hope the agreement with Corbis will make museum resources more easily accessible and offer some images in a digital format for the first time.\n"We expect this partnership will foster a stronger global awareness of the institution and its archives and generate important revenue that supports its educational mission," Gary Beer, CEO of Smithsonian Business Ventures, said in a statement.\nComplete financial terms were not immediately disclosed. Licensing fees charged for each image would go back into the museum's educational programs, said Smithsonian spokeswoman Samia Elia.\nAbout 200 images from the Smithsonian have already been added to Seattle-based Corbis' image database with more to follow, Elia said.\nIn the past, a researcher or publisher would have to go to the individual Smithsonian museums to search for an image and pay the required reproduction fee for that image.\n"You can still go to the museums to get the images," Elia said. "But Corbis' Web site -- it's kind of like one-stop shopping."\nThe deal follows the Smithsonian's semi-exclusive TV deal with Showtime Networks Inc. for use of museum resources for filming projects. The joint venture will launch a new TV unit called Smithsonian Networks this spring that will be available as an on-demand channel from cable and satellite television providers. Under the deal, any commercial documentaries that rely heavily on Smithsonian collections would have to first be offered to Smithsonian Networks.\nThe Showtime deal guarantees the Smithsonian $500,000 a year for 30 years and possibly more, depending on the popularity of the Smithsonian channel, Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small has said.