Chinese firm to follow industry standards on sensitive images after Corbis acquisition

A Chinese media company that recently bought Corbis' image division, a photograph archive that owns some pictures from the 1989 Tiananmen incident, denied on Thursday of any government involvement in the acquisition. Chai Jijun, founder and executive director of Visual China Group (VCG), told the Global Times on Thursday that he understood the concerns raised by some foreign media and individuals but said the acquisition was purely a commercial activity. "We do not have the complicated background as reported by some media," Chai said, adding that the company would not make the decision to acquire the photo archive simply because the archive possesses some sensitive pictures. VCG announced on January 22 that it had acquired the assets and brands of Corbis' Image Division and would own and manage the images and motion archives, names and trademarks associated with the Corbis Images, Corbis Motion and Veer licensing brands. The sale of Corbis Images has raised concerns among some foreign media and individuals, who fear that some historical pictures related to the sensitive incident might be stopped from circulation. Chai said VCG will deal with the sensitive pictures by following the operation standard commonly adopted in the visual image industry without making big changes. He noted that the 50 million images owned by Corbis had recorded major historic events of the 19th century and 20th century and that VCG bears the responsibility of taking good care of this cultural heritage. An expert from the Copyright Protection Center of China, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Global Times on Thursday that if the purchase went through legal procedures and the company acquired copyrights of the pictures, then VCG would have the legal basis to manage the images at its will. VCG's deal also includes Bettmann Collection, which holds more than 11 million photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries, and the Sygma Archive, which owns one of the most prestigious groups of images of Europe's historical events. Founded by Bill Gates under the name "Interactive Home Systems" in 1989, Corbis was originally established to serve as a distributor of artwork for the prospective concept of digital art frames in homes, while through years of development, it has focused on acquiring and digitalizing historical photographs.