Digital Railroad erases files, announces final plan

We have received the following announcement from Betsy Reid of the Stock Artists Alliance concerning the final plan for the shutdown of Digital Railroad and how it affects participating photographers.

Final Plan for Digital Railroad Shutdown: Some license fees will reach photographers.

After meetings with the senior secured creditor this past week, and continued communication with SAA, Diablo Management has announced final decisions made to complete the shutdown of Digital Railroad over the next month in an FAQ posted to the Diablo web site.

The only positive news for photographers is the potential to receive a share of some license revenues. In summary:

Monies already collected by DRR will not be paid or refunded to the photographers, including prepaid annual hosting fees and any license fees received.

From the Diablo FAQ: "Prior to November 14, 2008, that portion of the photographer's money collected was either, paid to the photographers, used for operating costs, or foreclosed on by the senior secured creditor."

DRR will continue to invoice customers and collect fees until Dec. 19. Photographers will receive 70 percent of the proceeds of license revenues collected between Nov. 14 and Dec. 19.

From the Diablo FAQ: "all monies collected after November 14, 2008, will be distributed as follows: 70% to the owners of the copyrighted material and 30% to the senior secured creditor. This program will terminate on December 19, 2008."

All files on the DRR servers have now been erased in a manner which they assure is "unrecoverable."

Updates are posted to the SAA web site

Please pass this message along to any colleagues who had DRR archives.