By providing license information at the point of use and discovery, we will automatically create a new level of copyright awareness that will clearly enhance proper usage and ultimately enforcement. Since users will know immediately the copyright status and contact information, they will have the opportunity to do the right thing: license the image. If they choose to use the image without securing the right to do so, the license owner or owner’s attorney can confidently and quickly contact the user and state their case. The approach gives power back to the image owner.

In addition to the ImageExchange, which visually shows the information, the PicScout ImageTracker, can also report web image usage to agencies or owners who can determine if the use was legitimate or not.

Currently, during the beta period, the Image IRC is open to agencies and large photographer collections. We are looking at different ways to bring the Image IRC to individual photographers. We hope to make an announcement in 2010.

If you’d like more information, please contact us via Twitter @picscout or at our web site: http://www.picscout.com/about-us/contact-us.html

It protects your photos from theft in some ways but not others. If your photo is in the index, then it’s impossible for anyone else to upload that photo to an agency as their own, assuming the agency checks submissions against the index first. Additionally, if someone puts one of your photos on their website and claims that it’s their own, anyone with a plugin will be able to see that they are not the true owner.

However, it doesn’t stop people actually stealing your photos and using them. It just makes it easier for them to get caught when they do.

I doubt agencies would forward fees to photographers. Depending on the agreement they make, they will only pay for the service when they make a sale. Most agencies already do this through their referral programs, so this is not a new cost.

-Lee

So everybody who wants to licence one of these images found via Google images or the like can easily do so by entering the website stated on the image. However, I find people on a regular basis who steal the image anyway without licensing it.

So I don’t see how IRC should prevent this.
But of course, trying to establish a wordwide index is a good idea. Just let’s hope the agencies don’t forward the usage fees to their photographers.

Bye, Robert

In the long term perhaps a more open service will win the race but that’s not going to happen any time soon, and an open solution would bring inherent problems of not having a company with a financial interest in solving infringement complaints – money’s always a big motivator and will no doubt help in promoting the growth of IRC/ImageExchange/Pic Scout