I am myself a hobbyist photographer and like wildlife photography. I am not here to sell my images or any such thing or any advertisement.

I am here looking for some info on copyright infringement. I saw a lot of complaints regarding the same and wanted to join the discussion.

I would like to know how big this problem actually is.
How much time does a photographer spend looking for their images online?
How does it affect the photographers?

Let me know,

Regards,
Mangesh

Its a big problem but I don't spend much time worrying about it as it would probably drive me crazy hats off to those that do spend time chasing down the crooks.

Hello Saun,

That's not me. My name is Mangesh Yadav. As I said I am a hobbyist photographer and professionally I am into IT business.

What I am looking for:

I am looking for some support to build a platform for media artist. No, I don't need your money.

I need your support in building a platform for media artist where photographers can copyright their artwork just like a birth certificate for your artwork. It certainly does not replace the legal copyright registration but becomes a secondary proof of ownership and proof of publication.

Secondly, as its time-consuming searching for your stolen images. The platform helps the photographers track their images online. The system will be able to tracks images and create a report letting you know the URL the image thumbnail etc.

The platform will also have a marketplace to sell using your artwork. Benefits of this marketplace are low transaction cost, a higher percentage of sales revenues and instant deposit of funds into your account.

I know there are a lot of stock photography websites already but this is something different.

The entire platform will be backed using blockchain technology. I am not sure how many know about blockchain technology. But everything above mentioned is possible using blockchain technology.

The ability to secure copyright information on the blockchain is ideal. Once the information is registered, it cannot be altered. Therefore, a creator always receives credit without any possibility of dispute and provides you with a �proof of publishing�. Artists can track the activity of their work along with transparent sales and prevent copyright infringement.

We want to put the power back in the hands of the artists. We are still working on this project and is under development.

All I am looking for is support.

Sorry about the name.  That's why it's good to be upfront.

Secondly, as its time-consuming searching for your stolen images. The platform helps the photographers track their images online. The system will be able to tracks images and create a report letting you know the URL the image thumbnail etc.

Anything like this must account for cropping, flipping, filters, etc.

The technology behind a site is not the hard part. If the goal is licensing images, the hard part is finding and keeping buyers - there are lots of other agencies out there and they compete for buyers. Any new agency needs to figure out how to do that - any individual artist trying to sell direct has an even harder time doing that. There have been a variety of cooperatives and artist-run sites before and it's hard to make that work.

If your primary goal isn't licensing images, then don't bother as it isn't going to just draw buyers without a lot of work (the "if you build it, they will come" model doesn't apply here).

There were services to track online usage - Getty bought PicScout as one big example. Tracking your images doesn't do anyone any good unless you can get them taken down or get paid. In the era of large license fees for rights managed images, Getty had a great side business in tracking down unauthorized usage and charging an arm and a leg to the infringers.

For microstock prices, even when we find infringers, the agencies largely couldn't care less. Sometimes there's a nice small business that was clueless and will take something down if asked and apologize profusely, but small license fees don't leave a lot of room for paying lawyers.

Bottom line is that I'm not sure what benefits any platform you might build would offer contributors - and tossing around blockchain to jazz up the pitch doesn't really alter the assessment.

Please have a look at this blog post: https://medium.com/@stockblockio/stockblock-io-d2f18daa5e92 [nofollow]

It explains the project in detail and link to white-paper explaining the technical details.

I've been recommended this site - ImageProtect

https://www.imageprotect.com/

Anybody have any experience?

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Once it's in Micros (RF) and licensed for subs, there's no point in chasing infringements, unfortunately.

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I've attached a paragraph on this matter from my book. 

Quote from: StockBlock on October 09, 2017, 14:37

Jo,

I totally agree with what you say. As I said the platform will detect duplicate images and keep the fraudsters off the system. This helps both buyers and sellers. Buyers will be able to buy artwork from genuine sellers with no room for copyright infringement cases, no disputes. Not trying to jazz up or pitch. This tech can really change things for good.

Unless the Big Three adopt the platform and commit to chasing fraudsters all over the globe, I don't think there's going to be an impact. My bet is they won't. I don't think lawyers are going to be all over the cases with 28c damages.

The legal service will be for assistance. They would act upon photographers request and help them in the legalities. Most of these operations will be automated.

The big players probably won't get into blockchain. They get paid more than 75% of the sale revenues no matter if the image is stolen or legit. They only act when people file a complaint.

Quote

.  ^^ You recommend suggest ImageProtect without any experience of it yourself, or apparently any reliable second hand accounts? With no disclaimer ('this exists, I haven't used it')
 

I haven't used it, perhaps one day. The person who recommended is a director of a stock photo agency who I have been in direct contact with for some time.

Hmmm, if I were you I'd ground the recommendation not own it, but your call. I wonder why the agency owner prefers not to get the percentage him/herself?

Still, it's expensive at $20 per month plus $89 for the US copyright registration fee (how often do people do that? One large 'back catalogue' registration, then how often going forward?).

Does the 'US copyright registration' have any clout outwith the US? Or is it like a DCMA, OK if the infringer is in the States, almost useless otherwise if the offender is deliberate, not just genuinely ignorant? Here in the UK we own our copyright, absolutely in Law, as soon as we press the shutter (unless there's an existing arrangement to the contrary).

BTW, I just did a search here within msg for ImageProtect, as I thought it had been mentioned before, but only your recent post turned up.

But yes, as you say in your post, RF makes chasing up misuses very difficult. That was a bad bandwagon for us to jump on, but the horse has bolted now. 
Most of my found RM infringements are in East Asian countries, I wonder how much success ImageProtect has in getting any sort of compensation from there. If they fail, do you get your money back?

Hmmm, if I were you I'd ground the recommendation not own it, but your call. I wonder why the agency owner prefers not to get the percentage him/herself?

Not sure. It's an interesting field and I would like to learn more about it, that's for sure. I went to law school in the UK.

What stood out for me was that the director of this agency (I prefer not to give out names), told me that they're making more money going after infringements than on commissions of stock photos. It's a huge market and niche.

Also interestingly is that some stock agencies will give a % of damages won from defendants to contributors. Perhaps this is an incentive for contributors to chase themselves those who are using the images in an unauthorised manner.

Makes no sense in RF microstock.

Most of my found RM infringements are in East Asian countries, I wonder how much success ImageProtect has in getting any sort of compensation from there. If they fail, do you get your money back?

I'll look in more detail into this.