The chances of one of your photos being used without permission is pretty high, and according to IMGembed, that number it is around 85% of all images on the Internet. This is a staggering number when you think about it, and it raises questions about the effectiveness of copyright law in the United States, and all over the world.
The truth is, websites like Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, allow users to repost millions of images on a daily basis. If you would take a small claim of a user stealing one of your images to a lawyer, they would turn it down because it has very little economic benefit for them, and you.
The real issue with copyright infringement today comes from companies using image/s without permission from the photographers. These infringements have more efficacy to be pursued by lawyers because a company using images without permission certainly has an economic benefit for both lawyer and photographer.
Rise Against
When stolen images impact your livelihood it’s time to take action, which is exactly what Alex Wild, an insect photographer, Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Blogger for Scientific American, did.
Alex has been losing a significant amount of income from different companies using his insect images without permission. He decided to use ImageRights International, an image recovery service that finds, evaluates the merit of your case/s, and partners with lawyers to help photographers, photo agencies, and publishers recuperate money from stolen images.
“ImageRights was recommended by other photographers I trusted. I liked their efficiency and relatively small settlement amounts for small infringements. I’m still not sure how they make any money since they have to both run an expansive image database and make sure their partner law firms are compensated, all while treating each case individually. ImageRights acts as an intermediary between me and the lawyers, which is very helpful in dealing with a tremendous volume of smaller infringements,” Wild says.
ImageRights uses a reverse-image search software program that uses an advanced algorithm that searches the internet for unauthorized usage, and places instances of stolen images into different folders depending on their case strength, says Joe Naylor, ImageRights International’s CEO.
“ImageRights makes a recommendation based on two factors: 1. The merit of the claim. We’re not attorneys, but we can recognize claims and let them (the photographer) know if they have cause to pursue them based on the merits of the claim. If it’s an obvious DMCA offense, we’d probably recommend sending a take down notice. 2. The other factor is what we are able to research about the infringer, where they’re located, what country, do they have assets, or if we are able to find contact information for them, or have we dealt with them before. We have a team of assessors that will assess the claim and send back a recommendation and it will either be based different criteria, and from that we either recommend sending a take down, or we take it on if we believe we can pursue it,” Naylor says.
Although legal fees are steep, the good thing is you don’t have to spend your own time pursuing legal action. ImageRights places your case within their network of attorneys worldwide to start legal proceedings. ImageRights also works as a recovery service that will take on cases lawyers pass on and help you recover money if the infringement is over $750.
Another company aiding in image recovery, is relative newcomer Pixsy.com, which is still in beta. Pixsy helps find and help recover a licensing fees for stolen images without invoking copyright law, however they do work with attorneys. And like ImageRights, Pixsy won’t pursue license fees from personal or private use, but when it’s a commercial violation, they assist you with recovery efforts.
“We aggregate reverse image search data to give photographers a comprehensive overview of where their work is published online. When a photographer reports for use for which a license is needed, we act as their licensing agent and work with the image user to arrange for a payment,” Daniel Foster, Founder of Pixsy, says.
While it seems like people who find their images being used by a personal blog or even reposted on a social network have very little recourse. Both ImageRights and Pixsy suggest registering your images with the US copyright office.
Copyright is Broken
Many photographers and people within the industry think the United States Copyright Infringement Law, as well as DMCA, need to be reformed, which includes Alex Wild who has been very vocal about his views on copyright.
“The law is broken on many fronts, both from the perspective of users and creators. Plenty has been written about the trouble from the user end, like excessively long terms, so I won’t say anything further,” Wild says. “Content creators, at least, most small content creators, don’t need stricter rules or longer terms. We need reliable enforcement of the existing rules, and we need enforcement to be affordable. If copyright infringement cases could be dealt with in small claims courts and smaller tribunals, faster and at less cost, we’d be able to deal more effectively with the types of infringements that occur in the internet age, and the damages wouldn’t have to be so high.”
Media companies like Buzzfeed and Huffington Post, and other similar viral aggregators pass the buck of copyright infringement problems onto their contributors and writers as the copyright violators instead, making themselves nearly immune from legal action.
“The other trouble is the DMCA loophole exploited by viral media companies knowingly built around copyright infringement. Many of these companies have generated tremendous wealth off the backs of artists whose work is published and republished without permission or payment. When challenged, these companies generally fob off responsibility on their contributors, which is allowed under DMCA, and the contributors are so poorly paid themselves that no sane lawyer would ever pursue a case against them. So we have a bunch of near-criminals who have figured out how DMCA allows them to screw both their own workers and the content creators they steal from, while enriching themselves. The DMCA needs to be revised to clarify what “knowledge of infringement” means, so as to close the loophole and leave the safe harbor protections for the basic ISP services it was intended to protect. As it is, DMCA has become a tool that corporate CEOs use to avoid paying their labor. And when you think of copyright internationally, the copyright laws are a lot of times more lax than what we have here in the states, so pursuing something in another country is often forgotten,” Wild says.
Stop the Bleeding
With just a few options to take on copyright infringement, image theft is a ubiquitous problem that seems to be a growing issue for professional photographers. Companies overseas, or even domestic business entities who are brazen enough to steal images and use them commercially are undermining and destroying professional photography. The copyright law, as Wild says, is indeed broken and needs fixed.
“There is no effective way to prevent infringements. None. Determined infringers will find a way, scanning in from a book if they have to, and the sheer volume of uninformed or lazy web designers statistically guarantees a steady stream of incidental infringements,” Wild says. “Watermarking my photos has lowered the infringement rates, but I still see so many infringements bearing my watermark that I’ve started to wonder if anyone even recognizes what © means. Plus, most of my infringers take photos from client sites, where my clients have paid to use a clean copy.”
This copyright infringement problem stands only to increase in the future, and there must be something done to decrease the hurdles you have to jump to getting paid back for stolen images. For example, a small claims court would be a great way to handle smaller copyright infringement cases like those on social networks.
Protect Your Neck
There are plenty of ways to be proactive about protecting your images, and many different ways to discover if they are being used without your consent. The first place to visit is Google’s Reverse Image Search, or other sites that can assist you with a reverse image search like TinEye, and Digimarc. But when it’s time to take action against a large or small entity, that’s when services like ImageRights and Pixsy are great options.
“The first step should be to take a step back, breathe, and then think about a broader strategy. Not all infringements are worth pursuing. Before making a decision a photographer should have a clear policy about which sorts of infringements are ignored, which should receive a takedown notice, and which go to the lawyers. Having a system in place relieves a lot of the emotional stress of having one’s work abused. Also, register your copyrights. It isn’t expensive, and it’s easy. You’ll have a much easier time getting legal assistance with registered copyrights,” Wild says.
Unfortunately the chances of your images being used without consent is high, but by being proactive by registering images with the copyright office builds a better case if you ever need to pursue legal action. Image theft protection is all about being diligent about where your images are being used on the internet.
“Be proactive and know your rights. Watermarks are useful, but at the end of the day reverse image search tools such as Pixsy are the best way to keep eyes and ears on where, when, and how your work is used online,” Daniel Foster says.
The internet and digital photography have been both a blessing and a curse for photographers. Today it’s easy to show your work off on the internet, but it’s also easy for someone to steal your photos with just a click of a button. Photographers like Alex Wild are taking a stand and sending a message to copyright violators that he’s willing to fight back. I commend him for doing so, and I hope this becomes a trend with photographers.
To learn more about United States Copyright law, visit http://copyright.gov/eco, or to check out Alex Wild’s photography, click here.
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