Flickr and Pixsy have decided that, collectively, they’ve had it with the rampant photo theft that plagues the world of photography.
That’s why the two companies are going to team up to stop it cold in its tracks, promising the world's first “end-to-end” solution for photo theft according to PetaPixel.
In a press release discussing the partnership, the two companies said, “This strategic partnership empowers photographers to enforce their rights by giving them the tools to track their images and to take legal action across the globe in an effort to preserve the integrity and value of their work.”
How it works is quite simple: When a Flickr member uploads a photo to the service and integrates it with Pixsy, this starts a process “which scans the Web for usages of your work and gives you tools to handle copyright and infringement — things like registering photos with the US Copyright office, sending automated DMCA takedown notices, and a case resolution service for recovering lost licensing revenue and damages from those who infringe.”
That’s really cool, and a real value-add service for Flickr members.
For its part, Pixsy works with a network of law firms around the world that typically work on a “no win, no fee” basis according to PetaPixel. Since starting out in 2014 the service has filed 70,000 copyright infringement lawsuits on the behalf of creators.
Flickr Product VP Andrew Stadlen said this of the Pixsy integration: “We want our photographers to feel comfortable sharing their work online. We offer clear controls for privacy and copyright, and we stand by our photographers in asserting their rights in the case that theft occurs…Partnering with a company like Pixsy makes complete sense for our community and helps us deliver on what we believe is a core value for Flickr.”
Flickr Pro members will get 1,000 photos that they can have monitored along with 10 DMCA takedown notices per year and an unlimited number of case submissions.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
1 Comment
How noble of them! They could even sell this copyright infringement detection as a professional service to a company like Disney. Together with the US Copyright office and DMCA ‘tools’ it will be a regular ‘Shakedown as a Service’.