Lots of talk about stolen images lately. ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU TO PIXSY.
@donkeypong recently posted about a change by Google in their image search function, which is the removal of their "View Image" button.
In the comments of his post, I found people who seemed pretty upset about this, which I don't understand since you can still just go to the source site itself and look for the image. But in particular, one user made the comment,
"If you don't want your images shared, don't upload them to the internet."
And this seems very short-sighted to me. There are people who rely on their photography for business, such as myself. So I guess I should just stop uploading my pics to the internet to prevent thieves from taking them. I'm sure my potential clients looking for a wedding photographer, or newborn portraits, or family portraits, or senior high school portraits would understand. Right?
Of course not. They'd skip right over me without hesitation.
That mentality is 100% victim blaming. It's like telling a rape victim she should't have been wearing a skirt, and it needs to stop. Yes, it is a bit of a catch 22. If you put your images online, there's a chance that if someone likes it enough, they'll take it. If you DON'T put your images online, well, if you don't have a business that relies on it then that's probably no big deal. But if you do....hm....things will probably get difficult.
And what if someone DOES take your image? Firstly, how would you know? I mean, do you have to wait until a friend or family member informs you, like, "Hey, I saw your image on another guy's website. You might want to check that out."
It's happened to me before.
So what can we do?
On the one hand, if I share my image, it could get stolen.
On the other hand, if I DON'T share my images, either I lose business or deprive family and friends of images I want to share with them.
But there's a 3rd option.
Say Hello to Pixsy.com.
So what is it?
According to Pixsy's about page:
Pixsy is an online platform for creatives and image owners to discover where and how their images are being used online.
Founded in 2014 by Daniel Foster, a photographer who was battling the problem of online image theft.
Pixsy has a suite of copyright tools and services for unauthorized use of images and copyrighted works.
Those tools include:
- Case Resolution Services for licensing and legal resolution around the world.
- Global and growing network of 26 expert legal partners and law firms.
- Investment and support from leading European/North American investors and partners.
In other words, you give them an image to be watchdog over, and they'll crawl the web looking for where people have used that image. They report back to you what they found, and assuming none of their findings are actually authorized for use, they will send a bill to that person to pay for the use of your image.
They have earned us thousands of dollars over the years.
I have a panoramic image of the downtown area of my hometown (the image at the top of this post), which people around my locale tend to love using for their websites, and that image alone has earned us nearly a thousand dollars by itself via Pixsy's services. There was even a local LAW FIRM that used it and got busted! The only caveat is Facebook. They technically aren't able to go after people using your image on Facebook for some reason, even if it's a business page. Nevertheless, you can usually direct message those people and get it taken care of in some way.
If this post helps even one person get compensated for image theft, then I feel like I've done my duty here.
Now you have a way to stop being a victim of theft and take control of your own images.
There's no excuse now, for the victim OR the thief.
I had heard of it, but hadn't given it much thought. It sounds like a good service. I will need to look into it. I’ve used Tineye for many years, and have done my own chasing and DMCA notices, as well as getting people to pay up. Other times my stock agencies do it for me too. It’s time consuming though, and sometimes too depressing! Thanks!
Yeah this is way better. Submit the image to search, go on about your life, and receive emails from Pixsy periodically that say, "Hey, we found someone using it. Here's some money!"
But I have about 8,000 stock images out there! How much would that cost me? LOL! The problem is, they would not have any idea which images were legitimate stock uses, so it would not work for me, when I think about it. The agencies do a pretty good job to a point of finding some of the infringements, and I report what I find to them and they handle it anyway. Uses have to be checked against my monthly statements.
Yeah I probably wouldn't submit those, but rather use the services your stock photo company might offer. I would use it for whatever images you might have on your website that aren't stock. In fact I tend to use it on images I find others using. Periodically I'll do a reverse image search of some of my images to see if I can find it, then I'll submit it to Pixsy.
That’s what I do before submitting to the agencies. Sometimes there’s a few months’ lag before they pay up, which is quite annoying! So, Often it is a legitimate use, not paid for yet!!
That's cool that there's a service out there like this. Thanks for the info :)
That sounds like a great option for artists. I hope the economics are workable for artists while still providing the site some income.
They definitely take a sizable portion of the earnings, but considering it's money I wouldn't otherwise have from a thief, I'm okay with it. :)
I think this is very helpful especially for those photographers that complain of people using their photos without prior consent, I honestly didn't know there is a site like this
Thanks for sharing @winstonwolfe
This is a great service. Hopefully the same loophole on facebook doesn't work on instagram or any other photo centric site due to photos being the main attraction on the site.
This is definitely a problem. Good info thanks! @journeyfreedom
People do have a solid point here. It seems like paid service like Pixsy is the only solution available right now and this is pretty much painful as we need to fork out our own capital to have those images protected.
Not uploading images is not an option for me. So, perceived as a good or bad point is irrelevant to me. So the rhetoric of the statement becomes insulting.
I agree. It’s an insult when I hear that said. I have around 8,000 images on stock sites. That statement insinuates that I have no right to make a living. It insinuates that something should be free because it is just there!
I thought digital watermarks were what professional image creators used as a means of protection?
Of course, but not just for security. It's also used as a calling card (obviously).
Here's the problem:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/18/16162108/google-research-algorithm-watermark-removal-photo-protection
I'd also like to point out that a family with images online sometimes don't even care about the watermark. I've had clients in the past yank them from the internet, PRINT THEM with their godawful inket printer, and then send me a picture of it hanging on their wall going, "Doesn't my printer do such a great job!!!" Without a thought in their mind about what they'd just done.
Jeez that's insane!