“Designers are reluctant to use web images in their work because of ownership ambiguity.” stated Nancy Duarte, CEO and Principal, Duarte Design

Ownership ambiguity. This statement alone is why we at PicScout are passionate about how images are used and credited on the Internet. This week PicScout reveals a number of leading global image agencies supporting the ImageIRC platform. These companies are joined in a common vision to change the unauthorized use of images and ensure that every image gets its credit. We applaud their support.

In addition, we are inviting image buyers who actively license images on the Internet to download the beta version of our ImageExchange FireFox add-on . This simple tool will empower buyers, with one-click navigation, to identify the image owner, provide copyright information and connect to the owner. By utilizing the Firefox add-on, image buyers can easily connect to a myriad of stock agencies and image owners that represent tens of millions of images from thousands of professional photographers spanning all licensing platforms— rights managed, royalty free, microstock, and UGC Creative Commons. The beta program is designed especially for image buyers — creative and corporate communication professionals as well as designers. Look to 2010 for more details about the ImageExchange add-on program.

The ability to remove the issues surrounding image ambiguity between image buyers and owners is finally being realized.

We will be attending PACA International 2009 Conference, Miami, Oct 16-18, the Media Bistro UGCX, NY, Oct 20-21 and PDN Photo Plus, NY, Oct 22-24. If you’d like to meet us you can Twitter me @offirg

Best Regards,
Offir Gutelzon, CEO, PicScout
Twitter: @offirg or @picscout

This past week PicScout made two significant announcements that we believe will dramatically improve the ecosystem of the photographic and imaging market. Our vision — every image gets its credit — and technology will help foster a transaction-based economy where licensor and users have a positive proactive relationship. We see the new “status quo” image transaction to be “seen and purchased” rather than “caught and prosecuted”. We do have high expectations, but we also believe our industry constituents have this vision too.

Join us this week, as we will make another critical announcement to ready the Internet community to this new model. I invite you to come back to this blog and learn about the latest from PicScout. If you are attending the Picturehouse New York 2009 conference, be sure to stop by table B3 – EOM. See you there.

In the meantime, please enjoy this article from our coverage from last week.

Best Regards,

Offir Gutelzon, CEO, PicScout

Twitter: @offirg or @picscout

We are very excited to announce what we see as the beginning of a new imaging economy that restores revenue and profitability to the image industry. With our new platform, ImageIRC, we have created a ubiquitous connection between buyers of images and licensors. Never before have these two communities been linked so that artists and their work can be easily identified anywhere on the web, acknowledged, and if required, compensated.

Akin to Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type press in the mid-1400s, the 21st century Internet gave birth to movable “images” and a world filled with photos for use by anyone that finds them. Today there are hundreds of millions of photos on the Internet — ranging from user generated content to pro-photographers— and until today, there was no click-through method to connect image buyers easily with creators and owners. PicScout has changed the image rights equation and image search will never be the same.

As a company, we are proud of the foundations we have laid for this new era. We’ve all worked hard, and today’s first announcement is indicative of our efforts. Please view the details of our announcements, and we welcome your insight and feedback. Please stay tuned to this blog; we have more news and partnerships to announce in the coming days and months that will continue to add value to our customers and to the image community at large.

Best regards, Offir Gutelzon, CEO of PicScout.
Twitter: @offirg