Image Volumes Rise along with Cases of Infringement
In 2009, total infringement case volume reported by PicScout clients increased more then 3 times over 2006 levels, which demonstrates the ongoing explosion of the use of digital imagery and its non-legitimate use. Current global data, which is based on over 5,000,000 RM images, demonstrates that industry-wide aggregation of infringement cases reported for 2009 show that about 8 out of 10 uses of Rights Managed images on commercial websites today are being used non-legitimately.
In a sample study conducted by Stock Artist Alliance and PicScout in 2005, and further reported in 2007 to assess the level of infringement occurring with Rights Managed Images, the issue of infringement is shown to be world-wide with the study revealing that cases found were distributed 64% in the US, 23% in Germany and 13% in the U.K. The study tracked a sample of 20,000 SAA member images represented in the Rights Managed collections of the leading stock distributors, Getty Images and Corbis, which had never been paid for web usage.
Given the vast increase in the use of images in everything digital – and the lack of user awareness of or willingness to acknowledge copyright and license responsibilities – it is consistent to assume the level of infringement for editorial and Royalty Free is equal to or exceeds that of Right Managed images. If the industry were to expand its infringement claims from commercial websites to include User Generated Content (UGC) websites, PicScout projects that the number of infringement cases would be considerably larger.
PicScout represents stock agencies that control at least eighty (80) percent of the Rights Managed revenue in the U.S., Canada, Europe and parts of Asia. PicScout reviews more than 600 million online images a month globally and compares those images against a Rights Managed critical mass database of agency represented images. In a year, PicScout will audit more than six (6) billion images.
CONCLUSION:
Technology enablers, UGC content sites, consumers/users, artists and governing authorities must jointly accept responsibility to safeguard the creative artist’s products in order to ensure supply of creative artists’ product. Copyright protection must ensure the industry the ability to protect and assert its rights.
Copyright Alliance
Comments:
http://www.copyrightalliance.org/files/copyright_alliance_march_24_2010_comments_to_usipec.pdf
Press release:
http://www.copyrightalliance.org/news.php?id=84
Picture Archive Council of America (PACA)
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