In the fight against online image theft there is a new player and they are coming into the arena with a bang! Pixsy is a new copyright infingement software that looks to help photographers around the globe tackle an issue that plagues the industry and for the most part goes unresolved. Fighting copyright infringement can be a long and costly ordeal and Pixsy hopes to be your one stop solution for fair compensation.
Some time ago I wrote a series of articles related to structuring an invoice and by far the most popular segment was the licensing one. It is a topic I feel quite passionate about and it always saddens me to see the vast amount of image theft out there. While I support an open marketplace, I do believe in fair compensation for the artists who put their time and effort into creating the works which are being used to generate profit.
It is then with sheer excitement that I stumbled upon the services of Pixsy today. They are a new online service which hopes to liberate and simplify the entire complicated process of copyright infringement through their online software. Pixsy claims that they will be on the look out for your stolen images across the web. Once they find these images, they will take it upon themselves to alert you, and to put together a fair licensing fee based on usage. With your permission Pixsy will contact the user to settle the dispute and will continue to act as a liason between the parties. Pixsy also aims to be completely international and will operate in a variety of languages to overcome any barriers.
While I personally do not know the methods Pixsy uses to calculate a "fair" license fee, they will never contact the user without your permission, thus you have a chance to look over their quote and modify it as you see fit.
This appears to be an incredibly powerful new resources for photographers and perhaps it is the solution many of us have been looking for. Time will tell how well the software performs but this is certainly one to check out!
Pixsy is currently in Beta, and as such the service is free, with a nominal fee due upon successful resolution though at the time of writing I could not find any reference as to what exactly "nominal" means.
Nice! Definitely going to check this out. Thanks for the heads up Peter!
Means nothing without a lawsuit and can be ignored by all. Sorry to burst your bubble but without litigation, nobody has to pay a dime.
Unfortunately a lawsuit is sometimes required when work is stolen, but our experience at Pixsy has been that most copyright violations can be resolved outside the courtroom.
-- Daniel at Pixsy
Daniel, a blogger did use one of your photos and made a huge mistake as she thought since she was a blogger it was free. I am passing on the mistake to the company whom wrote the blog.
Definitely need to check it!
One question that comes to mind. This site called Pixsy, try to act on the use of the images on sites like Fstoppers.com? if you work out or posted on Fstoppers petapixel, boredpanda etc, the website will take a measure or charge on it? Because if we have the work that any of us is published on these sites helps us to promote ourselves and in my opinion we will see an immediate gain. But the truth I have always asked this question.
It's up to the photographer to decide what they want to do in each situation. So if a photographer encountered a stolen photo and wanted to use it for PR instead of sending an invoice, Pixsy would encourage this. We recognize that relationships with clients and PR are often worth quite a bit more than a single invoice for unauthorized use, and our goal is to do whatever we can in each situation to achieve this.
-- Daniel at Pixsy
I guess I unfortunately found one free otherwise I definitely would have paid for it! And i will be sure to watch all in the future.
Hi Celeste,
The case you are referring to involves the use of my photo on a personal injury lawyer’s website. Specifically, the photo was used in an article advertising the services of the law firm Coxwell and Associates.
My understanding is that you are the CEO of Dancel Multimedia, a company that provides advertising and marketing services to law firms, and that your company was paid for writing this post.
You didn't even provide attribution.
The image is on my Flickr page, and it looks like Photopin automatically syndicates from Flickr. This image is under is under a Creative Commons NonCommercial that allows for non-profit use if you give attribution. Neither of these things occurred. Photopin gives a clear explanation on how to use images on their site and clearly states that images may only be used for non-commercial or non-profit projects.
One of Pixsy’s lawyers reached out to your company because you had no permission to use the work to advertise personal injury legal services. Bloggers are more than welcome to use my work for free. Law firms (who should definitely know better) and advertising agencies are not.
Please ask for permission ahead of time and arrange for a paid license if you wish to use my work for attorney advertising in the future.
I understand that your agency and law firm might be bitter about the situation, but I would appreciate it if we could still handle it as professionals.
In the meantime, I wish you the best of luck with your business and am looking forward to resolving things amicably.
Best regards,
Daniel Foster
Hi Daniel, I just realized I did not write that blog, that another company wrote it, found and used your photo that was free for bloggers she said on Flickr. I sent her information to David Deal. But she is a stay at home mom with 3 kids.... she just thought it was free. I hope you work with her on the fee.
Also, since I don't understand Flickr, how do we contact the photographer to ask the price?
Signed-up, but looks to be in beta with nothing more but a newsletter? I'd love to hear more once it's up and running.
We're in private beta, Michael, and looking forward to working with you soon!
-- Daniel at Pixsy
Pixsy helped me to resolve my first copyright abuse case recently. They weren't officially online yet, but I heard of them here in Berlin. I was able to resolve my issue outside of court and was very happy with the results.
UPDATE: Getty Images Acquires Pixsy. Seattle, WA, April 1, 2016 - Getty Images, a premier creator and distributor of imagery and media, today announced the acquisition of Pixsy, one of the leading platforms for independent artists and photographers to identify the use of their work online.
The acquisition will couple Getty Images’ digital content licensing expertise with Pixsy’s technology in developing new solutions for customers. Under the terms of the agreement, Getty Images will acquire Pixsy for $420 million.
“With the rapid growth of Getty Image’s copyright enforcement program and artists’ rising demands for increased pay, Getty Images will benefit from the goodwill Pixsy has created with photographers around the world,” said Daniel Foster, founder of Pixsy. “The acquisition will benefit both the content owners and content users, marking the beginning of the world’s most effective solution for image identification and use.”
Getty Images plans to continue support and development of Pixsy's matching algorithm and copyright management platform.