Free Images with PicApp Beta

PicApp gives bloggers and other online publishers access to copyrighted news and creative images, completely free. Now available in public beta, PicApp features images from Getty Images, Corbis and other prestigious image agencies. Each image is accompanied by a non-intrusive ad to drive royalties to the related content partners, instead of the traditional license fees. “Bloggers are the new journalists and they can now get great images - and use them legally, with no charge whatsoever,” said Eyal Gura, CEO, PicScout. “Through PicApp, we are providing today’s new media with access to the latest images and an easy way to enrich their readers’ experience.”

PicScout Press Release

PICAPP GIVES BLOGGERS ACCESS TO HIGH-END COPYRIGHTED IMAGES, FREE OF CHARGE; BETA NOW OPEN TO ALL ONLINE PUBLISHERS

High Quality News and Artistic Photos, Illustrations Available To Use Alongside Editorial Content through PicApp.com

SAN FRANCISCO - March 21, 2008 - A new service that gives bloggers and other online publishers access to copyrighted news and creative images free to use alongside their editorial content, is available in public beta at http://www.picapp.com.

PicApp enables bloggers to choose from extensive collections of millions of copyrighted images being updated by the thousands each day that have been licensed from Getty Images, Corbis and other prestigious image agencies to visualize the content on their web sites.  Each image is accompanied by a non-intrusive ad to drive royalties to the related content partners, instead of the traditional license fees. 

Bloggers covering the day-to-day trials and tribulations of the U.S. presidential race, for instance, could find up-to-the-minute photos of the candidates on the campaign trail at PicApp.com.  Celebrity junkies can get their fix of Hollywood photos from PicApp.  Sports writers can get play-by-play action photos of current superstars, like Tiger Woods or Roger Federer, as they make history to supplement a news story.

Plenty of topical photographs, such as themed images for the passing St. Patrick’s or upcoming Mother’s Days, are also available.

“Bloggers are the new journalists and they can now get great images - and use them legally, with no charge whatsoever,” said Eyal Gura, CEO, PicScout.

“Through PicApp, we are providing today’s new media with access to the latest images and an easy way to enrich their readers’ experience.”

Interested bloggers can go to http://www.picapp.com to start getting images to enhance the content at their sites right away.  Since the start of closed beta, PicApp has had an enthusiastic response from bloggers, according to Gura.  Usability of the service has also increased, as bloggers have provided their feedback.

About PicScout
PicScout is the leading technology services provider to the digital content industry.  For years, the company’s flagship ImageTracker™ has been the industry standard application for helping visual assets owners control and monitor the
distribution of their proprietary images across all media.  Through its PicApp
platform (http://www.picapp.com), PicScout allows online publishers to quickly and easily post creative and editorial images to blogs and web sites. 

PicScout headquarters are in San Francisco.  The company has a development and operations center in Herzelia, Israel. 

Published: Monday, March 24, 2008

Reader Comments

1. The picapp service had all my images available for blogging for nothing... no problem apart from the fact that my images were not licenced for that use.
   Getty (who the images were held with) allowed the blanket use of all images in their library to picapp, even though they were only supposed to allow access to images they "wholly owned".
   In the meantime, Getty and PicApp were generating revenue from the use of my images through this service, but this revenue does not get passed on to the photographers. What a scam!
   I'll just keep on investing my time and money into new cameras and equipment and giving my work away for free... while Getty rakes in the revenue. Obviously Getty and picapp need the money more than I do!
   
   Seems interesting to note that picapp is owned by PicScout which looks for copyright infringement on the Internet.
   
   It's also good to see that the picapp logo is "because a pictures worth..." - "...nothing" in my case!

   Carl at 11:37am on Monday, April 07, 2008

2. Thanks for your comment Carl.
   
   Just wanted to update you on the good news...which we published close to the time of the problem.
   
   The bug has been fixed and PicApp is not receiving any images which are not wholly owned anymore.
   We want to thank all photographers for their patience & understanding of this situation. For those who have sent us notifications, we’ve reviewed all published images & made sure none of their images are shown or used anywhere.
   
   To read more about it, we welcome you to our picapp forum: http://forum.picapp.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21
   
   The PicApp Team

   The PicApp Team at 07:36am on Thursday, May 01, 2008