ImageSpan, creator of licensing and royalty payment automation platform LicenseStream, has partnered with image copyright service provider PicScout. This partnership serves “to help LicenseStream subscribers immediately monetise content found by PicScout and obtain more value from that content as it gets published across the Web”, as the jointly issued press release puts it. Online image theft is seen as “a huge and growing problem”, with lost revenues from unauthorised uses of images online allegedly exceeding $65 million. The cooperation between ImageSpan and PicScout promises to provide LicenseStream subscribers with a means of tracking how, when and where their images are being used or abused.

Press Release

ImageSpan and PicScout Team to Deliver Best-in-Class Image Licensing and Tracking Solutions, Creating Improved Revenues for LicenseStream Subscribers

Joint ImageSpan-PicScout Service Allows LicenseStream Subscribers to Immediately Monetize and Gain Incremental Value from Content Distributed across the Web

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – April 2, 2009 — ImageSpan Inc., the creator of LicenseStream, the market-leading licensing and royalty payment automation platform for all media, and PicScout, a market-leading image copyright service provider to the digital content industry, today announced that they are partnering to deliver a best-in-class image licensing and tracking service to help LicenseStream subscribers immediately monetize content found by PicScout and obtain more value from that content as it gets published across the Web. The announcement was made at the Web 2.0 Expo.

Together, ImageSpan and PicScout are addressing a huge and growing problem: online image theft. Lost revenues from unauthorized uses of images online are estimated at upwards of $65 million, according to a comprehensive study by the Stock Artists Alliance. By combining PicScout’s market-leading image tracking and recognition registry services with ImageSpan’s Web-based LicenseStream automated licensing and royalty settlement service, the partners can provide LicenseStream subscribers with a view into where and how their images are being used online. LicenseStream also provides subscribers with automated options, or remedies, to convert non-paying content consumers into paying customers. The three-year agreement calls for PicScout to be the exclusive image tracking service and image registry service for all content provided to it by ImageSpan and covers mutual customers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

“Teaming with PicScout enables us to provide content creators and owners a best-of-breed solution that delivers immediate monetization and transaction capabilities,” said Iain Scholnick, chief executive officer and president, ImageSpan. “By giving content creators visibility into where and how their work is being used, this combined solution enables them to pursue untapped opportunities for licensing, advertising and distribution while providing a means to monitor their content’s use and resolve potential infringement.”

LicenseStream enables subscribers to embed into their content’s metadata terms of use, including where the content can be used, for how long, in what geographies, etc. PicScout’s image tracking service sets the standard for monitoring images, and is capable of detecting images even if they have been altered or distorted. It continuously monitors billions of photographs and images on the Internet to locate a LicenseStream subscriber’s digital assets with high rates of accuracy. PicScout’s image tracking solution ensures that images will be used only under their license definition, as stipulated by ImageSpan subscribers in the metadata attached to their images. ImageSpan subscribers also will gain the option of electing to provide their images to the PicScout Image Registry, which allows image buyers to identify the copyright owner and know where to license the image.

Where terms of use for content have been infringed, a subscriber can select from any number of automatically generated e-mail responses, or remedies, provided by ImageSpan’s LicenseStream PRO service. These range from offering the opportunity to legally license the content, to requesting a link back to the content owner’s site, inserting the content owner’s ad feed, sharing ad revenues or issuing a take-down request. The service monitors to see when action is taken and reports back to the content owner.

“PicScout is proud to partner with ImageSpan and to combine our complementary services: the ImageSpan LicenseStream service and PicScout’s Image Tracker,” said Offir Gutelzon, CEO and co-founder of PicScout. “Image Tracker’s reports will enable both photographers and enterprises to create more sales opportunities which can be monetized by the LicenseStream remedy tools.  In addition, LicenseStream customers will have access to our Image Registry which solves the problem of unidentified copyrighted images or orphan works.”

About ImageSpan

ImageSpan is the creator of LicenseStream, the market-leading licensing and royalty payment automation platform for all media types and businesses, from individual creators to enterprises. LicenseStream makes content intelligent, so it moves freely across the Web with defined ownership, rights and restrictions, enabling pricing based on use. By making content intelligent, LicenseStream creates new efficiencies and frees resources to develop new distribution and marketing channels to drive incremental revenues.  Enterprise partners using the ImageSpan platform include Omnicom, Visible World and online advertising agencies. ImageSpan offers a number of delivery options including deployment through Adobe software. Founded in 2003 and based in Sausalito, California, ImageSpan is the exclusive provider of license registry services to the PLUS Coalition, the international, multi-industry standards body for image licensing. For more information, please go to www.imagespan.com or call (888) 921-1221.

About PicScout

PicScout’s is the leader in image copyright solutions.  Our leading image recognition and image tracking solution—Image Tracker™ helps image owners identify where their images are being used.

PicScout works in partnership with the world’s most prestigious image right holders. Our Image Registry solution allows image buyers to identify the copyright owner and know where to license the image. The company offers a line of image copyright solutions that meet the needs of stock photography agencies, professional photographers, publishers and image buyers. PicScout is a financially independent, privately held company with offices in San Francisco, CA, Chicago, IL and Herzelia, Israel.  PicScout are members of PACA, BAPLA and CEPIC.  www.picscout.com blog.picscout.com

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