*** From the Archives ***

This article is from December 8, 2009, and is no longer current.

Web Browser Add-On IDs Image Ownership

Press release
PicScout, the market leader in worldwide image services, enabler of client image monetization activities and the standard for image credit, today announced that the entire Dreamstime collection of microstock images can now be viewed and immediately used by anyone participating in the ImageExchange beta — including creative and advertising professionals, corporate communications personnel, publishers, bloggers, students, and media. The add-on equips participants to see the universally recognized icon associated with images that have been identified by the company’s highly scalable fingerprinting technology as images that are available for immediate, legitimate use.
With the addition of microstock images, users of the ImageExchange browser add-on now have access to every type of image, including rights managed, such as those from Masterfile, Life, Alfo, Mauritius; royalty free, including those from Blend and Glow, and UGC. When users see the icon associated with an image, they know that in one click they can identify ownership and click-through to make direct connection with the licensor to easily purchase the image for personal or commercial use.
Creative professionals who find images online either through search engines or web page browsing typically face very time-consuming research when they try to identify license sources for the images they want to use. For many other consumers of images, it’s been all too easy to simply right-click-and-save, rather than find who owns an image and determine how to buy the rights to use it.
Creative professionals who are already participating in the Beta claim that, with ImageExchange, hours and days are freed-up for new productivity, because they have a tool to better utilize features and services like Google Images and Yahoo! Image Search. Now, they both can find the perfect image and use it quickly and confidently, knowing they have obtained rights legitimately. Now, too, consumers of images are empowered to do the right thing, yet without disturbing their process; they can see ownership at the same time they see an image they want to use.
Cat Lincoln, founder and principal of Clever Girls Collective, said, “The Image Exchange add-on is a wish come true for design studios! I managed the in-house agency at Wells Fargo Private Client Services, where we bought hundreds of RF images every month. Image research sucked up literally thousands of hours of time that we couldn’t bill for. This tool will save so much time and money, plus streamline the search process. Wish I had it back then!”
Categories of creative professionals, such as corporate marketing and communications users have avoided using search engine images because of ambiguous rights information and risk of infringement. ImageExchange now frees them to use the power of the internet to use any image they see on any website, selecting images that they know they can license.
“Dreamstime licenses a new microstock file every 2 to 3 seconds at our site. The PicScout ImageExchange suggests a quantum acceleration of Dreamstime image licensing, as our images become available everywhere they are seen,” said Serban Enache, Dreamstime founder and CEO. “We applaud PicScout and are very proud to participate with our renowned collection of millions of microstock images.”
“The PicScout ImageExchange delivers a truly needed marketplace solution as every image gets its credit. Not only are image owners and licensors served by due credit, but with images properly credited, creative and communications professionals and students can quickly identify ownership and easily access rights for every image type, including many stock photos of which they previously may have been unaware. When images are appropriately credited, more people are exposed to more images that they can legitimately use or purchase. Image licensing and usage will continue to see vast growth, and making it easier for images to be used legally is a game changer for the industry,” said PicScout founder and CEO Offir Gutelzon. “PicScout continues to work toward a full range of availability that enables all creative professionals and image buyers to rightfully use any of the images they find online.”
Creative professionals, bloggers, students and all users of images are encouraged to use ImageExchange to take advantage of the vast online image marketplace and use rights managed, royalty-free, microstock or user generated images as they see them. Images users may register to receive their free ImageExchange add-on: https://imagex.picscout.com
About PicScout
Founded in 2002, PicScout is the worldwide leader in image tracking and enabler of client image monetization services. Through its proprietary and highly scalable image recognition technology, PicScout created the image copyright protection marketplace through its widely used ImageTracker product and is now leading the way for image commerce to become a legitimate Internet economy. A financially independent, privately held company, PicScout has offices in the Silicon Valley, Chicago and Hertzelia, Israel. The company’s products ImageTracker and ImageExchange utilize the company’s Image IRC service platform which is based on its proprietary image recognition technology for its index, metadata registry and API connection to provide a wide variety of solutions involving image protection, ownership, identification, commerce, as well as business intelligence. PicScout is a member of PACA, CEPIC, and BAPLA.

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