PicScout??

[curmudgeon_01]

Has anyone heard of them? I got a message via twitter today and was just wondering if my initial reaction that it was just another company trying to "scam" the unwary. (sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough??)

PicScout, the Leader in Image Copyright Solutions

[BuddhaPi]

Originally Posted by curmudgeon_01

Has anyone heard of them? I got a message via twitter today and was just wondering if my initial reaction that it was just another company trying to "scam" the unwary. (sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough??)

PicScout, the Leader in Image Copyright Solutions

I know of them, they are being used by the larger stock image companies ( getty, masterfile, cobis, ect) they scan sites looking for images that belong to these companies, then the companies traces back to see if there is a valid license, if not they send out extortion like letters to mostly small / medium sized businesses demanding payment for copyright infringement.. I'm actually involved in a suit with getty at this very moment because of these tactics..if interested they is a great site with lots of good info here

I'm pretty well versed with this so feel free if you have any questions

::EDIT:: I hadn't actually been to picscouts site in over a year, back then they were not offering thier services to the general public and photograpers, but were only working with large stock image companies, so I'm not sure if my initial reply was worth anything. But they are not scammers as Getty Images has sent out literally 10's of 1000's of demand letters over the last few years, all because of the way picscout does it's indexing

[curmudgeon_01]

Thanks for the info. I'll read it more thoroughly when I take a break from editing.

[BK553]

TinEye Reverse Image Search Also works really well to help nail down the origin of an image. They have an extension for your browser too that makes it as simple a right-clicking. And it's free.

but, they don't help you with extortion, you have to do that on your own