Addressing Copyright Issues by Turning Pirates into Customers
By Karla Robinson
November 15, 2012
November 15, 2012
- As MP3s became ubiquitous, the music industry failed to “distinguish between average fans and professional pirates, and embittering a whole generation of users,” reports paidContent.
- Now with increased popularity of photo-sharing sites, the copyright problem has surfaced in the photo world and one image owner is taking a new tactic to enforce copyrights.
- Major image owners like Getty have mimicked the music industry, attacking violators with lawsuits that have become a significant source of revenue.
- “The problem is that, in most cases, there’s little connection between the harm and the damages,” the article notes. “When a blog or a small business or a Tumblr user posts a picture, they don’t deprive the owner of thousands of dollars but are simply using an image that could, in most cases, be replaced with many others.”
- The Getty argues that simply using the DCMA copyright takedown process does not adequately compensate photographers for the use of their images, but the article suggests it is likely “most of the money Getty collects goes to the company and lawyers, not to the photographers.”
- Micro-stock agency Dreamstime has come up with a different approach to dealing with copyright infringements, which is “much more sensible,” the article notes.
- “Unlike other image owners, Dreamstime does not sic lawyers on people who like its photos. Instead the company, which claims to have more than 5 million users, responds by sending them a notice to take the image down or else to buy a license at the going rate which can be as low as $8.”
- “We want to respond to copyrighted images but we want to do it in a different, non-heavy-handed way,” says CEO Serban Enache. “This is very successful way of turning unauthorized users into customers. Once they learn of the license, they often obtain larger licenses.”
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