We just read an article by fine art photographer Kalliope Amorphous on her blog titled “A Warning To Photographers And Artists Regarding Image Rights International”
It’s a first person account regarding her experience with Image Rights. As we keep saying, read the Terms of Service (TOS) of the various search firms that have been popping up, and you’ll find out you now have someone with their hands deep into your pockets. Photographers are made to think that registering their copyright is difficult or working with a lawyer yourself is painful, so they will make it easy and simple, with rainbows and lollipops. What happens is you get pennies to what should be your dollars and all you can afford is lollipops instead of full meals.
We think this is a good read about one person’s direct experience. With her permission, here’s the link.
Also, the two of us have written a guest blog piece on Scott Kelby’s blog that covers this subject. The blog piece starts with the Copyright Office changes and then we cover these “Search and Settle” companies that appear to be “free” until you read the fine print. Our piece will run on Wednesday, February 21st. Check it out when it’s out.
#1 by Vivian on February 21, 2018 - 7:31 pm
My website is hosted by Pixelrights and they were relatively new in the game when I joined up. As a “bonus,” Image Rights piggybacked with free detection of a limited number of images on my site. The algorithm for discovery was good, as Kalliope Amorphous said in her blog entry but I neither registered any images through them (I learned from the best how to do it myself, thank you very much) nor had any intention of pursuing infringements using their service. It was not clear at all that they demanded a cut of the action if an infringement claim had been handled elsewhere and in fact, they made it seem that I had the option to make my own choices in the matter. When they notified me that the freebie was over and offered me a paid subscription, I declined and asked them to delete my account. I insisted on that in spite of the fact that they tried to talk me out of it. Now, I’m twice as happy I turned them down and handled things as I did. There’s nothing I hate more than lack of transparency when doing business with any company or individual. The chutzpah!