The image-protection space gets another player with the launch of ImageRights, a new Web-based service designed to track image uses and recover fees for unauthorized reproductions. ImageRights estimates its market to include 3 million photographers worldwide, who the company says lose $900 million per year to copyright infringement (though co-founder and CEO Joe Naylor admits that there are many conflicting estimates of revenues lost to image theft).
ImageRights is demonstrating its service today at the 2009 PhotoPlus Expo and Conference in New York. The ImageRights Web site is scheduled to launch Nov. 1. The site will allow users to upload illustrative and photographic material, use image-recognition and net-crawling technologies to locate online users, and provide weekly reports—including contact information for Web sites using images—to content owners. The service will be available to individuals and agencies, with monthly fees starting at $4.95.
Boston-based Naylor has spent his career in the technology, communications and Internet industries, working with companies such as eFax, WebMessenger, Apptix and CallWave. To launch ImageRights, he partnered with Los Angeles fine art photographer Ted VanCleave, whose work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, profiled by CNN and numerous network television programs, and gathered multiple awards over the past 25 years.