Established in Israel, PicScout now has offices in San Francisco. The company says its experience demonstrates that 90% of stock images used online are used without licensing or payment. PicScout specializes in copyright protection by tracking image use with proprietary software that combines search technology with a facial recognition algorithm.

The Science Photo Library routinely licenses images to leading newspapers and magazines, including The Times, The Daily Telegraph and Metro. Many of its images are well-known, which makes them particularly vulnerable in the opinion of managing director Ciancarlo Zuccotto. Hosting the entire collection online adds to the risk.

Science Photo Library and PicScout belong to the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies. BAPLA chairman Paul Brown said the stock agency took a forward-thinking step by engaging PicScout.