PicScout ImageIRC™ Platform of Index, Registry and Connection Takes Off as the Model for Image Buyers and Owners to Transact Anywhere Online

Silicon Valley, CA and Herzliya, Israel – July 8, 2010 – PicScout announces significant new partnerships with image licensors and image buyers. More than 50 new clients have joined Image IRC™ for use with ImageExchange™ since June, bringing the total number of clients to more than 100. PicScout is leading the marketplace with the technical solution to provide direct connection between image/license owners and images users/buyers where the image resides.

At CEPIC, the leading international convention of the picture industry held in June, PicScout announced credit for all images registered in ImageIRC by providing no-fee fingerprint indexing and metadata registry and a pay-per-click connection fee offer for image owners. The announcement spurred strong interest in the industry and immediate sign-ups by major players in the stock image space.

"Properly developed and implemented, PicScout ImageIRC makes it easy to propagate creators' and rights holders' information, reunite it with ‘orphaned’ digital files, and thereby re-establish proper ownership and control of them," said Paul Ellis of Stop43.org.uk. "The PicScout ImageIRC represents an existing, functioning example of the technical basis for the new thinking needed to rectify deficiencies in current UK copyright law and enable the use of so-called orphan works for defined cultural purposes."

Simon Leach, President of the Association of Photographers in the United Kingdom, is clear, “Anything that maintains the link between an image and its creator is to be encouraged. Orphan works are a big problem for creators, authors and users from all disciplines, unauthorized and unlicensed uses of content have spiraled over the past few years. We hope that continuing developments in these areas will ensure that, most importantly, all creators are credited, allowing them to control how their photographs are used and subsequently to be able to charge fair and appropriate rates for their usage.”

StockFood General Managing Director Martin Skultety adds, “The Internet has become a fantastic marketplace for many types of goods. Though, for content licensing there is still a huge lack of transparency and disorientation, which is why we welcome PicScout ImageIRC. It is a great model to ensure an easy and transparent process for anyone wanting to license content online.”

"PicScout’s new tool for image buyers and sellers has been long overdue,” said Jesse Hughes, Director of Sales and Marketing, Erickson Productions, Incorporated. “Thank you PicScout for creating a way for image buyers and users to recognize and determine image ownership, and better yet, for directly linking image buyers to license the images they find on Google or any search engine. Awesome!"

For image buyers, the ImageExchange browser add-on offers the much needed metadata information and one-click licensing that makes sourcing images on Google, Yahoo and other websites the best way for creative professionals to find images. At the June HOW Design conference, with more than 1500 creative professionals attending, ImageExchange was called “the best solution to solve my biggest problem” by designers who must source digital images daily on the Internet. Watch a video of a young designer explaining how ImageExchange works and why it is essential to the work of a designer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRn6rTqocqE.

“For us, ImageExchange is an amazing tool because we spend all day tracing ownership of these images that designers pull off the Web with Google search,” said Veneta Bullen, Chair of the Picture Research Association in the United Kingdom. “We will put information and a download link on our website to raise awareness and make the tool widely available.”

“Seeing and hearing such wide-spread support for the PicScout technology solution from attendees at leading industry events, confirms the direction and the commitment PicScout has made over the last seven years to being the information and technology leader in the digital imagery space. These endorsements simply fuel us to continue creating and providing best of class solutions for content creators and content users,” said Amy Love, PicScout VP of Global Marketing and Business Development. “We are very happy to report such impressive growth in users of ImageExchange and numbers of photographers and stock agencies that are ensuring that their images get credited when seen online.”

June has been a very successful month for PicScout in reaching out to a broad base of image owners and licensors as well as image buyers. PicScout executives were invited to speak as authorities in the field at the BAPLA Picture Buyers Fair in the UK, HOW Design, InHOWse, and Creative Freelance Conferences in Denver, Colorado, at CEPIC in Dublin Ireland, and at the AIGA chapter event in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Stock photo agencies, photographers, artists and image owners may obtain free image credit through ImageIRC for use with ImageExchange and enlist in image monetization pay-per-click connection services at http://www.picscout.com.

To see the many millions of PicScout ImageIRC registered images available for license, install the free ImageExchange download at http://imageexchange.picscout.com/download.

About PicScout
Founded in 2002, PicScout™ is the information company commanding the world's largest index of fingerprinted and owner identified images, protecting and promoting images for use across digital platforms and devices through the company’s proprietary and highly scalable image recognition fingerprinting technology. The PicScout suite of products leverage the company’s ImageIRC™ platform, which includes ImageTracker™ and ImageExchange™products, the ImageQualification™ service, and an open API for developers to create products and services to meet the demands of clients engaged in digital image use.

A financially independent, privately held company, PicScout has offices in the Silicon Valley,Herzliya, Israel and Tokyo, Japan. PicScout is a member of PACA, CEPIC, and BAPLA.