Worldwide scan to find photo copyright infringers
News photo agency European Pressphoto Agency is joining forces with technology-based legal company Permission Machine for a worldwide scan to find unlicensed use to the agency’s news photos. Epa has signed an agreement with the Belgium-based PM for the photo copyright protection of its entire photo collection of news photography.
PM specializes in the scanning and legal follow up of illegal publications combining image tracking technology, manual checks and inhouse legal expertise.
“Currently PM is matching the 10 million epa images against usages in various countries in Europe and in the US to confirm that the images are licensed, either directly by epa or through its shareholders and distributors. All parties that publish epa images without permission will receive a compensation proposal from epa/PM”, the companies said in a statement.
“We have hundreds of professional photographers working at epa all over the world, often in the most hazardous situations. This production is very costly and generates an instant feed of news all over the world. This cannot be free of charge.” said Julia R. Arévalo, President and CEO of epa.
Epa has regional editorial desks in Tokyo, Bangkok, Cairo, Frankfurt (headquarters), Madrid and Washington, D.C. The company was founded in 1985 and has a daily news photo feed of 2,200 images.
PM was founded in 2013 by Ywein Van den Brande, a Belgian computer scientist and lawyer specialized in IT law and intellectual property. Since then, the company has expanded to include additional branches in London, Paris and Los Angeles.
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