The 232-page soft-cover book, published by New Media Entertainment, is available at Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/Public-Domain-Sourcebook.

“This sourcebook contains more than 200 of the most incredible public domain photos we could find,” says Photopreneur editor Scott Baradell. “Each photo is displayed with its origin and location, providing designers, editors and bloggers with an enormous resource — and any photography lover with a starting point for their own photographic explorations.”

Photo sources for the “Amazing Public Domain Images Sourcebook” include the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Library of Congress, NASA, the Netherlands-based Nationaal Archief and the Swedish National Heritage Board, among others.

The editors of Photopreneur are authors of the best-selling paperback “99 Ways To Make Money From Your Photos,” as well as “The Successful Wedding Photographer” and “The Successful Flickr Photographer.”

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Seattle & London, May 17, 2010. A new educational resource launches today, which aims to unravel the complexities and expose the potential legal pitfalls of image use.Stockphotorights.com has been set up by Getty Images, Inc. for the good of the photographic industry. The site is designed to represent image providers and has the support of BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies) and PACA (Picture Archive Council of America). The resource provides image users with information and advice they need to license images with confidence, by connecting them with key stakeholders from the industry.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Stockphotorights.com was created to educate image buyers regarding the legalities of image usage and to provide information and advice on how to license images with confidence. The site, which launched today, was created in response to a survey of image users that showed many gaps in legal understanding of picture licensing. Stockphotorights.com was built by Getty Images and has the support of leading industry associations PACA (Picture Archive Council of America) and BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies).

“Shutterstock’s collaboration with Stockphotorights.com reflects our commitment to ensuring fair and legal image use,” said Jon Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock.

Shutterstock provides its customers with legal security and peace of mind by backing every file in its vast library with a $10,000 guarantee. Shutterstock will provide up to $10,000 to cover legal costs and direct damages for claims arising from the use of an image or footage clip licensed through Shutterstock. The guarantee covers key areas of liability, including copyrights, trademarks and rights of privacy and publicity.

© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Built on the LicenseStream platform, LicenseStream Business Edition gives owners of premier collections and libraries of images, video and audio a quick-start, all-inclusive, Web-based service that allows content owners to showcase, license, track and monetize the full value of their content through their own branded online stores.

“With LicenseStream Business Edition, content owners can publish their content directly to their own online store or anywhere else on the Web and to global search engines, enabling anyone in the world to find their search-optimized content and pay for it with a mouse click,” said Iain Scholnick, chief executive officer, ImageSpan. “This essentially makes the content itself the storefront. It dramatically speeds the pace of transactions and drives incremental revenues. Until now, media companies, libraries and owners of premier collections had a tough time justifying the cost of putting the head as well as the long tail of their content on the Web because the revenues they realized could not cover the costs associated out-dated manual licensing transactions. Now content owners of all sizes can make their entire catalog of media – not just the hits – available online to maximize their assets’ value.”

Missouri History Museum already has made available online via LicenseStream Business Edition more than 3,000 images, including a wide range of Civil War-era images, a wide range of early daguerreotypes and other photos and images related to American Indian people and culture, and images of oil paintings and artifacts related to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who headed up the first overland expedition by the United States to the Pacific Coast and back.

“We often receive requests from visitors asking us about the art and artifacts we display and how they can get copies,” said Dr. Robert R. Archibald, president, the Missouri History Museum. “With LicenseStream Business Edition, we can now publish images of our collections directly to the Web so that anyone in the world can find our search-optimized images and pay for them with a mouse click. LicenseStream also has dramatically cut the time spent by our staff on searching for and processing such image requests so we can respond to requests in a day versus months, accelerating both of transactions and revenues while cutting costs.” (Please see related release: Missouri History Museum Selects ImageSpan’s LicenseStream to Maximize the Value of Its Photos, Prints)

American history teacher turned Producer-Photographer-Writer Joseph Sohm is now using LicenseStream Business Edition to license the more than 1,300 photographs included in his “Visions of America: Photographing Democracy,” ($60; November 2009; Visions of America LLC/Midpoint Trade Books Dist.) a book that offers a sweeping portrait of life in the American democracy via an epic photographic journey across the United States. For more than 25 years, Sohm traveled and photographed all 50-states. Images from his “Visions of America” collection have been published 50,000 times in his lifetime.

“LicenseStream Business Edition enables me to publish my work directly to my own branded storefront as well as to the Web and major search engines in a way that also lets potential buyers license it on the spot,” said Sohm, whose “Visions of America” recently won the Gold medal for “Best Coffee Table Book” at the 13th annual Independent Publishing awards in New York City. While requiring minimal investment, LicenseStream also allows content owners to retain a larger share of royalties for each transaction – multiple times the 20 percent royalty fee offered by most major agencies. “That key difference makes it affordable for me to shoot, metatag, process and offer my customers a much greater selection of photographs online.”

LicenseStream Business Edition pricing starts at $5,500 annually with a 25% transaction fee. The annual fee can be billed one-time, monthly or quarterly to suit a client’s needs.

ImageSpan’s Vice President, Enterprise Business Development Candice Murray will speak on “Tools for Selling Stock Direct” at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, October 22, at the PDN PhotoPlus Conference in New York.

ImageSpan also will be demonstrating LicenseStream Business Edition and its other LicenseStream services in Booths #1155 at the concurrent PhotoPlus Expo in New York, October 22-24. Come see Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice talk about LicenseStream’s benefits in the ImageSpan booth at 11 a.m. Friday, October 23rd.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

NEW YORK, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ — Shutterstock, the world’s largest subscription-based stock photo agency, announced today that it will legally guarantee every file in its vast library by providing up to $10,000 to cover legal costs and direct damages for claims arising from the use of an image or footage clip licensed through Shutterstock.

Thanks to Shutterstock’s thorough and selective review process, the agency has become a global leader in providing affordable, high quality images that comply with the highest legal and ethical standards in the industry.

Shutterstock has now gone a step further by covering key areas of liability, including copyrights, trademarks and rights of privacy and publicity. Under the new plan, which begins today, every file in Shutterstock’s expansive library – which consists of more than 8.5 million images and 140,000 footage clips – will be guaranteed.

“We’ve become an industry leader by earning the trust of stock image and footage buyers worldwide,” said Jon Oringer, CEO and founder of Shutterstock. “Although claims involving our content are extremely rare, we wanted to give our customers an even higher level of comfort by providing up to $10,000 in indemnification.”

Shutterstock’s protection plan, along with its uncompromising commitment to the integrity and quality of its images, solidifies the company’s reputation as a trusted resource for image and footage buyers worldwide.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

SILICON VALLEY, California, October 13/PRNewswire/ — PicScout, the market leader in worldwide image services and enabler of client image monetization activities, today announced an invitation-only beta test of its newest Image IRC(TM) enabled product, ImageExchange(TM). Creative and corporate communication professionals, designers, and those who actively buy images are encouraged to register for one of the invitation openings to be part of the landmark industry image monetization event. Participants will be equipped with a Firefox add-on to expand their creative options, improve their productivity and select images that can be legally licensed, all while connecting with the stock agencies they already have relationships with as they can now access information about images online, see image rights, and transact in real time.

Selected beta participants will be the first to see millions of images and their licensors online, whether encountering images in determined searches at sites like Google Images, or happening upon the right image while stumbling or surfing the internet. Marked with the international information symbol – an encircled “i” – images are recognizable and available to the beta user to point to an image to obtain more information, view the available rights, and make a connection to the licensor/agency to transact in real-time. Selection will be considered on the basis of several factors, including global geographic diversity, professional experience, and primary area of business focus. All may register now: http://imagex.picscout.com/

The select group will have the power to view and easily license images as no one has before – with image information and one-click connection to the agency or license rights holders, and the ability to transact in real time. Those selected also will play a critical role in shaping the new image marketplace by contributing their experiences and feedback for refinement of the ImageExchange add-on, making it the ultimate creativity and efficiency tool for legitimate image acquisition, whether used as an essential designer’s expression tool, a corporate communication professional’s sourcing tool, or by any image user.

“As the owner of a large design firm, I adhere scrupulously to copyright and trademark laws. There’s just too much at risk. I have to protect my business and my clients’ businesses.” said Nancy Duarte, CEO and Principal, Duarte Design, http://www.duarte.com. “Ownership and copyright information of online images has been difficult. It’s often impossible to determine ownership and then properly license. Designers are reluctant to use web images in their work because of ownership ambiguity. The PicScout Image IRC flips the model for designers, by providing rights information on web-images instantly. The ImageExchange add-on conveniently helps my designers find images, identify ownership and image rights, and even connect to the appropriate image-owner to obtain use rights.”

Interested designers and image buyers can register to be considered for the ImageExchange beta at http://imagex.picscout.com/. Open registration begins today, October 13, 2009.

In a separate announcement made today – October 13, PicScout Image IRC(TM) and ImageExchange(TM) Gain Industry-wide Support to Credit Images and Connect Owners and Users for Digital Rights ( http://www.picscout.com/news-and-events/industry-wide-support.html) – PicScout revealed the first wave of industry support with tens of millions of images available for selected ImageExchange beta users to access for information, licensing rights, and real-time connection for transaction.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

SILICON VALLEY, California, October 13/PRNewswire/ — PicScout, the market leader in worldwide image services and enabler of client image monetization activities, today announces worldwide support from North America, Asia, and Europe for the company’s newly launched enabling services platform and suite of products to credit images and facilitate real-time transactions between buyers and sellers of images. The first group of agencies representing many thousands of photographers from around the world, leading trade organizations, and digital image rights groups acclaim and support PicScout Image IRC(TM) and ImageExchange(TM) in a show of solidarity to assure that every image gets its credit.

“PACA applauds the efforts of our PACA corporate sponsor, PicScout, to provide a technical solution that connects images to the licensor,” said Cathy Aron, Executive Director, PACA. “PACA supports technological developments that help prevent unauthorized uses and developments that provide users a way to easily find the owner/licensor.”

“The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) applauds the efforts of PicScout in the creation of Image IRC, which facilitates the connection between rights holders and image consumers in the digital marketplace,” said Eugene Mopsik, Executive Director, American Society of Media Photographers. “Image IRC makes it easy to directly license Google images by providing essential image information and connection. Initial participation looks great. We look forward to additional growth and will be offering this service to our members for their consideration.”

“The initiative that PicScout has taken to track online, license, and protect the ownership of the imagery of professional photographers worldwide is not only outstanding, it is crucial in our rapidly evolving online marketplace for imagery,” said Shannon Fagan, President, Stock Artists Alliance.

At the time of announcement, PicScout has added many global agencies and platforms, along with their proprietary images to the Image IRC as clients. The roster includes leading global agencies and all types of license platforms–rights managed, royalty free, microstock, and UGC Creative Commons. Leading companies in the industry under contract include Time, Inc. http://www.timelifepictures.com, along with many agencies, including Aflo http://www.aflo.com; Dreamstime http://www.Dreamstime.com; Glow Images http://www.glowimages.com; Maground http://www.maground.com; Masterfile http://www.masterfile.com; Mauritius Images http://www.mauritius-images.com; PlainPicture http://www.plainpicture.com; SeaPics http://www.seapics.com; and Trunk Archive http://www.trunkarchive.com. As PicScout IRC and ImageExchange clients, these companies have enrolled millions of images with Image IRC. Each image is indexed with a digital fingerprint; registered with associated metadata that identifies vital owner and licensor information; and through ImageExchange, available for real-time connections between image buyers and licensors for use and/or purchase.

These rights managed stock agencies also license PicScout ImageTracker(TM) which provides the copyright protection. Separately, PicScout and the PLUS Coalition http://www.usePLUS.org will announce an alliance later this week.

“Time, Inc. publishes our image collection on Google Images; the Image IRC technology enables us to quantify actual use and distinguish between consumer and syndication traffic, as well as to gain insight to ways we can better monetize our images,” said Jeff Burak, director of Business Development, Life. “It is important for images to be credited, and we are pleased to see the industry moving toward that goal.”

“Masterfile is enthusiastic about PicScout’s newest technology. It creates a seamless connection between potential clients and licensors for images published online – anywhere, anytime, in any form,” said Masterfile CEO, Steve Pigeon. “Our years of experience with PicScout in automated tracking of online images for copyright management assure us that this will be another commercially successful initiative.”

The many millions of images now available through PicScout Image IRC can be recognized by anyone equipped with the free PicScout Image Exchange(TM) Firefox add-on. Those equipped see all Image IRC images marked with the universally used “i” information icon, wherever they may encounter one online. Pointing to the icon exposes metadata that identifies the image’s owner or licensor and the connecting link to buy/use the image directly from the licensor. http://www.picscout.com/images/stories/pdfs/3STEPS.pdf

“PicScout’s Image IRC is a major innovation for photographers and stock professionals alike. It will be a tremendous asset to anyone who licenses photographs for a living,” said Dan Nelson, Attorney at Law, The Nelson Law Firm. “PicScout Image IRC makes it easy for anyone to secure rights for high quality photographs and should eliminate the argument that someone may have been oblivious to a copyright.”

“We are pleased to announce the first round of industry clients participating in the Image IRC beta period and the valued encouragement from the industry at large. We look forward to ongoing announcements about additional Image IRC and ImageExchange clients in the near future, as the industry imperative has become that every image gets its credit,” said PicScout CEO Offir Gutelzon. “We believe–and today’s news about our industry and Image IRC corroborates the view– that when credit is restored, appropriate value can be assigned and recognized for every image and legitimate transactions ensue.”

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

The confusion over image rights in general can lead to the downloading and use of unauthorized photos. The Los Angeles Times was recently called out on various blogs (for example: http://tinyurl.com/n8pdbb) for lifting copyrighted, all-rights reserved photos of wildfires from the image-hosting site Flickr.

According to PicScout (www.picscout.com), a company that uses image-recognition technology to track content on the Internet, some 85 percent of the rights-managed images detected on commercial websites are being misused, as reported by its customers over the last seven years. Stock and microstock theft totals up to $10 billion, based on PicScout’s 85 percent figure and annual revenues of $2 billion for the stock image market.

Even with such losses, the stock industry has not responded with the same vigilance as the music or film industries. One photojournalist, Leif Skoogfors, who over four decades has covered wars in the Balkans, Central America and Northern Ireland for such publications as Time and Newsweek, estimates he has lost $180,000 in income on just two of his photos widely lifted from the Web. “Nearly everyone who uses unauthorized copyrighted photos has a good chance of getting away with it,” Skoogfors said. “Often, they aren’t even aware they’re illegal.”

“This is not an isolated incident,” said Skoogfors’ attorney Nancy R. Frandsen, who specializes in copyrights and trademarks for the law firm of Woodcock Washburn and has represented both sides in the larger intellectual property dispute. “It is the same copyright infringement issue that the music industry is fighting – but who has more money and therefore more power to lobby the government?”

Lawrence Gould, co-founder and CEO of Vivozoom comments: “The ease of online access, through tools like Google Images, is challenging the concept of image copyright. When thousands of images are easily found and copied with a couple of mouse clicks, it’s easy to see that people may not realize that there is a cost associated with the use of some images.”

Gould, who has logged more than two decades in the stock industry, previously as director of Tony Stone Images and CFO of Getty Images, sees no major obstacles to the continued use of unauthorized images online. Vivozoom aims to address these issues by guaranteeing ownership of all its images, making it the only microstock company to provide a warranty (www.vivozoom.com/warranty.html).

“No one wants to halt the benefits that come with ease of use online,” Gould said. “But photographers and distributors deserve to get paid for their work while our customers deserve the peace of mind. In a culture where theft is euphemistically known as file sharing, how can these working professionals survive when perhaps the most underreported online crime is ignored?”

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Sept. 16, 2009. Starting today, iStockphoto becomes the first micropayment royalty-free image, video and audio provider to legally guarantee all files in its collection – at no cost to the customer. iStock promises that files purchased and used in accordance with the iStock license, will not breach any trademark, copyright or other intellectual property rights or rights of privacy.

The iStock Legal Guarantee provides that, if a customer receives a claim, iStock will cover the customer’s legal costs and direct damages to a combined total of $10,000. iStock customers looking for additional peace of mind can also purchase an extension of the Legal Guarantee for 100 iStock credits, increasing iStock’s coverage for legal fees and direct damages up to a combined total of $250,000.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)

The above are screenshots from Dan Schwabel’s personal branding blog. Dan Schwabel literally wrote the book on personal branding. What does his blog and personal branding have to do with photography and photo editing?

Everything.

The first people notice when they click on your website or blog is how it looks. Before they even get to your content, people are going to get an impression based on the visual impact the page makes. You can’t make a visual impact, certainly a unique one, without the right image.

I came across that very same image many times on different websites and blogs. How is that personal branding, if the same picture can be seen all over the internet? A photo is going to lose its impact on the viewer if it can be seen across the web.

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As the web is becoming more accessible and used as new publishing platform, it should be integrated with tried-and-true print publishing methods, such as the employment of designated photo departments. Copy editors will ensure that your written content is correct and well-written. Photo editors are the ones who will find the most relevant image for your purpose. The image will be found based on the message you are trying to get across, the content of your site and the overall look you are trying to achieve. He (or she) will know the proper agencies to obtain your image, or if relevant, know the best photographer to shoot the image.

Web publishing is more than just finding the right web developer and designer, it is also about employing the right people with unique skill sets to help you achieve your goal.

© 2009, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)