PicScout Will Monitor Magazines . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
July 6, 2005

A company that helps stock agencies monitor the internet for misused stock photographs has announced it will also start checking magazine ads.

PicScout, of Herzeliya, Israel, said it has forged an agreement with Inquiry Management Systems of Toronto, Canada, giving PicScout easy access to large numbers of print ads using stock photography and other types of images.

Martin Hochstein, president of the Canadian company, said his firm digitally searches some 3,000 magazines to determine where, when and how often various ads are run.

Since the service captures over 150,000 images each month and has a database of over 5 million images, "This application is a perfect fit with PicScout's service and will contribute to the protection of copyrights of all PicScout clients," said Hochstein.

PicScout uses sophisticated electronic technology to find misused stock photography on the internet. The company claims it can even find altered and colorized stock images.

Stock photography distributors including Getty Images, Superstock, Masterfile and others use PicScout to protect their rights-managed stock photo collections. Companies caught misusing images are contacted and billed for the usage. PicScout is creating a similar service for individual photographers.

PicScout said it has already tested the new magazine service, which will be available in North America and several European markets.

 

PicScout can be found at: http://www.picscout.com

Inquiry Management Systems is at: http://www.ims.ca