Rights management is vital to photographers and other creatives who want to zealously protect the copyright of the images they capture. How long a person can legally prevent anyone from profiting from their intellectual property can be confusing, as the provisions of copyright have changed many times over the years.
A Lisbon, Portugal-based photographer who worked for the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) is attempting to regain control of the copyrights for his images. To block him, AFP is stating no photojournalist deserves protection under copyright law, which could upset the entire industry.
Notable American photographer Kalliope Amorphous has published a warning to other photographers who are considering protecting their copyright using ImageRights International. She accuses the company of an "egregious grab" that forces photographers to use the company's legal services.
Imatag is a new service that uses invisible watermarks to protect photographs from copyright infringement. With the development of AI technology that can easily remove physical watermarks, more covert solutions could be a solution for photographers looking to identify and prove ownership of copied images online.
A new copyright protection service called Binded just launched this week. It's actually a rebrand of the company formerly known as Blockai, and the purpose remains the same: using the Bitcoin blockchain to protect photographers' copyrights.
Blockai, the company that burst onto the scene a few months ago by offering a totally novel way to protect your photo copyrights, is expanding onto Instagram. Now, all it takes to claim copyrights on your Instagram photos is a hashtag.