ImageSpan and Digimarc yesterday announced their partnership to integrate LicenseStream Content Tracker solution into Digimarc for Images – Professional Edition providing creative professionals a seamless solution to monetize, manage, and monitor their image assets.

Digimarc for Images – Professional Edition users that currently embed imperceptible digital watermarks in their images and receive reports of where their content is found online, will now have the ability to receive reports via a LicenseStream dashboard integrated within the Digimarc for Images solution. The dashboard empowers creative professionals to maximize the value of their image assets with efficiency and ease by providing automated remedies to license and collect payments for use of their image assets.  Targeted for a launch later this year, the solution will be bundled into Digimarc for Images – Professional and Small Business Editions.

This initiative builds on a partnership announced in November where ImageSpan and Digimarc are offering a joint enterprise solution for Stock Photography Agencies, Media Companies, Museums and Archives.

Click to see full press release

At the annual SanFran MusicTech Summit held last week at the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco,  I heard some great discussions about the state the of the music industry and had the pleasure of speaking on the Musicians as Active Participants in Their Own Careers panel. The attendees consisted mainly of music biz professionals, musicians, entrepreneurs, and lawyers —all meeting up to talk about where the industry is going next.

The music world is in the midst of major changes right now – a fact reflected in all of the discussions I heard.  With less money to go around, everyone in the business is scrambling to figure out how to survive. The hottest topic up for discussion was the search for a way to confront the rapidly dropping sales of music due to file-sharing sites.

One potential solution that’s been gaining steam and that was discussed on many of the panels was the idea of having the ISP’s charge a monthly fee to customers for free access to all the music they want.  That fee would then go to the labels and artists.  For example, an AT&T customer could opt in and pay $10/month to download any song from any artist completely legally. That $10 subsequently would be split among the labels, publishers, and artists based on which songs were played the most. The concept has a lot of hurdles to overcome with respect to organizing the many thousands of rights holders that would need to provide clearance and then be paid—but at this point the idea seems to show promise. 

As we get ready to enable audio licensing in LicenseStream, I talked to a lot of musicians about what the service can offer them and they were very enthusiastic about making money through licensing. LicenseStream provides an automated service for registering, licensing, tracking and collecting and distributing royalty payments. It can handle the enormous complexity of both accepting and distributing the royalty splits to labels, publishers and artists. In fact, I spoke with several musicians about what such a service could offer them. They were especially enthusiastic about a service that would automate licensing transactions, making it easier for them to make money through licensing their music to movie studios, ad agencies, and TV shows etc.  After all, DIY is the name of the game these days and most musicians are looking for ways to monetize their content without losing control.

Licensing was just one of the many topics on the agenda of a Musicians as Active Participants in Their Own Careers panel, which was a good discussion about what it takes to survive as a musician today. Drawing from my experience as the guitar player and co-manager of Stroke 9, I discussed with the other panelists how nowadays musicians need to be extremely involved in every aspect of their careers from recording to promotion to business management. We all agreed that while every musician needs to be up to date with all social networking vehicles, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, imeem, etc., most important is that they don’t lose focus on their number one priority—writing good music.

Though you could sense a lot of uncertainty at the Summit, there was still a lot of optimism about how things will look once we get to the other side. The “old world” models of rights, pricing, and distribution will need to change drastically for creativity and commerce to thrive together in the digital age. Who knows how long this restructuring will take, but most people I talked to said that ultimately, it will be better for both musicians and music fans.

If you happen to be in San Francisco Monday, May 18^th, consider attending the SanFran MusicTech Summit at the Kabuki Hotel in Japantown.  The Summit will bring together  developers in music and technology, along with the musicians, entrepreneurial business people, media, investors, service providers, and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce.  The main topic of discussion will be the “evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment.”

The focus is a timely one, given that the music industry and almost every other type of media industry is struggling with how to make money and capture the full potential of new media. And in the current challenging economic environment, content owners of all sizes – from individual creators to major media and entertainment companies –  are eager want to make their entire catalog of media – not just the hits – available online to maximize their assets’ value.

ImageSpan’s CEO Iain Scholnick will participate in a panel on music in audio-visual works and speak to how LicenseStream helps content creators publish their content directly to the Web and to major search engines in a way that protects it and make money.  As an added bonus, John McDermott, Stroke9 who also heads up music and media development at ImageSpan, will be speaking on a separate panel about musicians as active participants in their own careers. Here are the details for both panels:

SanFran MusicTech Summit

9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Monday, May 18^th

Kabuki Hotel, 1625 Post Street

San Francisco

9:20 a.m. - 10 a.m. Music in Audio-Visual Works

Audio-visual communications will increase as high speed broadband, network computing, crowd sourcing and faster computers proliferate. Digital tools in software and hardware make audio visual productions as simple as blogging. It is possible that “music” will rarely exist without packaging to images particularly as personal media devices merge to audio visual capability. But there is a hitch to the exponential explosion of audio visual communication. Words as common language are free but virtually all of the existing common “language” in audio and in visual content is not. How do we advance to an audio visual context on the Web with the proliferation of parties claiming rights in sound and images?

Panel:

Zahavah Levine Esq. - YouTube

David Leibowitz Esq. - Gotuit / CH Potomac

Iain Scholnick - ImageSpan

Joshua Wattles Esq. - deviantART (Moderator) 

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.  Musicians as Active Participants in Their Own Careers

Speakers:

Layne Fox - DJ 40 Thieves / IRIS / Smash Hit Music

Francis Ten - West Indian Girl

John McDermott - Stroke 9 / ImageSpan

Jean Cook - Future of Music Coalition /Violinist for Jon Langford

Waco Brothers

and Ida (Moderator)

For more information, go to: http://www.sanfranmusictech.com

With powerful off-the-shelf consumer applications like Photoshop, almost anyone can take an image, crop it, alter, recolor or make a photo composite without too much effort. The question arises, how much “photoshopping” needs to be done for an image to be considered an original work of art?  

 All visual artists at one time or another have probably created art “borrowed” from copyrighted source material. The sample below shows how quickly the face of Mona Lisa and be flipped, altered, recolored and placed into a new background in a matter of minutes. The resulting altered image is pretty believable but is it a “new” original work of art? I don’t think so. If I had created the original portrait of Mona Lisa and came across the “Bearded Lady” version I would likely sue the infringing party for stealing my work.        

Mona Lisa (original) 

Bearded Lady (altered version)

I created this for my personal use but had I chosen to alter an original work in copyright and made the resulting “new” art more visible to the general public, even post it to my Facebook page, I could be accused of copyright infringement. Chances are the copyright police wouldn’t come knocking on my door for creating the new derivative work, but it would not be an original work of art.  

When an artist creates a work of art, the copyright comes into existence automatically and provides the owner with a number of exclusive rights. No registration is required, though it may be necessary to protect some remedies if the artist ever plans to sue for infringement. By the way, registering your content using ImageSpan's LicenseStream does just that because it establishes provenance (history of ownership) of the content.

To qualify as a derivative work, the creation must use a substantial amount of the prior work’s expression. How much? Enough so that the average person would conclude that it had been based on or adapted from the prior work. It’s a common sense thing. Merely borrowing the ideas expressed by the prior work (creating a work “inspired by” it) would not create a derivative work. Ideas are not copyrightable, and a work is not derivative unless it has been substantially copied from a prior work. 

How Different is Different?

For a derivative work to be copyrightable, it must be "different enough" from the original work that it can be considered a new work in its own right. Making minor changes, or adding little of substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright purposes.   

Artists who create collages know they involve combining multiple elements to create a new whole. The important thing to remember is that the changes must be significant. Minor alterations to a single other work might not be "different enough." Unfortunately, the law is rather vague on this point. There's no clear definition of how much is enough, either in terms of a percentage, or square inches.   

Derivative work can only include copyrighted material if it is created by the owner of the copyright for the original material, or with that owner's permission. Making a collage that includes photos from National Geographic, clippings from advertisements, or a famous Picasso painting is illegal unless you have obtained permission from whoever owns the copyright on those works.  

An example we can all relate to...

Most if not everyone has seen the famous pre-election HOPE poster from street artist Shepard Fairey with the red, white and blue illustration of President Obama. What you may not know is that Fairey is now in a legal copyright dispute over the poster with the Associated Press for using photographer Mannie Garcia‘s photograph of Obama as a reference image without getting permission or substantially changing it. One might argue that the new art form is so different from the original photograph that it should be considered original. When art works its way into media -- even for a political statement -- and gains enough exposure to raise the prospect of commercial gain, the issue of ethics and ownership comes to the forefront.  

An interesting note in this case is that the Garcia photo is now more famous and valuable than it ever would have been prior to the creation of Fairey’s Obama poster.  

Also of interest: Fairey found Garcia’s photograph for the illustration on Google Images. In fact, a recent survey shows that more than 60 percent of all images are found via Web searches. With LicenseStream, users can publish their work directly to Google.  

The Last Word

Protect yourself by creating original art that is not swiped from someone else’s portfolio or body of work. Protect your own intellectual property by registering it on LicenseStream where you can also benefit from our tracking capabilities. Our tracking services will alert you to instances where your work may have been misappropriated, and will let you resolve these situations by selecting among several automated responses. Responses may range from a request to license your work, include a photo credit, provide a link back to your site, or even a request to remove it.     

LicenseStream’s Tracker offers another benefit: it enables you to see where your images are being used. This intelligence may uncover new markets for your work, enabling you to forge new marketing strategies and make more effective business decisions.  

Technology, entertainment and media copyright experts will meet next week at Digital Hollywood Spring 2009 (at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in Santa Monica May 4-7) to discuss how to balance the demands of the digital consumer with protecting the rights of content creators and owners by leveraging new technologies and business models that meet the needs of both groups.

The discussion is a timely one, given the ongoing debates over digital copyright issues. For example, take the opposition to Google's settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service and subsequent Justice Department inquiry into the antitrust implications of that settlement, or the case being heard in San Francisco this week between RealNetworks and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Of particular interest to LicenseStream subscribers interested in content rights will be the appearance of CEO Iain Scholnick on the following panel:

9 a.m. – 10:15 a.m., Wednesday, May 6

Track III: Content Rights - Digital Rights - Entertainment & Technology Track
Digital Choice and Access to Digital Content - Balancing Consumer Rights with Technology, Regulation and Legal Principles

Digital technology enables consumers to enjoy and interact with creative content across a wide array of platforms. Success in the digital age hinges on the ability to meet the demands of the digital consumer and embrace novel business models that capitalize on new products, markets, and distribution methods made possible by digital technology.

Speakers:

Arnaud Robert, Corporate Vice President, Emerging Technology Strategy, The Walt Disney Company
Michael Alexander, Strategy & Growth Initiatives, IBM Global Telecommunications Industry
Stuart Rosove, VP, Media & Entertainment, Digimarc Corporation
Laurin H. Mills, Managing Partner, Nixon Peabody LLP
Iain Scholnick, CEO and President, ImageSpan
Ann Chaitovitz, consultant, former Executive Director at Future of Music Coalition, copyright attorney-advisor, USPTO

Moderator:
James M. Burger, Attorney at Law, Dow Lohnes, Moderator

For more information, view the full session description and speaker information by clicking here.   

As many of you know, you’ve been able to watermark your content in LicenseStream for some time now.  Until recently, watermarks could be applied to just one piece of content at a time.  To speed things up, we’ve added a new feature: Set Default Watermark.  This new setting allows you to watermark your entire store inventory with a couple of mouse clicks. 

Here’s a quick how to:

1. Log in to your account and go to Business/Store Manager.
2. Scroll down and you’ll find “Set Default Watermark.”
3. If you have a watermark that you want to use, you can click on Add/Delete watermark and upload your watermark here.
4. Once you’ve settled on your watermark, select the blend mode.  Blend mode dictates how the watermark will be integrated into your image. We recommend alpha, but play around with it.  You might find one that better suits your work.
5. Pick your position.  We like the bottom left.
6. Pick the size.  We like standard.  But if you want to pump it up, use 2xs.
7. To see how various types of watermarks look before applying to all your images, set the watermark on the preview page and refresh the page. If you want to change the watermark, select a new one, set it and refresh the page to view it before proceeding. However, if you like what you see, you’re done!

Any new content that you upload will now be watermarked for you.   Let us know what you think of this new feature.

Photographers: LicenseStream provides rapid compliance with the PLUS licensing standards recently adopted by the major publishers.

In November 2008, three major publishers McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson announced that they would adopt the PLUS licensing standards in their contracts, and encourage image suppliers to begin embedding PLUS license metadata in all images.

PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System Coalition) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to simplifying and facilitating the communication and management of image rights. The PLUS licensing standards allow rights and attribution information to travel within image files in a machine-readable format that provides instant access and universal understanding. LicenseStream's technology and Web-based services fully comply with the standards created by PLUS.

What does this mean?
By simply using LicenseStream you'll:

• Be fully PLUS-compliant
• Provide your customers content embedded with PLUS license information
• Use the same standards as major publishers

Are you a stock agency or media company? ImageSpan separately offers a LicenseStream API tool kit, which provides media companies and other image providers with a fully working embedded content licensing, royalty settlement and tracking service.

Want to find out about the latest content trends? The first ever User Generated Conference and Expo takes place February 9th and 10th at the San Jose Convention Center (full details at  www.ugcxevent.com). As an added bonus, LicenseStream users get 15% off the full conference rate with the following discount code: SPKRUXIS.

Of particular interest for LicenseStream users is the appearance of CEO Iain Scholnick in the following panels:

10 a.m., Tuesday, February 10
Photography Panel 5 - Sharing, Selling and Defending Photos Online

Licensing and sharing photos online provides both opportunities and risks for photographers and businesses. This session will provide best practices for sharing and selling photos online in a safe and secure way.

Moderator:
Maria Kessler, VP Creative Business Affairs, Jupiterimages

Speakers:
Ellen Boughn, Director of Content, Dreamstime
Leila Boujnane, CEO, Idee Inc.
Melissa Reeder, Development manager, Creative Commons
Iain Scholnick, CEO, ImageSpan


1 p.m., Tuesday, February 10
Photography Panel 7 - Servicing the Crowd - Business Opportunities around UGC

Users need services and so do the businesses they supply. Explore the opportunities in and around User Generated Content including affiliations, communication, licensing and money management.

Moderator:
Patricia Vargas, Dr. Director of Content, Jupiterimages

Speakers:
Tyler Olson, CEO, MicrostockGroup.com
Rahul Pathak, CEO & Founder, LookStat
Iain Scholnick, ImageSpan Inc.
Yuval Tal, CEO, Payoneer

Keynote speakers include Craig Newmark, Customer Service Rep & Founder, Craigslist, Guy Kawasaki, Founding Partner, Garage Technology Ventures, Fred Durham, CEO & Founder of CafePress as well as Bruce Livingstone and Kelly Thompson, CEO/Founder and COO of iStockphoto.

For more information, view speaker information and full session descriptions on the site. 

The Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) has put some great resources online for anyone who wants to learn about copyright.

Included is a video presentation from PACA counsel Nancy Wolff, a downloadable Copyright Education PowerPoint presentation, PACA's Copyright Commandments, a variety of legal docs.

You can find these and a number of other resources in the PACA Document Library.