Photo sharing website Flickr is introducing theft detection tools that will allow subscribers to see if someone has used their images without permission.

Flickr has teamed up with Pixsy, an image monitoring and legal-tech service, which offers photographers a fully integrated end-to-end solution to protect their work.

Believing that photographers have a right to protect their work is a fundamental position shared by both companies. It is hoped that this partnership will empower photographers to enforce their rights by giving them the tools to track their images and to take legal action across the globe in an effort to preserve the integrity and value of their work.

Flickr members will now be able to automatically integrate their Flickr images with Pixsy’s monitoring and protection platform, and Flickr Pro members will get an enhanced service offering access to 1,000 monitored images, 10 DMCA takedown notices, and unlimited case submission, all for no additional cost.

Andrew Stadlen, VP of Product for Flickr, said: “We want our photographers to feel comfortable sharing their work online. We offer clear controls for privacy and copyright, and we stand by our photographers in asserting their rights in the case that theft occurs.

“Partnering with a company like Pixsy makes complete sense for our community and helps us deliver on what we believe is a core value for Flickr.”

Pixsy CEO Kain Jones said: “Flickr has a long-standing reputation as the world’s most influential photography platform and with Pixsy, their members will know that their images are being actively protected. We use state of the art technology to find and fight image theft.”

When a copyright infringement is detected by Pixsy, the photographer is alerted and they can then decide what action to take. Photographers have access to a comprehensive case resolution service to recover lost licensing revenue and damages, along with the tools to register images with the US Copyright office and send automated DMCA takedown notices.

Pixsy partners with an international network of law firms, working on a no win, no fee basis. To date, Pixsy has handled more than 70,000 cases of copyright infringement, returning millions of dollars to the creative industries.

This partnership is particularly timely in light of significant changes to copyright law internationally. The European Parliament has passed a controversial new Copyright Directive, which is set to change how the sharing of images and other copyrighted materials online is regulated and enforced. The US Copyright Office is also undertaking extensive modernisation to better meet the needs of copyright owners.

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