Monday, June 8, 2015

Reverse Image Search Technology Will Increase Infringement Claims Over Photographs

It used to be the rule of dumb luck that accounted for the happenstance detection of a wrongful use of a photographic image. The owner of a photo previously had little ability to detect an infringing use unless the owner happened to stumble upon an unauthorized image. But today's technology significantly expands the ability to detect the misuse of an image on the Internet. Services such as TinEye, Google Images, and others, now allow fairly sophisticated detection of images. These services can have a panorama of applications. Not only can a photographer detect misuse of a protected image, but a business can prevent misuse of product images wrongfully taken from its on-line product catalog. And misuse of trademark logos can be more easily targeted, along with the right of publicity misuse of a person's image.

The sophistication of new reverse image search technologies will likely increase the number of infringement and right of publicity claims related to unauthorized use of personal and product images.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Google image search upright tells the users that the image may be subjected to copyright. However, no one is stopping them to download. During reverse search, Google then demotes such results of similar making it fair use. However, with plethora of other reverse image search options, I believe users will always find their way.