Fighting image content theft is quite challenging today because the Internet seems to be an infinite space where pictures can be downloaded and uploaded on a regular basis without the author’s consent. Moreover, the authors cannot even track their images through the vast virtual network even if we have top-class search engines with advanced algorithms. However, better days for image content are on the horizon, as Image Protect, a leading provider of end-to-end copyright software, has big plans to change the way we operate with images.
Image Protect is a company and a blockchain-powered content rights platform. With the help of it, content makers, from publishers to advertisers, can protect, manage, and monetize images and digital media in general. The platform revolves around IPShare™, an embeddable in-image ad format that gives each image an identity, making it easily traceable online. This embeddable advertising format will ensure the attribution to the author and will come up with the right conditions that would support social engagement, secure sharing of content, straightforward ownership authentication, licensing, and revenue generation from internet advertising. The blockchain technology, thanks to its smart contract feature, will bring transparency into image sale history and usage.
Image Protect plans to hold an initial coin offering (ICO) this year to raise funds for the project and help all the potential users and investors get engaged in a safer image marketplace. We’ll discuss the ICO details below, after we check how the technology works in the first instance.
How Does Image Protect Work?
Image Protect wants to combine several features, like IPShare™, IPChain™, IPTrack™, Post Usage Licensing, and real-time image data analytics to deploy the IPMarket™ – a blockchain-based marketplace where the users can protect their images and operate with them in a secure manner. According to the company’s roadmap, the latter is to be launched in the first quarter of 2019.
Currently, there are seven easy steps in the image protection procedure supported by the company:
- #1 – As a user, you can upload images to the Image Protect portal;
- #2 – The pictures automatically convert to IPShare™ format;
- #3 – The system scans the web to find whether there are matches of your images, even the ones that were edited via different software programs;
- #4 – The system filters each search result;
- #5 – You can review the findings and check whether there are unauthorized uses of your images. If you find some, you can just click “submit case,” and the Image Protect team will initiate a settlement on your behalf;
- #6 – The system will automatically collect evidence and will send notices to the commercial infringers that used your images;
- #7 – The Image Protect team will collaborate with entities from its global network of legal experts to ensure you get the recovery fees.
This smart system is designed to significantly reduce image theft cases, which are widespread nowadays. In fact, from over a trillion licensable images on the Internet, about 70% were not authorized by the copyright owner, a report by Getty Images and the Stock Artists Alliance concluded.
In 2017, Image Protect processed 59 million pictures and discovered 23 million new web-pages using their clients’ images. In general, 1% of all sites were commercial infringements. The company averaged $1000 in post-licensing fees for each case, bringing the overall value to $230 million in pursuable license fees. Besides, the company found 8 million non-commercial web-pages, including personal blogs or forums, which would need the IPShare™ replacement.
Image Protect presented their IPShare™ technology at the end of March 2018. The feature makes images resistant to theft, traceable, and easily shareable. Image Protect CEO Lawrence Adams commented on the new technology:
This is a win-win for all parties. The rights holder captures revenue converted from the Advertising model. We capture revenue otherwise considered lost. And the website/blog owner enjoys the use of the image without penalties or fees.
Given its revolutionary technology and features, Image Protect has become one of the largest communities of visual artists interested in copyright protection. Since 2015, Image Protect has grown to 450,000 members, which include media agencies and photographers. The company has achieved strategic partnerships with prominent media agencies, such as 500px, Snapwire, and Mega among others.
Image Protect ICO
Image Protect will conduct a token sale event for its ERC20-based token called IMAGE, priced at $0.10. The public token sale is scheduled to start on the first day of August this year until October 31, so the potential buyers will have three full months to make IMAGE part of their crypto portfolios.
However, there is good news for early investors as well, as Image Protect also holds a pre-sale event that starts on April 30. This is where you can enjoy great bonuses. The pre-sale is divided into three stages:
- Presale 1 (April 30 – May 31, 2018) – 28,500,000 tokens will be sold at 30% discount.
- Presale 2 (June 1 – June 30, 2018) – 26,250,000 tokens will be sold at 20% discount.
- Presale 3 (July 1 – July 31, 2018) – 23,500,000 tokens will be sold at 10% discount.
In total, 78.25 million tokens will be available during the pre-sale and 125 million during the public sale, as the company aims to achieve a hard cap of $12.5 million. The total supply of IMAGE tokens is capped at 350 million, with 203.25 allocated for the ICO event. The rest of the tokens are distributed for marketing, future development, bounty, corporate team, and advisors.
Investors can buy IMAGE with several cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Litecoin, and Ripple.
The token will be used by the Image Protect community to streamline processes, but retail investors can also benefit from it, as the IMAGE tokens will receive 10% of revenue generated from infringement settlements, smart licensing, and recurring Internet advertising revenue from impressions, click-through traffic, and shares. The fact that the project is backed by a leading company with a professional team supports investors’ sentiment.
Feel free to go through the Image Protect’s whitepaper to find out more details.
Images courtesy of Pixabay.