Tag Archives: Splash News

Splash partners PicScout to open up images to online publishers

Online publishers will now have free access to licensed images from celebrity news agency Splash News, as the agency teams up with image technology firm PicScout.

Using PicScout’s PicApp tool, Splash hopes the deal will address the concerns of content owners and photographers about copyright and use of material online

Making Splash content available through PicApp offers an innovative way for thousands of blog sites to enter the content licence market by utilizing our images with PicApps ad-funded technologies and in turn, exposes our rich database of images to millions of people. Splash teams with PicApp to reduce online piracy and to create a new media revenue stream for its contributors,” said Gary Morgan, CEO of Splash News, in a press release.

An RSS feature on PicApp allows users to set up automated criteria for the images they want with an alert sent to them when this material becomes available.

Canon developing built-in watermarking system for photographers

According to site OhGizmo, camera manufacturer Canon has filed a patent for a camera that will take a photo of a photographer’s iris as they take a picture.

This iris image will then act as a watermark and could help snappers identify unlicensed use of their images – particularly online.

On the copyright theme, Kevin Smith, co-founder of picture agency Splash News, discussed with Journalism.co.uk the merits of Scan X – the technology employed by the agency to track their content online and protect revenue.

Smith admitted that the procedure was expensive for Splash – as such putting it out of reach for independent and freelance photographers. However, patents such as Canon’s could see this technology dripping through to a more affordable level.