Photography copyright infringement increases threefold

Infringement case volume increased more than 3 times in 2009 versus 2006. This is according to volumes reported by Picscout , a company that tracks images and enables its clients to monetize unpaid/unlicensed images it finds on the web. According to the company this demonstrates the ‘explosion of digital imagery and its non-legitimate use. Picscout claims that 8 out of 10 rights managed images used on commercial websites are used non-legitimately.

The methodology is not 100% clear and Picscout says it expects the percentage to be even higher if user generated content would be taken into consideration. You can read more on the Picscout blog.

Do you think 80% is a realistic number? At a first glance it sounds high to us.

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