Just a little follow-up. I awoke this morning to find an email from Nadia Reckmann (Marketing Jedi at Pixsy) that used my original subject line from this thread. How did she get my email or become aware of this thread? I guess it should not surprise me that a company that has algorithms designed to match images should also have the ability to monitor when their company name is mentioned in email lists. (PDML archives are on the web and sometimes show a new post/reply before it has even been received by everyone on the list). So I'm guessing that this thread came to their attention and she joined PDML to get access to my email address (I don't believe it is viewable on the web archives) and sent me the message directly, using my original Subject Line as her Subject Line.
Anyway, here is the contents of her message which clarifies a few things... "First of all, thanks for the kind words, Darren! I just wanted to clarify our case resolution process a bit. In addition to what you said, we have a great in-house Super Hero team of licensing experts, who negotiate with an infringer to get the photographer the best deal possible. We also have a global network of law firms. So, if the infringer refuses to cooperate, we refer the case to one of our international legal partners. Our super heroes and lawyers work together to claim compensation on your behalf. Its amount depends on a variety of factors, including the case details, photographer’s licensing history, size of the infringer’s company, the copyright modification, and so on. The final photographers’ compensation often varies from $100 to several thousand. All our law firms are hand-picked, particularly specialized and experienced in the copyright law. In our experience, they tend to take the cases often refused by other lawyers. It’s great to have you on board and feel free to contact me or our founder Daniel (dan...@pixsy.com) directly if you have any questions!" ***end of email*** The only other piece of information that I have is that I've spoken to one fellow who submitted a violation to Pixsy and received compensation of a bit under $300. He said that the process took approximately 3 months. I suppose much of that timeline is dependent upon how quickly the infringer takes the matter seriously and perhaps the amount that is being sought. Personally, I would rather wait longer and get a higher return, if that is an option (and it is if you have the infringer "dead to rights" and are prepared to take it to court. I'm still not sure that I believe in Pixsy's business model as the best for the photographer. Image infringement is a whole different ball game from image licensing. Catching a violator and then settling with them for only what they might have licensed the image for in the first place (or perhaps some multiple of that) is nowhere near the amount of penalties that the infringer could be liable for should the matter be taken to court. The only reason to settle is to avoid the time and costs of doing just that (which neither party probably really wants). I think I will try to see how Pixsy's settlement process works for a couple of my infringements (before deciding whether to have them pursue the rest). I'm going to choose one infringement by a midwest communication company (that owns a chain of radio stations and newspapers) and another infringement that is on a web site in the Netherlands (which Pixsy already claims to operate in). It may take a while, but I will report back with the results. I hope that any other PDMLers who pursue settlements will do the same and share their experiences with Pixsy. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
