Synopsis for Non-English Publications

Offir Michaeli found his Flickr photos in an ad. Daniela Smith's family found their holiday photo in an ad for a grocery story. 85% of online pictures involve image violations, and the lawsuits start piling up. Who can use your Facebook photos, and could you sue them for that? Maariv's Alex Doron explores all these issues in his interview with PicScout CEO Offir Gutelzon.

To read the full article in Hebrew, click here.

PicScout CEO Offir Gutelzon explains the widespread non-legitimate usage of images on the internet, and unveils PicScout's plans to reach a database of 100 million images by the end of 2010.

To read the full article in Hebrew, click here.

"Our employees have grown up together with the company," said Offir Gutelzon, CEO and co-founder of PicScout. "Only a few years back, our employees were kids. Nowadays, we find ourselves having fun days for our employees' children." Gutelzon believes that, along with the startup market, the low number of PicScout employees over the age of 45 derives from the fact that most hi-tech empoyees choose not to work in such an intense environment, and instead prefer to work at bigger hi-tech firms and R&D centers.

To read the full article in Hebrew, click here.

Lately, we’ve heard of many cases of image copyrights violations. Ann Kirsten Kennis, a former model, has sued Vampire Weekend, photographer Tod Brody, and XL Recordings for $2 million, alleging that they used Kennis’ image on their album cover without her knowledge. A similar incident happened when clothing company Zara presented a t-shirt with an image of a famous French blogger named Betty without her knowledge. Offir Gutelzon, the CEO of PicScout, one of the leading companies in image copyrights management, says that "about 85% of the images used on commercial sites on the internet are 'Pirated' – copied from a different source and in violation of copyright laws." A program developed by PicScout searches the Internet for images “fingerprinted” by PicScout,  allowing image owners to charge fees or sue for the non-legitimate usage of their images. Manipulating images doesn’t work either, because PicScout technology can recognize images even when they have been cut or distorted, or when their colors have been changed.

To read the full article in Hebrew, click here.

The vast use of multimedia and images has promoted the need for copyrights protection. The Israeli company PicScout is one of the pioneers helping to protect image copyrights. Offir Gutelzon, PicScout CEO, talks on Giga-Beth, the internet radio show of Reshet Beth.

To listen to the interview in Hebrew, click here.