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Pixsy & Image Theft

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Cessna954
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Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Cessna954 » Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:24 pm

As aviation and particularly photography is a hobby, as opposed to a source of income, I've not been too fussed with placing watermarks on my images to deter their inappropriate use. That said, all my images have embedded copyright information attached.

Earlier this year Flickr announced a partnership with a web company called Pixsy who operate an online image theft service using AI technology to match your images with others on the net. Out of curiosity I set up one of their limited free accounts and left it to scan the net for matches to my published Flickr images. The results were both interesting and hilarious. The technology is far from 100% accurate and I would guess that the majority of so called matched images were actually not mine but, at best, similar other images. It appears that the AI technology ignores colours and uses other parameters, this results in hundreds of matches for say a particular aircraft type photographed from a specific angle. Sometimes the matches are hilarious but soon grow tiresome and after a while I grew fed up and gave up.

This evening, about 4 months from the last scan, I thought I would take another look for the sake of curiosity. Many hundreds of matches, about half were false and the majority of the remainder were quite harmless with social media platforms/forums linking to an image for one reason or another. You can filter results to only commercial uses and that flagged up a couple of blatant copyright thefts so I've decided to pursue one to see what happens.

This is my original image on Flickr:
ImageCessna 525 Citation Jet 1 N525FD by Neil D. Brant, on Flickr

And the copy, thumbnail bottom left.
https://www.privatefly.com/private-jets ... tion.html#

You'll see that the image has been altered with the registration airbrushed out, but otherwise it's a copy.

Pixsy operate a claims service so I've filled out the form and submitted a commercial claim. I don't know what the going rate for image use is, don't really care, but curious as to what will happen.

Of the other images found, most are attached to online discussions and photosharing around the world, all very acceptable as an enthusiast.

I'll let you know what happens.

Neil

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andygolfer
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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by andygolfer » Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:01 am

that's very interesting Neil, I'd not heard of that partnership. I may have a look at it just out of curiosity to see what any of mine are compared to.

good luck with the claim, it will be interesting to see what the response is - you may even get a free citation charter for a day to the destination of your choice!

In reality it's more likely to be their legal team who make the majority out of these infringements, that's probably why it's free. However in time it may provide a good deterrent against copyright infringement which in turn is protecting our images at no cost to ourselves.

Andy
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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Danseaman » Sun Oct 13, 2019 3:31 pm

That’s interesting Neil, I was looking at the Flickr/pixsy deal a few weeks back. Keep us informed as I’d be interested to see what happens!
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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by niallsaviation » Mon Oct 28, 2019 12:17 am

I didnt need Pixsy
One night in work I happened across one of my pics...I had to look at it twice before I realized it was mine
It wasnt even a great shot just an interesting subject I suppose...they just cropped out my name outta the picture
ImageVH-CAO by Niall Moran, on Flickr

In use here
<a href="https://www.bjtonline.com/business-jet- ... -airplanes" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.bjtonline.com/business-jet-news/aba ... rplanes</a>

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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Nighthawke » Tue Oct 29, 2019 12:02 am

"...As the former editor of an antique-airplane magazine..." he should know that stealing your photograph is wrong!

Have you taken further action?

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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by niallsaviation » Thu Oct 31, 2019 6:22 pm

I sent them a mail asking them to at least credit me with the picture but heard nothing back

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Cessna954
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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Cessna954 » Sat Dec 14, 2019 9:39 am

Just a brief update on this thread.

It took about 2 months for Pixsy to review the case internally and accept that it met their criteria (no doudt an element of 'is it worth their while'). With that established we entered in to a contract allowing them to act on my behalf and that's where it's got to. It's not moving quickly but hopefully will gain some momentum now.

Neil

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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Danseaman » Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:44 am

Any updates on this Neil? Interested to see how it’s turned out :)
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Cessna954
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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Cessna954 » Thu Jun 25, 2020 3:47 pm

No recent update.

Pixsy had contacted the company responsible back in January and had set out their case to them and are waiting for a response. I'm guessing that they are hoping by not responding it will go away.

As a free service added to Flickr I'm not sure what priority Pixsy place on cases compared to paid subscribers direct to their service. I'll reserve judgement for the time, but not holding my breath for any significant outcome.

Neil

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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Danseaman » Thu Jun 25, 2020 7:48 pm

Cheers Neil! I’ll keep an eye out and hope for the best
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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Paultojo » Wed May 12, 2021 8:00 pm

Tried it, seems a bit of a waste of time they picked up on 11 of my images and started cases, all failed
C&C always welcome

Paul

My images at Jetphotos.net

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8620037@N05/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Image

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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by Danseaman » Sat May 15, 2021 10:43 pm

Thank Paul, sorry to hear it got nowhere but thank you for the updates!

Unfortunately the digital age isn’t as perfect as we’d like and unfortunately not everyone is fair or playing by the rules. Frustrating that as we all spend a lot of time and our own money to capture these images and these people/companies just take and use as they please.
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andygolfer
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Re: Pixsy & Image Theft

Post by andygolfer » Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:18 am

How long does it take Pixsy to reply or confirm takedowns please? The response time does seem slow.

I found several of my photos being used including on commercial sites and have simply requested that they be taken down - I'm not after any compensation just don't want them being used without being asked first.

I've got one issue with Airliners.net that has been running about 2 months now. I don't submit photos to them as they seem to want the perfect photo unless you are in the clique from what I can make out. Pixsy found one of my pics on their forum posted by one 'Sheik Djibouti' , yes honestly! a photo that I took on a slide about 50 years ago and loaded onto flickr so I could post it on here. It's a scan of the slide and it even has the dust marks on it where I didn't clean it properly:

Image6 LHR 1972 view south from Queens building, LH &amp; Air Algerie B737s Austrian &amp; swissair DC.9s, b by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

I don't know if he lifted it via this forum or directly from my flickr account.

I thought I would try the friendly approach and e-mailed Airliners.net and got a rather 'up himself' reply from the guy who purports to be the Head Support/Forum Moderator, he asked for time to sort it out and said they would get back as time permits. I had heard nothing more so last week I e-mailed again but haven't heard a dickie-bird. I have pursued it through Pixsy as well but heard nothing from them either.

One thing I did notice when checking some that I'm certain were my pics on various sites was that when I clicked on the Pixsy link to them they didn't work or wanted me to confirm I was not a robot, I clicked one link and it didn't work and I was rather alarmed as I realised it was a russian web page - I quickly erased my browse history and cookies in case it was a deliberate trap by a scammer, one to watch out for possibly if that's a trick they use - post other's photos onto a website which has a dodgy link when you click it so that if Pixsy or other similar scanning companies alert you to it (innocently on their part) you then enter the dark world of dodgy internet sites.

Anyway back to my question - what are your experiences and impressions of Pixsy, are they worth using as an anti pirating company?
Andy
Andygolfer (or at least I was once), now just plane crazy

Image
please support our photo competitions by entering and/or voting!
Proud winner of 2019 Air-Britain photo competition!

co-owner of UK Light Aviation Enthusiasts google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/uklae
and Stansted Aviation Enthusiasts google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/stnae

my photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125470545@N07/

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