PicScout Shows Extortion Letters Yet to be Reported

[Matthew Chan]

AS many extortion letters as we have revealed, there are still many more to come from the stock photo industry. With every extortion letter that has been reported, all of them can be traced back to a client to PicScout.

Alaska Stock, Corbis, Getty Images, Masterfile, NordicStock, Stock Food, and Hawaiian Art Network all appear on the PicScout website in one way, shape, or form.

Conveniently, PicScout has a link to many of their more visible clients. I feel like we need to go ahead and make room for the future extortion letters.

http://www.picscout.com/client-list/

[Extortion-Victim-No Longer]

No doubt! That's a lot of logos...cha-$$$-ching!

[SoylentGreen]

Never heard of most of these.
Do they actually sell anything, or is it just a bunch of scammers?

S.G.

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

Heres another interesting tidbit:


Hawaiian Art Network began using PicScout ImageTracker in November 2009, at first tracking image use only in the U.S.  As of July 2010, the company expanded tracking to include usage in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

The ImageTracker process for Hawaiian Art Network is simple and direct:
1.  PicScout identifies image usages by scanning websites across the globe.
2.  Every month, PicScout sends reports of these usages to Hawaiian Art Network via an easy-touse web interface.
3.  Hawaiian Art Network reviews the reports and determines if the use was legitimate or not. In most cases, Hawaiian sends the reports directly to a PicScout-identified legal partner for resolution as soon as an infringement has been confirmed.
4.  Infringing parties are contacted by the legal partner, advised of the infringement, and directed to pay an appropriate fee as compensation

Full article is below, but this pretty much confirms my thoughts on where they get these newbie Lawyers, and why they go thru them faster than toilet paper..

http://www.picscout.com/images/stories/pdfs/HawaiianArtNetwork.pdf

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

In case Picscout decides to move/rename their client list page it is also, documented on the blog

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/doing-my-part-to-not-feed-the-copyright-trolling-machine/

[bernicem77]

I did a quick scan of a few of the websites and some have prices (30 cent a picture) while others says that you need to contact them for a price. 
I googled Monkey Business Images and once there it gives you links for 4 websites. I clicked on two of those websites and they were selling the exact same photos.
I'm curious to see what will happen next.

[Matthew Chan]

Good job on thinking ahead before. It occurred to me we rarely talk about PicScout and I decided to poke around on their website. I had forgotten you had already did some of this.

In case Picscout decides to move/rename their client list page it is also, documented on the blog

http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/doing-my-part-to-not-feed-the-copyright-trolling-machine/

[Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)]

That's why I get paid the big bucks! Thats exactly where I got my list, I just didn't want to give them an inbound link, but rather just a name and shame.