image security Archives - SmartFrame

How to add Content Credentials to your images

Matt Golowczynski — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:10:18 +0000

Content Credentials allow content creators and publishers to add key details to their work, helping to improve transparency. We explain how to use them for your images and view them in those published by others.

Content Credentials are now starting to appear in a broad range of images online. They provide online audiences with information on a piece of content’s origin, along with details on any edits made, including the use of AI tools.

If you’re not already familiar with Content Credentials and want to learn more, read our complete Content Credentials guide first.

If, however, you understand the concept and now want to start putting it into practice, read on.

How to add Content Credentials on your camera

While it’s possible to add Content Credentials to images after they have been captured, embedding them from the start of an image’s life is ideal as it allows for the most complete picture of an image’s history to be developed.

That said, since this technology is still relatively new, only two cameras support Content Credentials out of the box at the time of writing.

These cameras are the Leica M11-P and the Sony A9 III. Both are relatively new and at the pricier end of the scale for models of their kind, so this option isn’t available to the vast majority of photographers today.

Nevertheless, if you have a slightly older camera, you may still be able to take advantage of this feature.

Sony’s announcement of its A9 III camera came alongside the news that owners of the A1 and A7S III would also be able to access this feature through a forthcoming firmware update – and this was released in April.

Fujifilm also recently announced that it has joined both the CAI and the C2PA, which are behind Content Credentials, and has stated that it will be using this standard in GFX and X series cameras via firmware updates.

This approach opens up the possibility that owners of other models may also receive firmware updates with the same option in the future, which could rapidly increase adoption.

The fact that Nikon included Content Credentials in a demonstration version of its popular Z9 model also suggests that the feature will be included in future Nikon cameras.

How to add Content Credentials using software

While adding Content Credentials in the camera has the advantage of embedding information into images at the very start of the creation process, you don’t need a camera that supports this feature to use it. You can start adding Content Credentials in software instead.

How to add Content Credentials in Adobe Photoshop

Content Credentials are currently in beta in Photoshop, so we expect changes over time. Nevertheless, they are still very much usable at this moment.

To get started, open an image in Photoshop and select Window > Content Credentials (Beta). A dialog box with the option to enable Content Credentials will appear on the right-hand side of the screen.

Once this is enabled, you will be able to select which details to apply, such as Producer and Edits & Activity. By default, all options should be selected, including Generative AI transparency.

By clicking on Preview, you will now be able to see what these Content Credentials will look like. These will change as you select and deselect the options above. The Actions will update as you edit the image.

Finally, to save the image with credentials attached, head to File > Export > Export As… before selecting the relevant option from the Content Credentials (Beta) section. You can choose whether to publish the Content Credentials to the cloud or attach them to the file itself.

How to add Content Credentials in Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom users can also add Content Credentials when editing images.

The options available to the user are much the same as those described above for Photoshop users, although the process of enabling them is a little different.

To get started, head to Preferences > Technology Previews, before checking the Content Credentials (Beta) Export Options setting.

Once you have finished editing the image, click on the Share icon in the top-right-hand corner and then Export, whereupon you should see a dialog box for Content Credentials.

Here, you can choose a method of appending the credentials to the image – either to the file, stored in the Content Credentials Cloud, or both – and select the specific credentials to export.

How to view Content Credentials

Not all images have Content Credentials. You can tell whether one does by checking to see whether a Content Credentials pin is found in the corner of the frame.

For this to appear, the website itself will need to support the display of this pin within the image. This is important as not all websites do.

If you’re viewing a SmartFrame, however, this is not necessary, as the SmartFrame itself contains everything it needs to display this, regardless of where the image has been published.

Clicking on this pin brings up a panel with the basic details. These will typically include the original media, the entity that signed the images, the content’s producer, and the app or device used to create the content. It may also include connected social media accounts and edits made to the image (if any).

Exactly what’s displayed depends in part on what the content producer has enabled – either in the camera or when editing, or both – and in part on what cannot be removed, such as the use of the Firefly generative AI tool in Photoshop.

Viewing additional details

The panel described above provides a snapshot of the key information attached to the image. But it’s possible to see even more detailed information if required.

At the bottom of the Content Credentials dialog box within the image, there may be an additional link that takes you to the Content Credentials website, where the image can be verified.

This link may simply be a “Verify on ContentCredentials.org” text link or a button labeled “Inspect”.

In either case, this allows you to develop a better idea of the types of edits made to the image and to see whether multiple images were used in its creation, among other things.

It also provides you with a way to quickly confirm that the image has been signed and verified on the official ContentCredentials.org site. You may wish to do this if something about the image, the CR pin, or the site on which the image has been published seems suspicious.

For most images, key details – such as its origin, the edits made to it, and so on – are easily contained and viewed within the panel described above. But with some images – and particularly composite images – it’s not always practical to view this level of detail within this panel alone.

For this reason, some SmartFrame images with Content Credentials have an additional feature, whereby the user is able to view certain details in a full-window preview mode.

This preview mode, which occupies the full size of the window in which they are viewing the image, allows them to easily view all media associated with an image, along with edits and other details, without them needing to leave the site they are on and view these on the ContentCredentials.org website.

You can see what this looks like by clicking on the CR pin in the image above. If the image supports full-window preview, it will automatically appear in this way upon a click of the pin.

While it’s still possible to visit the ContentCredentials.org site and verify the image as when a SmartFrame image has this full-window preview mode, the user may find the level of detail they require is contained within this preview.

What does the future of Content Credentials look like?

It’s common for new technologies like Content Credentials to appear and then quietly be retired some time later. However, the strong need for it to combat various threats, combined with rapid adoption by key players, means it unlikely that it will face the same fate.

Indeed, just the past few months alone have welcomed several announcements regarding Content Credentials, as well as the C2PA standard that underpins them and the Content Authenticity Initiative, from major platforms.

In February, Google announced that it was to join the C2PA as a steering committee member.

The following month, the BBC – one of the founding members of the C2PA – published its first piece of content that made use of C2PA tools.

This was followed by an announcement from TikTok that it would join the Content Authenticity Initiative and adopt Content Credentials for AI-generated content on its platform. Most recently, LinkedIn added support for images with Content Credentials.

With Meta also currently building tools to identify C2PA metadata in images posted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, it seems certain that Content Credentials and related technologies will only grow more prominent over the coming years.

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Image manipulation: Why it’s a problem and what we can do about it

Liam Machin — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:45:09 +0000

Tools used to manipulate images are more readily available than ever, and that can be an issue in terms of what makes something trustworthy. So what can be done to rebuild this?

Can you guess 2017’s word of the year?

The answer to that burning question is “fake news” – thanks in large part, of course, to the US president at that time.

But the fact that we’re still debating what can be done about disinformation and misinformation years later shows just how significant this issue has become.

When it comes to social media platforms, they rely on people being able to share content freely and easily.

Consequently, such platforms must also deal with the fallout from content created and used for harm.

Although it is worth noting that most of the largest platforms are now making greater efforts to educate users on the subject, a lack of protection and limited visibility over the origin of media means these issues will persist.

If these platforms can rectify this and demonstrate that they take the safety of their users seriously, they can rebuild the trust that has been eroded over the past few years.

With the online world facing the challenge of speed vs accuracy, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the WEF’s 2024 Global Risks Report found “misinformation and disinformation to be the top risk for the world in the next two years.”

At the heart of this epidemic is image manipulation.

Out-of-context images have repeatedly caused some sense of clouded judgment and made people more susceptible to believing any false narrative that might be attached to an image shared online.

But images that have been heavily altered, or that are entirely fictitious, to begin with, pose even greater issues.

What is image manipulation?

Image manipulation refers to the act of adjusting a digital picture in some way.

Often, this is done to help create a certain creative look or to fulfill a business objective. It can, for example, be used to fine-tune details make corrections, or even create entirely new compositions.

The history of image manipulation

The use of manipulated images has a longer history than you might think. While it’s reasonable to view it as a modern issue, the use of image editing to deceive the public dates back to the 19th century.

It’s claimed that the first case of image manipulation took place in the early 1860s – and that this particular instance shaped the future of money.

Abraham Lincoln’s face was edited onto the body of another politician, John Calhoun, to “distract from his ‘gangly’ frame.” As for the connection with money, this manipulated image was believed to be the basis of Lincoln’s original five-dollar bill.

The widespread use of image manipulation became particularly noticeable during the early days of fascism.

In Nazi Germany, for example, images were frequently edited to change their meaning, often to demonize minorities.

This can also be seen in a famous photo of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, which was edited to remove the horse handler to create a sense of “heroism”.

During conflicts, photographs were used to uplift spirits, vilify opponents, and manipulate events, to evoke and exploit the emotions of the public amid the turmoil of war.

These examples only scratch the surface of image manipulation’s complex history and impact on society.

With the constant availability of online content, one might assume that people are careful not to accept everything at face value.

Sadly, this isn’t the case.

Why is image manipulation becoming more of a problem?

Easy accessibility to image editing software, together with the growth of AI tools, means this issue stands to disrupt society in a way we haven’t seen before.

According to image search engine Everypixel, the growth of AI-generated images has led to more images being created in a single year than humans have produced in over a century, with over 15 billion images using text-to-image algorithms already generated.

People have also become somewhat desensitized to some degree of image manipulation because it’s usually used in ways that the average person would deem acceptable, such as for improving profile pictures or Instagram posts.

But in recent times, fake and manipulated images have made headlines for the wrong reasons, such as the Princess of Wales’s Mother’s Day post and Taylor Swift’s AI-generated explicit images.

The rise of deepfakes is also being used to create misleading celebrity endorsements, causing scam and fraud headaches for both internet platforms and their users.

What can be done to stop image manipulation from spreading fake news?

It’s, of course, impossible to stop image manipulation completely. But when it comes to viewing these images online, there are a number of options available to help people identify manipulation and fakery.

Industry standards, comprising standardized verification, clear editing guidelines, and ethical codes, can help fight against the proliferation of fake images.

Some governments have even taken it into their own hands and implemented education in schools to help people spot fake media, despite the constantly changing nature of the issue making this more difficult.

Social media platforms play an important role too.

To address the proliferation of manipulated images, these platforms could work more closely with fact-checking organizations to verify the legitimacy of shared content.

Digital signatures, watermarking, and other image analysis tools could also be integrated directly into social media platforms to help flag potentially misleading content.

The ease with which images can be stolen is arguably the most important enabler of many of the risks associated with manipulated media.

Part of that problem is that the longstanding JPEG file has been the default format for images since the internet’s inception.

Yet, it offers no meaningful protection against theft – simply right-click and save, and from there, anyone with some image-editing know-how can manipulate images any way they wish to do so.

How does Content Credentials intend to influence the future of imagery and image manipulation?

Content Credentials give users context on the content they’re met with. This in turn allows them to make better decisions on whether or not the image can be trusted as a source of information.

The Adobe-led initiative allows for proper attribution to all images posted online, ensuring that the original image and its producer are visible, creating more transparency.

Furthermore, it’s possible to see how the image was manipulated, including editing history and any use of AI tools.

Additionally, by embedding images to news articles using SmartFrame, images can have all of the above while being protected against both drag-and-drop attempts and right-clicks, with a copyright warning thwarting screenshot attempts too.

And, as every SmartFrame is encrypted and only appears when a user is actively Browse a website, the image disappears as soon as the viewer closes the browser tab or window.

Image manipulation isn’t new – but the need to highlight when it’s used is becoming non-negotiable

The targeting of celebrities and key world events, and the content used for this, clearly show the need for increased regulation and protection.

Through clear labeling, increased education, and added accountability with repercussions, we can help mitigate the spread of misinformation and rebuild trust in the images we see online.

As James Warren, NewsGuard’s executive editor, noted in a recent Substack post: “Kim Kardashian’s enhanced glam shot on a magazine cover is one thing, fiddling in the slightest with a photo of the Israel-Hamas war is another.”

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Content Credentials: Everything You Need To Know

Liam Machin — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:35:19 +0000

The amount of content posted online each day can make it hard to understand whether what we’re looking at is quite as it appears. In this article, we explain what Content Credentials are and how they can help.

A Newsworks study in 2022 found that more than half (52%) of those interviewed admitted being deceived by fake news at least once – and one in ten said that they “never check the reliability” of content they come across online.

The rise of misinformation and manipulated content is especially prevalent on social media platforms where anybody can post or repost anything they come across without taking the time to verify the source.

This has led to the development of Content Credentials, which are now starting to appear in online images.

What are Content Credentials?

Content Credentials are designed to help people better understand a piece of online content through the addition of tamper-evident metadata.

This metadata details more information including where a piece of content originated, whether it has been subject to any editing, and, in the case of composite images, the original images used.

Who created Content Credentials?

Content Credentials were established by the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI).

They conform to the standard developed by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a non-profit joint development foundation project founded in February 2021 by Adobe and Microsoft. The Content Credentials icon, which was introduced earlier this year, is now part of this standard.

The C2PA brings together the efforts of the CAI with those of Project Origin. Its main objective is to establish clear standards for verifying the provenance of digital content. Other members of the C2PA include Arm, the BBC, Intel, and Truepic.

Why do Content Credentials exist?

According to Andy Parsons, Senior Director of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), Content Credentials were created to become “a universal standard and expectation across culture online.“

The explosion of AI-generated images, synthetic content, and deep fakes has meant that the world is constantly being faced with new challenges in verifying every piece of content posted online.

Content Credentials enable the creator of a piece of content to attach their identity and other information to the image. This helps improve overall transparency once it appears online.

This, in turn, means that online users are better equipped to decide whether what they are looking at is what they believe it to be.

A further benefit is that content creators are properly credited for their work, in the way they have specified, regardless of where this content is viewed online.

What do Content Credentials show?

Content Credentials can provide a range of information on a piece of content including:

details on the creator or publisher
the place in which an image was taken
any tools used in the creative process
edits made to the original content
if generative AI has been used.

Content creators can also use these to attach social media handles and web3 details.

You can see this for yourself in the image above. Simply hover over it and click on the Content Credentials pin, which reveals some of the information outlined above.

In addition to the photographer and editing history, these details also show that this is an official piece of content from the New Zealand Rugby Official Photography Library.

Why are Content Credentials important?

Content Credentials add a layer of verification to make the digital world more trustworthy and reliable for creators, users, and journalists alike.

They act as a point of provenance to help people spot and avoid misinformation across the many forms of online content.

One recent event in particular made the importance of this clear.

In May 2023, news of an explosion at the Pentagon went viral. According to the AP, this “sent a brief shiver through the stock market” and was reported by official news outlets abroad before US officials confirmed it was an image generated by artificial intelligence.

🚨 BREAKING:🚨An AI image of an explosion at the US Pentagon just caused a $500 billion market cap swing.

It was set off by a fake Bloomberg Twitter account with a Verified checkmark.

The struggle to identify the truth is getting dangerous…

(h/t @KobeissiLetter) pic.twitter.com/zrh4K2Nj2L

— Lorenzo Green 〰️ (@mrgreen) May 23, 2023

Given the growth in the usage of AI tools and the corresponding fragmented nature of regulating any rapidly evolving technology, debates around how it’s fairly regulated continue around the world.

Proactive efforts, such as Content Credentials, allow users to identify content that may have been tampered with, or that is completely false to begin with. This is thanks to the principle of cryptographic signing, which is used to append this metadata to images.

Consider for a moment any image posted online needing to go through some form of verification, one that is easily accessible and that clearly shows its history and any editing.

This system would empower journalists to easily confirm the image source, resulting in more accurate and reliable reporting.

Furthermore, ensuring that images and other digital content are authenticated by their creator and include an editing history may help to provide evidence in the case of copyright disputes.

How do I use Content Credentials?

If a piece of content has associated Content Credentials, you can access these by clicking on the “CR” pin in the corner of the image. Alternatively, there may be a specific Content Credentials link to indicate that this information is available.

In either case, a panel on the side of the image with further details will appear. Clicking on a button at the bottom of this panel will direct the user to the contentcredentials.org page, where additional details may be seen.

Can I use Content Credentials with SmartFrame images?

We are a proud member of the CAI and committed to helping the mission to create a safer and more transparent online environment. For this reason, all SmartFrame images are capable of supporting Content Credentials.

This means that, regardless of where these images are shared or viewed online, we actively help content owners maintain transparency over their images.

Furthermore, SmartFrame’s multi-layered theft protection will help keep them safe from theft and unauthorized use.

How do Content Credentials help photographers and photojournalists?

By attaching Content Credentials to their images from the moment they are captured – or at least as soon as possible – photojournalists and photographers can ensure that anyone who comes across their work has access to a transparent record of the image’s history.

While photographers may use this to attach an appropriate credit and to show a creative process, this level of transparency is particularly important for photojournalists because it allows them to establish and maintain credibility and trust with their audience.

This may also be helpful when submitting images for competitions.

There have been multiple stories in recent years concerning images that have been entered into competitions that were later discovered to be either composites or to have been at least partly created using AI tools (or in some other way to have broken the conditions of entry).

Making the creative process clear from the start would allow the eligibility of such images to be assessed upon submission.

Do Content Credentials show the same type of information in all images?

As the process by which one image comes into existence may differ from another, we should expect any appended information to vary too.

For example, an image that has not been edited in any way will not have any editing history to show. Likewise, a composite image may show all the images that have been used in its composition, whereas a conventional image will not.

Another reason that two images may show different information is that a content creator or publisher decides which categories of information to attach. Additionally, Adobe has made it clear that some Photoshop actions are not yet supported by Content Credentials.

Do Content Credentials support AI images?

Despite the many controversies around IP and other ethical concerns, Content Credentials can be applied to AI-generated images.

As with images captured conventionally, Content Credentials can be used to determine the origin of an AI-generated image and record its editing history.

Furthermore, Content Credentials can be used to identify AI images by embedding a flag or marker in the credential itself that indicates that the image was generated by an AI tool.

Are Content Credentials in Photoshop?

Yes, Content Credentials (Beta) are available to Photoshop users. As the video below shows, these can be exported with images once any edits have been made.

Are Content Credentials in Lightroom?

Yes. Adobe Lightroom users can quickly enable Content Credentials (Beta) to appear as an option when exporting images. You can learn how to do this by reading Adobe’s explainer.

Are Content Credentials in Adobe Firefly?

Content Credentials are also a part of Adobe Firefly. When you use specific features like Text to Image, Text Effects, or Generative Fill, the system automatically attaches Content Credentials to the image(s) created.

Users can also include additional Content Credentials if they wish to share extra information about the creative process and what tools were used.

Which cameras support Content Credentials?

At the time of writing, only a couple of cameras have Content Credentials built in as standard.

These are the Leica M11-P – the world’s first camera with Content Credentials – and the soon-to-be-released Sony A9 III.

Sony has, however, announced that some of its older Sony A1 and A7S III cameras will support Content Credentials via a firmware update.

Nikon also demonstrated a sample of its Z9 camera with Content Credentials built into it at this year’s Adobe MAX event, although the feature is not currently integrated into retail samples.

What’s next for Content Credentials?

Content Credentials will undoubtedly become more prominent as the CAI welcomes new members, and as a broader range of platforms and hardware support the standard.

Welcome to the newest CAI members! Today, we’re celebrating over 2,000 members, a global community committed to building and fostering a more trustworthy and transparent digital ecosystem.

🟡Learn more about the #C2PA standard or Content Credentials for certifying the source and… pic.twitter.com/NThNVgbQAf

— Content Authenticity Initiative (@ContentAuth) November 14, 2023

The CAI has also stated that Content Credentials are applicable to audio and video, which echoed similar statements in its original white paper about presenting “a set of standards that can be used to create and reveal attribution and history for images, documents, time-based media (video, audio) and streaming content”.

At the time of writing, there doesn’t appear to be much information on quite how this will apply to formats other than images.

However, Adobe has said that the icon and transparency features will soon be coming to further apps, so further details will no doubt be made available as this happens.

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AI image generators: Everything you need to know

Peter Townshend — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 11:31:44 +0000

AI image generators have exploded in popularity. But how exactly do they work? And why are some people raising concerns about their usage?

Generating images with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is something that has been widely discussed in recent years. Stories range from positive reviews of how impressively capable this new technology is to fears that it marks the beginning of the end for the photography and creative industries.

But how do they work? And what can they be used for? In this article, we take a closer look at the technology to answer these questions and explore how it has already managed to gain a bad reputation in the photography industry. But first – what exactly is an AI image generator?

What is an AI image generator?

An AI image generator, otherwise known as a text-to-image generator, is a piece of software that uses AI to create digital images from scratch using text prompts input by a human user.

AI image generators have many uses, from functional jobs such as redesigning the interior of your apartment, creative projects like producing fine art, or bespoke images for advertising to potentially more sinister uses such as creating deepfakes.

How do AI image generators work?

At the most basic level, a user inputs a number of keywords into a piece of software and a digital image based on those keywords is created.

This may sound simple, but an awful lot of technology would have been used to create and train the software.

Just like a human, a computer cannot create an image of something it has never seen. Therefore, every AI image generator has been trained on millions, if not billions, of digital images to understand what things look like. It then uses this knowledge to make an educated choice about what to draw when prompted by text keywords.

Without such training, AI image generators would not be fit for purpose. For example, if you had never seen what a cat looks like – or heard a description of one – trying to draw an accurate representation from the name alone would prove difficult. AI image generators can encounter the same problem.

For further reading, we recently wrote an article that f ocused on Google’s SR-3 AI-powered image upscaling technology, which uses very similar techniques.

Can anyone use AI image generators?

Yes and no. In most cases, you do not need to be a software engineer to use AI image generators. Indeed, there are already reports of AI image generator prompts for sale on marketplaces, which makes it even easier for users to create high-quality results.

The more sought-after technology, however, is often subject to waiting lists and paywalls. Anyone can register for access, though, so once the model has been properly tested, you should expect to see AI image generators readily available to the general public.

Examples of AI image generators

Three of the main AI image generator models are DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney. They each have different ways of working and, indeed, different results. Take a closer look below:

DALL-E

Author: OpenAI

Website: https://openai.com/blog/dall-e/

Stable Diffusion

Author: StabilityAI

Website: https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release

Midjourney

Author: Midjourney

Website: https://midjourney.gitbook.io/docs/

What’s the problem with AI image generators?

Arguably the main problem with AI image generators concerns the general lack of regulation around the technology.

Perhaps the most widely discussed issue is the harm that can be caused by deepfakes, although the problems with the technology are broader than this, and could bring serious issues for the photography industry on many levels.

Deepfakes

Some generators prevent a user from creating images that include celebrities or other famous faces. But as the technology develops and becomes democratized, it is impossible to deny the threat of disinformation that can arise from this.

This article by a photographer who used AI to imagine how dead celebrities would look if they were still alive today shows the remarkable possibilities. Furthermore, the video below shows the somewhat unnerving capabilities of the technology in video.

Learn more: Deepfake videos have us concerned, but are we overlooking a more sinister threat found within them?

Copyright infringement

There are two main issues around copyright and AI image generators. The first is whether the images that are used to train the software have been licensed. The second is the issue of who owns the copyright to the final image.

Image training

As AI image generators are trained using existing digital images, there is also a question over how these images have been sourced – and whether they have been properly licensed.

For example, take a look at this article from The Verge, which includes evidence of an AI image generator reproducing the Getty Images watermark. This suggests the software is being trained using images that have not been paid for.

Furthermore, the question of whether valid model releases have been obtained raises another issue around personal data misuse.

All this evidence has prompted Getty Images and PurplePort to ban AI-generated images from their platforms – and Shutterstock is following suit.

Intellectual property

Another potential problem is the question of who owns the rights to the final image that is produced.

The US Copyright Office recently dismissed a claim by an AI image creator who tried to attribute the rights to an AI-generated image to the algorithm that created it.

US law says that works can only be protected by copyright if they were created by a human. Therefore, if a computer, a monkey, or some other non-human author was responsible for it coming into existence, it is not possible for anyone to claim ownership over that work.

This is, however, a contentious issue that we would expect to continue evolving as the technology grows.

Taking work away from creators

While the above issues focus on specific pieces of AI-generated imagery, there is a wider concern over the photography and creative industries as a whole.

As this technology matures and becomes more capable, people may no longer see the benefit of paying for creative talent.

This issue of democratizing creativity is one that could have a significant impact on not just the photography industry, but also art, CGI, architecture, and much more.

Why is the AOP concerned about changes to the UK’s copyright framework?

It is perhaps unsurprising that many potential issues surrounding AI image generators have caught the attention of the Association of Photographers (AOP), a UK-based organization that promotes and protects the rights of photographers, which has recently released a statement regarding the proposed exception to the UK’s copyright bill – the Text and Data Mining Exception.

In its own words, the AOP states that: “Currently, the Text and Data Mining exception (to copyright protection) permits non-commercial purpose machine analysis of online content, provided that there is lawful access (such as a subscription). It is also limited to prevent the resale or reuse for other purposes and must be accompanied by an acknowledgment of the source.

“This new proposed Text and Data Mining exception for commercial purposes – by the UK government – undermines this by freely allowing the machine mining of all imagery published online for any use by anyone, including AI developers. It would cover both copyright works and those protected by the UK Database Rights.”

It goes on to talk about “serious economic consequences”, saying that the proposal “completely short-circuits the licensing process allowing AI developers and others free commercial access to content for which, under normal circumstances, they would have to license and pay for.”

Identifying AI bots and crawlers as being able to scrape images from creators’ websites and social media pages in an instant, the AOP concludes that this “change in UK legislation would fundamentally turn the tables on creators giving way to economically harmful competition by allowing a content ‘free for all’ and invoking an unfair machine-endeavour vs. human endeavour scenario.”

What does it all mean for the digital imaging industry?

With so much still to be decided, it is hard to predict just how AI image generators will affect the imaging industry.

With bottom lines being squeezed tighter than ever, many commercial organizations will welcome the arrival of a cheaper alternative to traditional methods. But will the appeal of truly human creation ever die? The character that comes with an artist’s unique personality and life experience is something that is impossible to emulate.

With photography, it’s easy to imagine concerns over commercial usage in genres such as fashion or fine art. But in most cases, photography is used commercially as a way to document real-life occurrences or locations, such as a wedding day, a news event, or a travel destination – and it would be extremely difficult to effectively replace this kind of photography with an AI image generator.

There is, of course, also a certain magic in capturing the beauty of a moment you have witnessed. And when you consider this, it’s difficult to imagine a world of humans without photography.

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The photography industry in 2022: What state is it in?

Peter Townshend — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 16:55:48 +0000

A number of recent studies have highlighted the challenges faced by professional photographers. Here, we examine the main issues and what can be done.

The photography industry was undoubtedly hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdown restrictions brought a reduction in income for a large proportion of self-employed photographers around the world. But how has the industry recovered? And what can we expect from the future?

We take a closer look at two recent surveys that aim to provide an insight into the state of the photography industry in 2022.

A positive start

In April this year, the 2022 State of the Photography Industry Report was released. Conducted by photography web platform providers Format and Zenfolio, this report collates data obtained from a survey of 3,398 photographers from around the world.

Of those surveyed, 71% were full- or part-time, self-employed photographers, while the remaining 29% consisted of hobbyists, students, and full-time employees.

The survey confirmed the huge impact the pandemic had on business, with 63.8% of surveyed photographers experiencing a drop in activity. Alarmingly, this was a drop of more than 40% for 43.6% of respondents, illustrating the scale of the problem.

It’s easy to see why the effects were so profound, with 59.5% of respondents saying they generate revenue from photo shoots, which rely on face-to-face contact.

However, despite such gloomy results in 2021, the outlook for 2022 was positive, with 32.2% of photographers thinking that business will remain steady and 56.5% expecting things to get busier.

This outlook aligns with the more general expectation that there will be a surge in group events such as parties, weddings, commercial events, and trade shows after such a long period of isolation.

A profession in crisis

While the above report paints a hopeful picture for the industry in 2022, the State of Photography 2022 report, which arrived a month later, provides an altogether less positive assessment.

The report, which was compiled by researchers Tara Pixley, Martin Smith-Rodden, David Campbell, and Adrian Hadland, in collaboration with CatchLight and Knight Foundation, aims to provide an insight into how a photographer’s ethnicity, gender, disability, and nationality affect their chances of success in the industry.

The study focused on 1,325 photographers from 87 countries, with 49.46% of respondents identifying as female, 46.23% as male, and 1.97% as non-binary.

The results suggest that the pandemic had a long-lasting impact, with 54% reporting a “great deal” or “moderate” level of personal debt. In fact, 46% of women said they were considering leaving the profession altogether due to financial insecurity.

There was also found to be an overall disparity in pay for historically marginalized groups, specifically defined in the report as women, those identifying as non-binary, and people of color (POC), who reported a median income of $20,000-$29,999 per year, compared to $40,000-$49,999 for those who did not identify as being in any of these three groups.

This adds further negativity to an already discouraging finding that over half of respondents earn less than $40,000 a year after tax, and as much as 30% earn less than $20,000.

Furthermore, over half of respondents claimed to supplement their income with other work, suggesting that the photography industry alone is unable to support the lives of many of its members.

A challenging future

While the first of these studies offers a more hopeful outlook than the second, both point toward an industry that is currently facing challenges.

But while it has certainly had a significant impact in recent years, industry problems are rooted deeper than the difficulties brought by the pandemic. The democratization of photography, the arrival of the digital age, and overall image value leakage has meant decades of depreciation for the industry as a whole.

Research shows there were over 6.2 billion smartphone subscriptions worldwide in 2021. That equates to a single subscription for over 75% of the world’s population – and many of these phones will be equipped with a pocket-sized digital camera.

When you combine this with the arrival of the internet and the insecure image formats that are used to display photographs reportedly leading to €532.5bn of annual losses, it’s clear that something needs to change if the photography industry is to remain sustainable.

New opportunities

While wider access to more advanced photo equipment is not something that can or should be stopped, the same can’t be said for photography value leakage. Indeed, its prevention could play a key role in the survival of the industry.

Sitting at the heart of the problem are the current online image file formats such as JPEG, PNG, and GIF, which can be easily stolen with a right-click, screenshot, or drag-and-drop action.

There are a number of ways photographers can try to combat this, such as watermarking, downsampling, and adding copyright information to image captions or metadata, but none provide a complete solution. They either sacrifice image quality or user experience, both of which can themselves have a detrimental impact on the value of an image.

The key to solving this issue is by protecting images from being stolen in the first place.

Technology such as image streaming can provide protection against right-clicks, drag-and-drop actions, and screenshots, while at the same time enhancing user experience through interactive features such as multi-level zoom and full-screen viewing.

This technology also allows photographers to view image analytics data and even control image distribution, with optional share buttons and the ability to block domains if required.

What’s more, when images are streamed, it’s possible to serve contextually targeted digital ads in the frame. This opens up a whole new revenue stream for photographers as a share of the ad revenue goes straight into the image owner’s pocket.

Conclusion

The 2022 State of the Photography Industry and State of Photography 2022 reports provide evidence of how the effects of the pandemic, combined with decades of devaluation, mean it’s now harder than ever to earn a living as a photographer, especially for marginalized groups.

It’s a clear warning that something needs to be done to ensure the profession remains sustainable in the modern digital world.

With value leakage and low income forming a large part of the issue, further exacerbated by a disparity of pay and opportunity, image streaming offers a way to secure assets, boost engagement, reach wider audiences, and increase revenue, all with minimal disruption.

The online digital landscape is constantly evolving. So isn’t it time to question why we continue to use the same image formats online that we always have?

The post The photography industry in 2022: What state is it in? appeared first on SmartFrame.

Do you own the copyright to a photo of yourself? Probably not – and here’s why

Joel Miller — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:26:47 +0000

Following a number of cases in which celebrities have been sued for posting photos of themselves on social media without permission, we explore the rules around this aspect of copyright law

Our recent article on the rules around posting photographs of other people on social media explained the various restrictions that different platforms imposed. But when it comes to posting photos of yourself, what’s actually allowed?

Believe it or not, being the subject of a photograph doesn’t necessarily mean you own the rights to it. Indeed, there has been a flurry of cases in recent years in which high-profile celebrities from the worlds of sport, music, and reality TV have found themselves in trouble after posting photos of themselves to social media without permission from the copyright holder.

Here, we take a closer look at the rules, list some specific examples of subjects being accused of copyright infringement on social media, and discuss ways in which all parties can protect themselves.

Do you own the copyright to photos of yourself?

Not necessarily. While privacy laws were put in place to protect the subjects of photographs, copyright laws are designed to protect the creators. As explained in the USA’s Copyright Act of 1976 and the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the copyright to any photograph, regardless of who or what it features, falls by default to the person who took it.

The main exception to this is when there has been some kind of contractual agreement beforehand, such as when an individual takes photographs during their employment. This could be a photographer who is shooting on behalf of a commercial organization, for example, or a staff photojournalist working for a newspaper.

While there are some exemptions, listed for the US here and the UK here, it is safest to assume that unless a subject of a photo has been assigned the copyright – or indeed, the photo is a selfie – they need to seek permission from the copyright holder before they can publish it.

Learn more: Copyright and images: What you need to know

If asked, it is unlikely that your best friend will mind you using a photo they took of you as your personal profile picture. On the contrary, they will probably be quite flattered. The same could be true even for a professional who took your photo at a relative’s wedding. Many photographers will simply request that they be credited.

Problems arise in the eyes of the photographer – and the law – if subjects use the images for commercial gain without prior permission. If there is evidence to suggest a photographer has lost earnings from such action, they will likely seek reimbursement.

Photographer vs subject copyright infringement case examples

Here are a few recent examples of image owners filing lawsuits against subjects for publishing photographs of themselves without permission.

Robert Barbera sues Dua Lipa

New York-based photographer Robert Barbera is currently suing British singer Dua Lipa for allegedly publishing photos he took of her in 2018 without his permission.

The photographs were posted to the singer’s Instagram page in 2019. Barbera argues that because the page is used to promote Lipa’s music and brand, his work benefited her financially.

Barbera is therefore seeking actual damages, disgorgement of all profits linked to the infringement, and court costs.

Both parties have form. Lipa faced a similar case brought by Integral Images in July 2021, while Barbera has previously filed lawsuits against Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.

The case is ongoing.

Backgrid sues Lisa Rinna

Photo agency Backgrid brought a copyright infringement case against reality TV star Lisa Rinna in June 2021, claiming she published photographs they own of her without its permission.

The photographs, which were taken by paparazzi photographers represented by Backgrid, were posted to Rinna’s Instagram account. At the time, Rinna had 2.7 million followers.

Backgrid launched a legal campaign demanding $1.2m in statutory damages, claiming loss of income. Rinna responded by asking the judge to dismiss the case, saying Backgrid “effectively weaponized the Copyright Act to augment its income.”

The two parties have reportedly now settled with the court, avoiding the need for a public trial.

Steven Mitchell sues LeBron James

Sports photographer Steven Mitchell sued LA Lakers basketball player LeBron James for using a picture he took of James dunking the ball against the Miami Heat in 2019.

The suit was filed in March 2020 against both James and his companies, Uninterrupted Digital Ventures and LRMR Ventures LLC, which Mitchell says manage the player’s Facebook page.

According to court documents, Mitchell was seeking profits made from the Facebook post, or $150,000 for every time James used the image.

Interestingly, James responded by filing a countersuit against Mitchell for $1m, arguing that Mitchell was unlawfully using photographs of James on his website to promote his business.

In the end, both parties reached a settlement outside of court that resulted in the closing of both lawsuits in February 2021.

Why does this keep happening?

The above cases are just a small selection of recent examples. Celebrities such as Kendrick Nunn, Khloe Kardashian, Gigi Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski have all found themselves in similar situations. But why does this keep happening?

Arguably the biggest reason for the increase in cases like this is the free-sharing nature of social media, which provides access to enormous audiences that are often completely out of the publisher’s control. When combined with increasingly blurred lines between editorial and commercial content, you have a recipe for litigation.

At the heart of the problem sit the insecure image formats that are used online. Formats like JPEG, PNG, GIF, and others can easily be copied and redistributed with minimal effort.

This lack of protection leaves the images open to theft, but it is important to remember that not all theft is deliberate.

The fact that these images can be so easily copied and misappropriated means that users unfamiliar with copyright law are often stealing them without even realizing they are doing anything wrong.

Preventing copyright infringement

Several measures can be taken to protect both parties, such as watermarking, downsampling, and adding copyright information to image captions or metadata.

However, none of these offer a comprehensive solution that finds the right blend of strong protection and compelling presentation.

For example, effective watermarking and downsampling sacrifice image quality by either obscuring the image or reducing its resolution, while standard captions are not permanently attached to the image, and metadata can be easily deleted – if it is ever actually seen in the first place.

The most comprehensive solution out there is the use of image-streaming technology. In a nutshell, it is a new way to display images online that provides a more secure and engaging alternative to the current file formats.

With image streaming, the content owner uploads a high-resolution image file to a secure central server and streams it to websites using an embed code – much like embedding a YouTube video.

This makes it possible for an image to appear on unlimited web pages without a single copy being made.

Each image is displayed in high resolution with interactive features such as multi-level zoom and full-screen viewing while maintaining fast page-loading times. This creates the perfect balance between quality, security, and user experience.

If fully integrated, image streaming could revolutionize social media networks, providing a safer and even more engaging place to connect. Below is a rundown of how the technology can benefit all parties involved.

Benefits to content owners

For content owners, there are a number of benefits when using our technology starting with full distribution control over their images, allowing them to monitor and manage where their content appears across the web.

Through a comprehensive list of URLs, owners can easily track unauthorized use and promptly block domains whenever needed.

As well as that, our theft protection features make it significantly harder for images to be stolen, with measures against right-clicks and screenshot attempts.

Permanent attribution is ensured through embedded captions and credits, guaranteeing that images are always correctly attributed, regardless of where they’re shared.

Lastly, image analytics are provided to give the creators valuable insights into viewership metrics such as detailed data on image views and their origins.

Benefits to content sharers

For content sharers, our platform offers customizable deterrent messages triggered by right-click or screenshot attempts.

These messages inform users about copyright protection and direct them to the terms and conditions of sharing, educating them on legal sharing practices and preventing unintentional theft.

Like content owners, sharers benefit from permanent attribution, as embedded captions and credits accompany images wherever they’re shared, ensuring proper crediting and contextual integrity.

Benefits to social media platforms

By streaming every displayed image from a single source file, social media platforms can better police and trace images back to their origin, making it a more manageable task and enabling swift action if necessary.

Our controlled distribution options, including optional sharing buttons, help platforms maintain exclusivity over shared content, ensuring images remain within the intended platform ecosystem.

Calls for changes to the law

Following her experience, Emily Ratajkowski wrote an article for The Cut that raised questions about the rights people have to photographs of themselves. Her view is shared by other celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and Gigi Hadid who have both called for changes to the law.

Copyright law has, however, been designed to protect the creator, so image owners may argue that any exceptions could lead to abuse, especially if the image is in the public interest.

Final thoughts

Whatever the law says, image formats that are currently used online can easily leave all parties unprotected against image misuse, whether deliberate or not.

With this in mind, we believe the main focus should be on protecting those at risk by educating everyone involved on what is permissible and what isn’t, while also preventing images from being stolen in the first place.

The post Do you own the copyright to a photo of yourself? Probably not – and here’s why appeared first on SmartFrame.

Creating new revenue for photo agencies: Joel Miller talks image monetization

Peter Townshend — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 13:38:10 +0000

Joel Miller, Global Director of Content Sales at SmartFrame Technologies, discusses new opportunities in the stock photo industry and describes his role in protecting and monetizing digital image content

What brought you to the position you’re in today?

Fresh out of film school, and after a year working as an assistant film editor, I decided to work for one of the first stock motion agencies, Film Search, which was bought by The Image Bank (and then ten years later, Getty Images).

I spent 12 years running sales divisions for The Image Bank and The Associated Press’s Wide World Photos (now called AP Images). After that, I moved to the vendor side, helping photo agencies monetize image assets through print-on-demand services, and then compliance where I led two of the world’s largest copyright-compliance businesses: PicScout and ImageRights International.

In February of 2020, I joined SmartFrame. Given the company’s focus on both protecting and monetizing images, it felt like a perfect fit.

How did you get involved with SmartFrame?

During my time working for compliance companies, I saw SmartFrame at all the industry conferences and quickly became interested in what it was trying to do.

It made a lot of sense, but I knew it would take some convincing since so many agencies had almost become dependent on copyright infringement and compliance. Once I saw that monetization was part of SmartFrame’s plan, I was excited and came on board.

Describe your role at SmartFrame

SmartFrame’s primary focus is to monetize images through in-image advertising.

There are three pillars to that effort: image owners, publishers, and advertisers. My focus is the first of the three, so I work with photo agencies and content providers to make their images available to publishers as SmartFrame embeds.

My goal is to bring agencies and content providers to this new model so we can increase their overall revenue through in-image advertising. The current model of image licensing will never go away, but how that content is delivered will change.

Delivering it through streamed embeds will not only protect image content from copyright infringement and loss of attribution, but also bring additional revenue through in-image advertising.

What have been the biggest changes to the industry during your career?

The digital age. When I first started in the photo industry, clients either searched for images through catalogs that were sent out multiple times a year, used lightboxes to view chromes that were curated by researchers and shipped, or came in to view chromes on agency lightboxes.

When I worked in the NY Image Bank office, we had a row of ten giant lightboxes that were often filled with clients or company researchers, and we had a traffic division that spent hours a day chasing down chromes from clients that held onto them for too long. The digital age changed all of that!

What are the biggest challenges faced by image libraries and content owners today?

Protecting images and finding new ways to monetize them are probably the biggest industry challenges.

Once an image gets licensed and used by a client, it is no longer ‘protected’ and is lost in the wind without attribution. Anyone can simply drag and drop it to their desktop.

It’s why so many agencies today rely heavily on copyright tracking and compliance companies, depending on, and forecasting for, that revenue.

The real challenge is finding meaningful ways to monetize their images that make it either easier for their clients to use – integrating APIs, for example – or making the image more valuable for their clients, such as by having the image do more with CTAs, ad revenue, and the generation of data and analytics.

What are the biggest opportunities?

While the nature of the online ecosystem has presented problems for the industry, this freedom to easily view, share, and repurpose images has also opened up huge opportunities.

Image libraries are currently spending a large amount of time and resources trying to discover illegal use of their images, which can often feel like fighting a losing battle.

Instead of working against this free-sharing culture, it’s now possible to work with it, and even make money out of it. By streaming images rather than using easy-to-steal formats like JPEGs or PNGs, stock libraries can better protect their assets while making money from in-image advertising.

Under this ‘get-paid-as-you-go’ model, the more views an image gets, the more revenue it generates. This means that what has historically been the scourge of the industry becomes its biggest generator of income.

What does the future of the industry look like to you?

The digital age has brought with it challenges for the stock industry, but I believe the potential opportunities outweigh the negatives.

Image streaming offers a new monetization model for stock libraries that can generate enough fresh revenue to match and exceed the traditional licensing model for online images.

Considering that global digital advertising spend amounted to $521.02bn in 2021, I think it’s a very exciting time for the industry. We’re on the brink of a whole new era of photography in which more money goes in the right pockets.

The sooner libraries adopt this new monetization model the better equipped they’ll be for the future.

The post Creating new revenue for photo agencies: Joel Miller talks image monetization appeared first on SmartFrame.

Counterfeit goods online: How big is the problem and how can you combat it?

Robert Sewell — Thu, 12 May 2022 09:55:54 +0000

The internet has brought great opportunities for retail, but it’s not all positive. We look at the growth of the counterfeit goods market and how retailers can protect themselves.

The growth of online shopping has been steady for a number of years, and with the global pandemic introducing many consumers to the convenience of e-commerce in everyday life, those numbers are now higher than ever.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) reported that 70% of Europeans bought something online in 2020. US e-commerce sales, meanwhile, are projected to exceed $1tn in 2022 and to make up nearly 22% of total retail sales by 2026.

Such figures show the extensive reach, growth, and value of the e-commerce market, but where there is great value, there is inevitably the risk of bad actors – in this case, from the burgeoning online counterfeit goods market.

How big is the counterfeit goods market?

According to recent figures, the value of the global counterfeit goods market was $449bn in 2019 – larger than the entire economy of Ireland.

Furthermore, in March of the same year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported that trade in counterfeit and pirated goods makes up 3.3% of global trade and stated that this figure was continuing to rise.

These are startling figures – and when you consider the potential impacts the fake goods market can have on economies, businesses, and everyday people, they become even more concerning.

What proportion of the counterfeit goods market is traded online?

While it is difficult to provide a definitive figure, a joint EUIPO-OECD study found that between 2017 and 2019, over 50% of counterfeit goods seized on entry to the EU were related to online transactions.

This could be seen as an indication of the potential overall scale of the problem. The knowledge that it is this significant online certainly makes sense when you consider that largely unregulated digital environments allow criminals to better maintain their anonymity and remain as elusive as possible to the authorities.

What is the impact of counterfeit goods on businesses?

The effects of IP theft and counterfeiting on businesses are huge. In 2020, global losses resulting from the sale of bogus goods amounted to €26.3bn in the clothing sector alone.

But while the sale of fake products at cheaper prices can have a big impact on bottom lines, the wider issue is the effect it can have on a brand’s reputation.

Counterfeit goods can lower customer satisfaction and erode brand value. For example, if a consumer receives a product they believe is genuine, they will expect a certain level of quality. Therefore, if that product is a substandard fake that arrives faulty or fails shortly after purchase, they will understandably be disappointed.

Research shows that 77% of consumers regularly read reviews when researching local businesses and that only 3% would consider buying from a business with an average rating of two stars and under.

In a marketplace where reviews are this powerful, dissatisfied customers can be particularly damaging to a brand’s reputation.

Additionally, businesses could find themselves wasting time and resources dealing with undeserved complaints and even making unnecessary refunds.

Learn more: Brand protection: The problems and solutions around keeping your brand safe online

What is the impact of counterfeit goods on consumers?

From a consumer’s point of view, counterfeit goods can present a tempting opportunity to buy expensive items at a fraction of their typical retail price, but this is often a false economy.

Rock-bottom prices usually go hand in hand with rock-bottom quality. This means it is likely that counterfeit items will need to be replaced long before their genuine equivalents would, which ultimately means higher costs in the long term.

The negative impact of fake goods isn’t just financial. In many cases, it can also pose a serious health risk.

One example is the global trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals, which the EUIPO and OECD estimate is worth up to $4.4bn (and, according to the World Health Organization, has harmful effects in every region in the world).

Ineffective or weakened pharmaceuticals can leave ailments untreated or contribute to drug-resistant infections, while unknown ingredients could provoke unexpected side effects, allergic reactions, and, in some cases, even death.

Another example is electronic goods. A report from UK charity Electrical Safety First states that faulty electrical products are the cause of more than 7,000 house fires a year in the UK. The report goes on to state the results from tests of a number of counterfeit products, including phone chargers and hair straighteners, many of which were found to have posed a serious safety risk.

Finally, an often overlooked negative impact of fake products is that of privacy. There are reports of fake software updates and cases of Android phones being imported from the gray market with malware pre-installed, both of which are designed to expose a user’s personal data to fraudsters.

What is the impact of counterfeit goods on society?

There are many implications that counterfeit goods have on a country’s economy, and the most obvious of these is the loss of tax revenue. Because revenues bypass official channels, governments lose funds from value-added tax, corporate income tax, and personal income tax that could otherwise be invested for the good of communities.

One OECD paper reported that in 2016, forgone tax revenue from the UK retail and wholesale sector amounted to £3.1bn. The same paper stated that at least 86,300 jobs were lost due to counterfeiting and piracy.

Other knock-on effects include an increase in the prices of legitimate products, as brands try to recoup the billions of dollars of global losses, and the aforementioned dangers to public health.

There is also a major humanitarian issue to consider. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) identifies clear links between counterfeit goods and transnational organized crime networks, stating that the sale of fake products could be connected to the trafficking of drugs, firearms, or people.

The role of images in the online counterfeit goods market

Before the days of e-commerce, it was possible to hold, inspect, and even test the product you were buying before handing over your money. However, in today’s digital environment, all you have to go on is the presentation of the website, the description of the item, and most importantly of all, the images used.

As it currently stands, anyone can go to a brand’s website and make copies of every official image they can find using a right-click, drag-and-drop action, or a screenshot. Using these images, they are able to create highly believable online product listings.

Possibly the most common place where fraudsters list their bootleg products online is e-commerce marketplaces. It is relatively quick and easy to set up a seller profile on one of these websites and, in doing so, criminals can gain fast access to a truly global market.

Alternatively, counterfeiters will often build an entire website that’s little more than a clone of an official site. By copying logos, matching brand colors and typefaces, and most importantly of all, using stolen official product photography, these websites can be astonishingly convincing.

How to combat the sale of counterfeit goods online

The big players in e-commerce have measures in place to stop the sale of counterfeit goods on their platforms. For example, eBay’s VeRO program and Amazon’s investment in AI to help weed out the fakes.

However, many believe it is too little too late, with Birkenstock having already left Amazon.com, and Nike having withdrawn as a first-party vendor from Amazon worldwide, each due to concerns over counterfeiting.

Preventing image theft

While any efforts to tackle the problem of counterfeit goods online are of course well-received, prevention is often better than cure.

A highly effective step towards achieving this is for brands to protect their images from theft at source. After all, the fake websites and listings mentioned above would be far less convincing without the use of official product photography.

By streaming images instead of displaying them in formats like JPEG and PNG, brands can ensure there is only ever one high-quality copy of each product photograph online.

For example, each of the images you can see in the body of this article is being streamed. This means they are protected from theft and can be displayed on an unlimited number of URLs without a single copy being made. It works in a similar way to embedding a YouTube video.

It is even possible to monitor where an image appears and control its distribution by preventing unwanted domains from embedding it. Furthermore, by attaching captions and credits at source, which will follow the image wherever it is embedded, it is possible to ensure the image always appears in context.

By preventing bad actors from stealing and repurposing valuable product photography, there’s no doubt that a counterfeiter’s job becomes much more difficult.

Conclusion

The online counterfeit goods market is undoubtedly a big issue for brands, consumers, and governments around the world. There will never be a quick fix for a problem of this scale, and indeed no single solution. However, by making changes to the way in which products are promoted, and protecting a brand’s assets at the same time, it could be possible to restrict these criminals’ ability to appear legitimate.

The post Counterfeit goods online: How big is the problem and how can you combat it? appeared first on SmartFrame.

How can publishers adapt to a constantly changing digital landscape? Paul Smith shares his thoughts

Peter Townshend — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 11:03:09 +0000

Paul Smith, Global Publishing Director at SmartFrame Technologies, talks to us about his career, his current role, and his views on the global digital publishing industry

Talk us through your career in the digital advertising and publishing industry

I started in the industry at a digital ad sales house called

Around six months later, I joined another company called JustPremium, which was a Netherlands-based organization that at the time didn’t have an office or an offering in the UK.

I met the managing director at an event and after overhearing what they were talking about, I asked them if they wanted to launch in the UK. They said yes, so we did a deal and I launched JustPremium in the UK about nine years ago. I was the number four in a team of around 150 globally when we sold the company to GumGum in 2021.

What do you love about the startup environment?

What I like about startups is the hunt. It’s about penetrating the market. It’s about educating the industry on what it is we do, how we do it, and how it will benefit the advertiser, the agency, and the publisher.

It’s about building a whole team around what the industry needs and turning a $10k test campaign into a multi-million-dollar, always-on advertiser that loves your tech because it produces results.

Starting from a relatively low base and then building something big – for me, that’s the fun part.

What’s your role as a publishing director?

My role is to introduce publishers to SmartFrame and show them how they can benefit from our technology. Publishers are only really interested in talking to you when a) you have money to bring to them or b) you can enhance the user experience. I believe we have the ability to deliver on both counts.

My objective is to show how the technology can bring in consistent revenue, increase dwell time, and offer publishers the ability to really take control of their images. Right now, the images they are either licensing or paying their own photographers to take can be effectively stolen and posted across the internet two minutes later. SmartFrame can help to prevent that.

Once publishers can see that their images are safe and it makes financial sense for them to use SmartFrame’s technology, it’s hard to find a reason not to get started.

How have things changed for publishers during your time in the industry?<

Things have changed massively. I’ve been in the industry for around 20 years and it’s a lot more grown-up now than it was before everything became trackable.

For example, there are now many more questions being asked with regard to margins. Greater clarity is required around who’s taking what, what percentage of the advertiser spend gets to the publisher, and what value has been added in between.

With this level of transparency, you have to be able to deliver value – otherwise, you just won’t last. SmartFrame has the ability to demonstrate value and that becomes clear very quickly once we start working with a publisher.

Also, advertisers now have a better understanding of digital than they did in the past. This means they can take a lot more control over their own digital spend because they have the ability to do so.

They no longer have to hand over $20m to an agency. With the right tools, they can buy the inventory themselves. Tech has allowed them to almost be their own agency, which gives them a better understanding of where they’re spending, what’s working, and what’s not working.

That’s another reason why SmartFrame is so well received; it has close relationships with both publishers and advertisers.

“My objective is to show how the technology can bring in consistent revenue, increase dwell time, and offer publishers the ability to really take control of their images.”

What are the challenges for publishers?

With the growth of programmatic, many would argue that publishers have less control over their inventory than they did before. However, you can flip that on its head and say that they actually now have more control than ever.

They have ads.txt to tell them who’s representing them globally, they set the floor prices for their own inventory, and they have the ability to enrich their impressions by adding first-party data – and nobody knows more about their audience than they do. So I think, on the whole, this has actually brought more opportunities than challenges.

Having said that, we have a cookie-less world coming to us soon, so how can publishers understand more about their audiences? Will they have login data that they’re going to be reselling or will they be using identifiers?

There is a lot that still needs to be sorted out, but one thing I do know about this industry is that we always overcome. We may leave it to the last minute, but we always come up with a plan.

How is the industry going to evolve in the coming years?

I think there will be subtle changes in the shorter term that may result in significant changes in a few years to come.

Connected TV is going to make a huge difference. The way we consume digital media is changing and I think that short-form media will become more popular as the younger generation consumes media very differently to older generations.

I have four teenagers in my house who very rarely watch TV, but they are constantly on their mobile phones watching very short-form pieces of content on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.

Advertisers and publishers both need to be able to adjust so they can talk to that audience in a way they feel comfortable.

What’s your advice for success as a publishing manager?

I think the most important ingredient is to listen to what the publishers are feeding back to you. There’s no point ramming a product down their throat that they’re not going to use.

I always feel that being in digital means being led by the market. It’s understanding what the market wants and why it wants it, then putting it together and delivering it.<

I’ve seen too many organizations come up with what they believe is a great product, only to fail by trying to take it to market without sufficient research.

So, my first three to four months in this role are for gaining a full understanding of the product that we have and whether it is what publishers are looking for. If it isn’t, I’ll be asking how we can change or diversify it slightly to turn it into a product that they want to integrate.

“In my experience it’s about testing new technologies, finding out what works, and building on that.”

How can publishers prevail in the challenging digital world?

I think publishers need to be brave enough to try things. Try new technologies, listen to what’s happening within the industry, and be open-minded, because you never know what piece of technology you take on board will make that big difference.

And sometimes it doesn’t have to be a huge change – even the slightest increments can have a big influence on your bottom line. If you can increase page yield by just 5%, you’ve done a good job. If you can increase user engagement, you’ll have better KPIs and therefore your CPMs will go up.

I don’t see one piece of technology completely changing the way publishers work, but small percentages of lift in CPMs and viewability make a huge difference. In my experience it’s about testing new technologies, finding out what works, and building on that.

The post How can publishers adapt to a constantly changing digital landscape? Paul Smith shares his thoughts appeared first on SmartFrame.

Historic England launches Aerial Photo Explorer tool using SmartFrame’s technology

Peter Townshend — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 11:47:11 +0000

Historic England has launched its Aerial Photo Explorer tool, which uses SmartFrame’s image-streaming technology to showcase hundreds of thousands of previously unavailable aerial images

It is now possible to gain a truly unique view of how England’s landscape has evolved over the past 100 years thanks to Historic England’s brand-new Aerial Photo Explorer tool.

Accessible from the Historic England website, this new feature lets visitors use an interactive map to search, scroll, and zoom in to landmarks across the country. When a location is selected, it opens a SmartFrame containing one of over 400,000 available aerial images that span an entire century.

By making it possible to view evidence of medieval settlements, see famous industrial landmarks in their heyday, and marvel at modern-day architectural wonders, this tool provides a fascinating glimpse into England’s past and present, while documenting its continued transformation into the future.

The collection is being made available as part of the ongoing digitization of over six million aerial photographs preserved in the Historic England Archive. As such, it will be continually updated with new images from the collection.

Enhanced user experience

The Aerial Photo Explorer is a great example of how SmartFrames and their interactive features can be used by image owners and publishers to fantastic effect. The Hyper Zoom function enables viewers to zoom in to the finest details of each image, while full-screen viewing offers an even more immersive experience, all without affecting page loading times.

By enabling the Share function in the top right-hand corner of each image, Historic England has also made it possible for site visitors to legally share its images on social media and even embed them on their own websites for free.

The latter can be achieved by simply clicking the ‘Embed’ button, copying the code, and pasting it into the text editor on the back end of a website (be sure to read Historic England’s terms and conditions beforehand).

By doing this, you are streaming the image from its original source file rather than making a copy, much like embedding a YouTube video.

Another great benefit of image-streaming is the ability to embed SmartFrame Captions at source – a feature put to good use here by Historic England. These captions ensure every image features a permanently attached credit that will follow it wherever it is streamed. Many also specify the landmark and location the image depicts, further improving the user experience.

Behind-the-scenes benefits

The benefits for the user are clear for all to see, but there are also huge advantages behind the scenes for Historic England. By using SmartFrame’s image-streaming technology, the organization is able to better secure its images against theft while maintaining complete control over their distribution.

This is achieved through right-click and screenshot protection, which helps prevent bad actors from making copies of Historic England’s image files, whether intentional or otherwise. The same security protects its photographs from image-scraping bots that can steal countless files in seconds.

In addition to this enhanced security, SmartFrame provides Historic England with detailed image analytics, which deliver valuable insights into how users are interacting with its content.

It is possible to see the number of impressions each SmartFrame has enjoyed, along with the amount of engagement it has received.

With all this security and control, Historic England can ensure its extensive archive of images is not only protected, but always used in context and for agreeable means.

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