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PicScout Chosen to Testify before the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property at a Hearing on Orphan Works Legislation
WASHINGTON-(Business Wire)-March 27, 2008 - Digital content monitoring industry leader PicScout was called to testify recently before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property to provide information on how the company's image recognition software can be used to identify the original owner of copyrighted files that exist without attribution.
Following demonstration of its Content Clearance System in December at the U.S. Copyright Office, PicScout was the only technology company asked to return and talk more about its solution for the problem at the hearing, raising the possibility that PicScout's software might be selected for use by the U.S. Government.
PicScout Marketing and Sales Director, Maya Gura, explained before the Subcommittee on Courts how the company's Content Clearance System can help users to identify copyright owners of so-called "Orphan Works" - copyrighted files whose owners are seemingly impossible to identify or locate.
In 2005, the U.S. Copyright Office began to study issues related to Orphan Works. Concerns have been raised by various parties that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of copyrights might discourage both creators and users from incorporating these files in new artistic works, or from making them available to the public.
"I find PicScout's testimony before the Subcommittee both interesting and enlightening. I believe technology can provide a critical part of the solution in identifying the owners and original creators of Orphan Works," said the Chairman of the Subcommittee, Howard L. Berman.
"The US Copyright Office is very impressed by the image recognition and tracking capabilities of PicScout," said Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright Office. "Moreover, we are impressed by their leadership in forging new business models for copyright owners and new search tools for copyright users."
"We are well aware of the problem of Orphan Works in the copyright community and pleased to be a part of the solution available to the good-faith user," said Gura. "I am proud that PicScout was selected out of many other technology companies, but even more, I am proud to support the artists and encourage the great creation of art."
Additional speakers included Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright Office, Allan Robert Adler, Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs, Association of American Publishers, Corinne P. Kevorkian, President and General Manager, Schumacher, Karen C. Coe, Associate Legal Counsel, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Victor S. Perlman, General Counsel and Managing Director, American Society of Media Photographers. A record of the proceedings is available at www.copyrightoffice.gov.
About PicScout
PicScout (www.picscout.com) is the leading technology services provider to the digital content industry. For years, the company's flagship ImageTracker(TM) has been the industry standard application for helping visual assets owners control and monitor the distribution of their proprietary images across all media. Through its PicApp platform (www.picapp.com), PicScout allows online publishers to quickly and easily post creative and editorial images to blogs and web sites.
PicScout headquarters are in San Francisco. The company has a development and operations center in Herzelia, Israel.
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