Tools to Disrupt Unethical Scraping of Art: My Experience with Pixsy

Several years ago, I beta-tested through flickr an application now known as Pixsy.com that scans the internet for unauthorized uses of protected images. I continue to use the free version, which offers limited scanning capabilities, though paid tiers provide expanded monitoring and response options.

The system effectively allows users to review potential matches, verify ownership, and decide whether to ignore usage, issue takedown notices, or pursue other legal remedies. Since most of my Flickr images are posted under Creative Commons licenses permitting non-commercial reuse with attribution, I typically verify whether users have followed these terms.

While I've received occasional permission requests (which I usually approve for non-commercial users), I've only needed to issue one takedown notice when a local government publication used my work without acknowledgement. Though the digital version was removed, I suspect printed copies had already been distributed. Given the circumstances and potential legal costs, I chose not to pursue further action.

My recent monthly summary showed a significant increase in matches from social media platforms, particularly:

- Google, despite no longer actively posting to Google Photos (my content should be private except for occasional Blogger posts)

- TikTok matches via a "TikTok scraper" application (I have no TikTok account or uploads)

- Instagram matches (while my content is viewable there, it shouldn't be downloadable)

This unexpected proliferation of my images across platforms I believed were private or don't use, highlights the ongoing challenges in protecting digital creative work. Monitoring tools like Pixsy are a reasonable start. Still, there is obviously more to be resolved to ensure creatives don't have their work plundered to make a profit for unscrupulous others without permission or compensation.

Don't Worry, Stay Happy Taking Photographs

 Go figure I'm a keen photographer, but not really into Stories or Reels, bit over all the ads popping up on YouTube and definitely not in into Facebook or Tik Tok. I set up this blog primarily to share what I was discovering about digital photography. So, what happened?

My suspicion is the rise of social media has gobbled up original content, and used it to keep you watching so they can charge advertisers (and they make squillions). The actual creatives get lost in the millions of copycat wanna-bees and if they receive anything it's a pittance. See my post about Danny Gregory's recent essay.

Really unfortunately we the viewers of social media gets suck into the black hole of the death scroll, picking up the photo to look at social media way too often, swiping and swipe again without really paying attention, not properly looking, swiping and swiping some more. At the end you don't feel refresh, you are more likely to feel frustrated or depressed. As Adam of Firstman Photography points out you are much better off spending the time actually out photographing, getting the benefit of exercise and being out in the real world, perhaps even nature.

It worth watching to the end because Adam gives some very heart-felt encouragement for those of us with a deep passion for and care about photography to stick in there

Well am I doing anything about it! YES

You can make the change too. It's easy to put down your phone and pick up your camera (or click on a different icon/app on your smartphone, phones can be good cameras too).

Ok what about sharing your photos? That will be an upcoming post (soon but not exactly sure when),