Finding infringed copies of your work online has just become easier. Reverse image search engines allow a user to scour the internet for specific images. This article lists the best ten reverse image search engines available. The article is useful, but not particularly well-written, so be forewarned!
Such technology is a boom to visual artists trying to protect their intellectual property against online infringement. In the past, an artist had to stumble across an infringer, or be informed by another party that his work was being infringed. Even an artist who spent time and energy searching out online infringers had a minimal chance of actually discovering an infringer.
With reverse image search engines, visual artists are discovering infringers at a far greater rate than before. I would strongly recommend to all artists who put their work online to use this technology to protect their intellectual property rights. One of the legal arguments an infringer uses is that the copyright owner knew about the infringement and did nothing, and therefore waived any ability to go after the infringer. Because this technology is available, I could image an infringer arguing that because the artist did not use it to seek out infringers, the artist has waived the right to seek legal redress from the infringer. The artist willfully ignored programming that would allow him to discover an infringer–and many legal decisions revolve around the ability of the plaintiff to discover a wrong. If a plaintiff has the tools to quickly discover a wrong, and willfully does not use them, the harder it will be for a plaintiff to recover in a lawsuit over that wrong once discovered. The tools are now available for an artist to discover an online infringer, and every artist should make use of them.
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