I first wrote about the image copyright protection company, ImageRights, in 2015, and since that time they’ve gone on to be “the global leader in copyright enforcement services for photo agencies and professional photographers.”

If you’re not familiar with it, ImageRights deals with facilitating copyright registration in a timely manner, but it also has a discovery service which alerts you when some of your registered images are identified in use, and even a recovery service where they’ll assess your claim at no cost if someone is infringing your work, then go on to manage the claim, and even front the legal expenses.

Previously, you had to be a fully signed-up member with the company for the service, but now they’ve opened it up to everyone as per the release:

“ImageRights International, the global leader in copyright enforcement services for photo agencies and professional photographers, today announced the launch of a dedicated copyright registration service. For the first time, any photographer or agency can register their images with the United States Copyright Office through ImageRights highly efficient and precise copyright service. Previously, only ImageRights members had access to the service.

The service costs $99 on top of the USCO’s fee, which is more than what members pay, but still, it’s there for you.

The service also has blockchain protections, much like Binded,

“ImageRights also inscribes the USCO registration number, date, status and deposit copies into the Bitcoin blockchain through their Blockchain Inscription Service. By using SHA2, an asymmetric cryptographic function, ImageRights can safely and automatically convert any file into a representative hash value. An effective and much faster alternative to requesting and paying for copies of the deposit copies from the USCO, the hash can be used as validated proof that a file containing the USCO registration information and images covered by the registration existed at that time and can be a valuable tool for expediting settlement negotiations for infringement claims.”

[RELATED: BINDED WANTS TO DEMOCRATIZE COPYRIGHT, FOR FREE | HERE’S HOW IT WORKS]

This is likely something more photographers need to take seriously and paying for these protections could pay dividends later on. Copyright infringements are always going to happen. If you are a published photographer with any sort of presence it probably already has, and even if you’re not or it hasn’t, it probably will. Hell, it may have happened and you just haven’t a clue that it has. And if you do? That’s where this comes in handy.