5 ms·

Show HN: An Image Licensing Platform just for Instagram (example profile)

25 points by harryleeming 7y ago

harryleeming 7y ago
Hi HN! If anyone hasn't read Max Dubler's 2017 PetaPixel blog post 'No, You Can’t Use My Photos On Your Brand’s Instagram For Free'. I'd highly recommend it. https://petapixel.com/2017/07/13/no-cant-use-photos-brands-instagram-free/ https://petapixel.com/2017/07/13/no-cant-use-photos-brands-i... There is a huge amount of copyright infringement that goes on on Instagram, but to be fair to users there isn't really any decent framework in place to make sure they're reposting legally. I built Sharefair over the last few months, it currently is only accessible if you have a creator account (currently limited by Instagram's new API). But I'm hoping to include all account types in the next few months. Let me know what you guys think!
- yodon 7y ago
  When I visit your site on mobile, 1/3 of the screen tells me your name (not your company's name - your name) and zero percent of the page gives me any details beyond "The easy way to get instant permission from photographers to share their images on your Instagram legally." Unless you personally matter to every potential customer I'd reverse those two percentages.
  - harryleeming 7y ago
    try the homepage sharefair.co/ :) I thought it would be more interesting to link to an actual licensing page for an Instagram profile, than the homepage. But I appreciate the feedback, definitely could make some improvements on the mobile side of things!
- cartoonworld 7y ago
  I love that you are helping creators to defend the value of their work! have you considered investigating partnering with legal startups such as legalzoom, legalist, or someone else to help time strapped creators send the nastygrams as well?
  - harryleeming 7y ago
    We haven't considered that properly, I think chasing up copyright infringement is a difficult one, especially for Instagram reposts where the payout will most likely be so low. Having said that, in the US, the CASE act, which will introduce a small claims court for exactly this kind of use case (excuse the pun) made it through the House of Representatives yesterday. So it's an interesting option for sure! https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/22/20927545/copyright-bill-house-congress-hakeem-jeffries-case-act-dmca https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/22/20927545/copyright-bill-...
- tyrust 7y ago
  Is there anything unique about your site that prevents Instagram from just implementing licensing themselves?
  - harryleeming 7y ago
    Nope, not at all. It would be great if they did though, it would actually give them an incentive to protect artists and photographers. Right now they are taking a real back seat with copyright infringement, which is a real shame because it's the creators that bring all the value to the platform and they're the ones that are losing out, whether it's not being properly attributed for their work or brands reposting their stuff without payment.
    - tyrust 7y ago
      Makes sense, thanks for taking a crack at fixing this problem!
Eric_WVGG 7y ago
I know a lot of people who could be in to this (both on the consumer and producer side). Great idea, good luck. I do worry if you maybe missed the mark by not launching as a mobile app, though.
dewey 7y ago
Completely blank website in Firefox if the Enhanced Tracking Protection is enabled.
- harryleeming 7y ago
  Urgh, trying to fix this now :(
  - JetSpiegel 7y ago
    It's still blank.
namwen 7y ago
This is a great idea. There's a lot of possibilities in tools/services which allow creators to monetize easily. Do you think there is an opportunity to allow sharing outside of Instagram? I.e licensing photos for use in articles, blogs, etc? Or is part of the advantage here that Instagram is a walled garden of sorts, where it's more difficult to steal a user's image?
- harryleeming 7y ago
  > Do you think there is an opportunity to allow sharing outside of Instagram? Absolutely. Although I think there is some power, at least initially, in focusing just on an Instagram specific license. But in the future 100% we'd love to add more license options for more traditional use cases
kevinastone 7y ago
Twenty 20[0] started as InstaCanvas providing licensing for instagram photos. It shifted towards a general stock photo catalog to increase inventory. [0]: https://www.twenty20.com https://www.twenty20.com
- harryleeming 7y ago
  I'll look into this, but I don't believe they have an image license specifically for Instagram reposts only
ruairidhwm 7y ago
Nice! I actually approached this problem from the other side a few years ago and made a service which let brands purchase the rights to users' Instagram photos. It was definitely an interesting experience, but this is a great way to help the users a bit.

25 points by harryleeming 7y ago

Hi HN! If anyone hasn't read Max Dubler's 2017 PetaPixel blog post 'No, You Can’t Use My Photos On Your Brand’s Instagram For Free'. I'd highly recommend it. https://petapixel.com/2017/07/13/no-cant-use-photos-brands-instagram-free/ https://petapixel.com/2017/07/13/no-cant-use-photos-brands-i... There is a huge amount of copyright infringement that goes on on Instagram, but to be fair to users there isn't really any decent framework in place to make sure they're reposting legally. I built Sharefair over the last few months, it currently is only accessible if you have a creator account (currently limited by Instagram's new API). But I'm hoping to include all account types in the next few months. Let me know what you guys think!

yodon 7y ago
When I visit your site on mobile, 1/3 of the screen tells me your name (not your company's name - your name) and zero percent of the page gives me any details beyond "The easy way to get instant permission from photographers to share their images on your Instagram legally." Unless you personally matter to every potential customer I'd reverse those two percentages.
- harryleeming 7y ago
  try the homepage sharefair.co/ :) I thought it would be more interesting to link to an actual licensing page for an Instagram profile, than the homepage. But I appreciate the feedback, definitely could make some improvements on the mobile side of things!
cartoonworld 7y ago
I love that you are helping creators to defend the value of their work! have you considered investigating partnering with legal startups such as legalzoom, legalist, or someone else to help time strapped creators send the nastygrams as well?
- harryleeming 7y ago
  We haven't considered that properly, I think chasing up copyright infringement is a difficult one, especially for Instagram reposts where the payout will most likely be so low. Having said that, in the US, the CASE act, which will introduce a small claims court for exactly this kind of use case (excuse the pun) made it through the House of Representatives yesterday. So it's an interesting option for sure! https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/22/20927545/copyright-bill-house-congress-hakeem-jeffries-case-act-dmca https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/22/20927545/copyright-bill-...
tyrust 7y ago
Is there anything unique about your site that prevents Instagram from just implementing licensing themselves?
- harryleeming 7y ago
  Nope, not at all. It would be great if they did though, it would actually give them an incentive to protect artists and photographers. Right now they are taking a real back seat with copyright infringement, which is a real shame because it's the creators that bring all the value to the platform and they're the ones that are losing out, whether it's not being properly attributed for their work or brands reposting their stuff without payment.
  - tyrust 7y ago
    Makes sense, thanks for taking a crack at fixing this problem!

Eric_WVGG 7y ago

I know a lot of people who could be in to this (both on the consumer and producer side). Great idea, good luck. I do worry if you maybe missed the mark by not launching as a mobile app, though.

dewey 7y ago

Completely blank website in Firefox if the Enhanced Tracking Protection is enabled.

harryleeming 7y ago
Urgh, trying to fix this now :(
- JetSpiegel 7y ago
  It's still blank.

namwen 7y ago

This is a great idea. There's a lot of possibilities in tools/services which allow creators to monetize easily. Do you think there is an opportunity to allow sharing outside of Instagram? I.e licensing photos for use in articles, blogs, etc? Or is part of the advantage here that Instagram is a walled garden of sorts, where it's more difficult to steal a user's image?

harryleeming 7y ago
> Do you think there is an opportunity to allow sharing outside of Instagram? Absolutely. Although I think there is some power, at least initially, in focusing just on an Instagram specific license. But in the future 100% we'd love to add more license options for more traditional use cases

kevinastone 7y ago

Twenty 20[0] started as InstaCanvas providing licensing for instagram photos. It shifted towards a general stock photo catalog to increase inventory. [0]: https://www.twenty20.com https://www.twenty20.com

harryleeming 7y ago
I'll look into this, but I don't believe they have an image license specifically for Instagram reposts only

ruairidhwm 7y ago

Nice! I actually approached this problem from the other side a few years ago and made a service which let brands purchase the rights to users' Instagram photos. It was definitely an interesting experience, but this is a great way to help the users a bit.