SINGAPORE – October 21, 2013 – Image hosting service embed has recruited Robert Henson as Vice President of Business Development, embed announced in a press release.
A long-time advocate of creator’s rights, Henson is Picture Archive Council of America’s ex-president.
With 15 years of experience in commercial and editorial digital media, Henson specializes in licensing and distribution, and has previously worked at industry leaders, such as Getty Images. Henson often speaks at conferences about the industry, and actively writes posts on industry trends, technology and issues.
At embed, Henson will be responsible in content acquisition, user adoption and thought leadership. He hopes to “deeply embed it as the standard in online image use,” he said.
Industry problems: Attribution and monetization
According to Henson, issues that commonly occur within the industry are: “Attribution”, and “Monetization.”
Though the usage and discovery of images do validate its creators—and validation is important—validation does not address these attribution and monetization issues that evade creators in online usage, embed said.
“As images get shared, they find themselves on an increasing amount of websites without any connection to the owner—images get divorced from their rightful owner and online infringement churns,” Henson wrote on embed’s blog.
embed as a solution, empowerment
Instead of letting images get lost in the internet from the never-ending sharing and posting, embed solves these issues by empowering creators and users—creators are given control of their content, and users can easily and ethically use content. Usage of the images can be tracked and monetized.
“If that image is yours, it should be known, and if that image is being used, you should have the right to be compensated fairly for it,” Henson writes. “ embed, as I do, believes not only in allowing image creators to get the attention and payment they deserve for the use of their images—fairly—but also in the method and technology.
“ embed gives you the power to set your own price, and embed secures your attribution on sites that use your image is easier than using an image illegally (without authorization). In an online environment where illegal use profoundly hampers a creator’s rights, embed is a solution without peers,” Henson added.
