With the Internet being all pervasive and worldwide, it pays
to check out where your images may show up and in what context they have been
used. The web makes it very easy for someone to grab and save an image for an
unauthorized form of use. And now with Google Image, Google’s image collecting
search engine, an image can be grabbed without having to visit the original URL
where it resides. By initiating image checks, many illustrators are finding
examples of their work having been appropriated without their consent or
knowledge. And although many instances occur in editorial environments some
uses occur for commercial purposes.
Image plagiarism can come from more than one direction.
Firstly, we illustrators can be victims of it by having our work stolen and/or
used to create derivative illustrations. Secondly, we can unknowingly fall
victim to it through the adaptation of a previously seen image that stuck in
our memory that we have resurrected, subconsciously, to solve an illustration
problem. Although this does occur on rare occasions it is much less likely to convey
our relationship with plagiarism. Lastly, images can be checked against
pictorial reference sources to determine if there is a possible copyright
violation. Although it doesn’t happen often, an image check can reveal identity
results in all three areas.
Browser Image Searching
Google Image Search
There are two ways to search for images on Google. You can
upload an image file to Google Images and you can also use Google Search to
enter the file name of an image file.
Searching By Name
It is good practice to choose easily distinguishable file
names for your images. This makes them easier to track. When an image is plagiarized
for use on another site, it’s file name and metadata go with it if the person
who acquired it didn’t change the data, and many plagiarists overlook having to
do so to disguise the theft, especially persons unfamiliar with English.
Entering an
image file name on Google Search or any of other search engine can yield a positive result.
image file name on Google Search or any of other search engine can yield a positive result.
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The results of a search of one of my images (on the left
© 1992 Don Arday), revealed it had been plagiarized for use
as a book cover (on the right).
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Google Images can not only search for images by name, but
it can search for an image by using an uploaded image file. The image search
engine uses pattern and color recognition software to attempt to match those
attributes that exist in the image. At this point in time, as seen in the example below, the recognition
software lacks sophistication, but Google is working to improve
it.
Follow these steps to search by image file.
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| Go to https://www.google.com/imghp and click on the camera icon. |
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| Select "Upload an image" and locate the file you wish to search on your computer or mobile device. |
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| View results if a match is found. This is just a portion of the results from my search. |
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Google also suggests what it's recognition software finds to be images
with similar visual traits. Although none were found in this search,
this feature can be helpful in finding derivative images.
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Firefox Image Search
Who Stole My Pictures (WSMP) is a Firefox add-on that
makes three image search engines available though the Firefox browser. WSMP
differs from Google Image in that you must download an add-on to the Firefox
browser to search for a URL address image, or to upload an image file for a
search. Any image that has a URL
address can be searched. The extension must be installed in the Firefox browser
and is contained in a sub-menu that becomes available with “Who Stole My
Pictures” as an option when you right-click, or control-click, on an online
image. You can then choose between Yandex.ru, TinEye.com, or Google.com to
perform the image search. You can also upload an image from your computer.
Follow these steps to search.
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Open the Firefox browser and go to the URL containing an image file.
Then right-click (option-click) on an image. A flyout menu will appear.
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Mouse over "Who stole my pictures". Another flyout menu will appear with
the option to choose an available search engine.
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| TinEye is one of three options available. |
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Also available via the flyout menu, an image file can be uploaded to one of
the search engines.
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This was the result of the search from the image that was used in the Google
Image example and uploading it to the TinEye option in Who Stole My
Pictures on Firefox.
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Safari Image Search
BacTrack is the Safari add-on that makes multiple image
search engines available though the Safari browser. Like WSMP, you must
download an add-on in the browser to search for a URL address image or to
upload an image file for a search.
Any image that has a URL address can be searched. The extension is
contained in a sub-menu that becomes available. The BackTrack option appears when
you right-click, or control-click, on an online image. You can then choose
between Tineye.com, Bing.com, or Google.com to perform the image search.
You can also upload an image from your computer. Since it is so similar to WSMP, there was no need to show the step by step here.
Yandex
Yandex is another browser based image search service that
originates in Russia. Although entirely in Cyrillic text, Yandex uses universal
icons to make it easier to figure out, and there is also an English version
available through a link. The largest search engine in Russia, and similar to
Google Search, Yandex offers searching by filename, URL address, and image
upload.
Picsearch
An search engine specifically for image searching, Picsearch
will yield better search results than some other big search engines. The product
of a Swedish company, the Picsearch Image Search Engine features special filters
that you can use to search a subject specific image type, like searching by animation
or by faces, etc. It uses four kinds of filters; type, size, color and
orientation; and Picsearch contains a database of over 3 billion images.
Exalead
The Exalead Search Engine can be customized through several
filter options to search for faces, change a background to black
or white, or for prefixed size desktop wallpapers. It will search by color,
B&W, or by image size. You can click on options to view direct image links
with no frames, or click the image to browse the images and their source sites
in frames. Exalead was developed by Dessault Systemes, a France-based company.
Hosted Image Searching
Tineye
TinEye is a reverse image search engine that can search out the
origin of an image, the image use, modified versions of an image, and other resolutions
of an image. It is free to use for non-commercial searching. TinEye uses image
identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks to
locate an image and other derivative images. TinEye crawls the web for new
images, and we also accept contributions of
online image collections. To date, TinEye has indexed 5,554,463,739 images from
the web.
Another way to use TinEye is to install it as a browser
plug-in for Google Chrome. Although non-commercial searching is free, TinEye
has other commercial image search products including MatchEngine,
MulticolorEngine, MobileEngine, and PixID available as subscription services
for corporate clients.
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