Value Network Principles

The company that I am interning with this summer is a legal tech start-up whose main line of business is helping photographers find illegal uses of their photographs. Once there is a confirmed case of copyright infringement, they help the photographers receive the compensation they deserve. Their main product is an online advanced image tracking solution (image search engine) and their secondary “product” is actually a service, where they work on behalf of the photographers to resolve cases of unlicensed image use. Photographers are able to sign up on the platform online and upload their photos into the system, which then crawls the internet and searches for identical photos. When the image search platform generates matches, photographers are able to see where on the internet their photos are being used and will know if they gave permission for their photo to be used. Once they identify illegal uses of their photos, they can submit a case directly to the company, who will then act on behalf of the photographer by pursuing the photo thief  and trying to get compensation. Certain cases are handles in-house, while others are handles by one of the many law-firms in their network.

They have in-house technical support staff that deal specifically with the supporting the online platform. Since they built the platform, they are able to fix any bugs, add new features, and any other issues that may arise with the platform. When dealing with resolving cases of copyright infringement, there is a team of case managers that work directly with photographers and the people/companies that illegally use their work in order to get the compensation owed. The team of case managers have to be focused, be able to multi-task, be well verse with the companies computer system and have good negotiation and customer service skills. Since majority of the photographers and creatives that use the online platform and resolution service are based in the United States, the network of law firms that handle the bigger cases are located throughout the states.