Now, iCopyright would like to make instant online copyright permission possible for all of its pilot members and add another 20 or more publishing groups to the site by the end of the year. O'Donnell says the company already has agreements with 30 of the top 50 online publications, which represent about 80 percent of all Internet news traffic. If the company is able to attract the remaining 20 top publishers, O'Donnell predicts many more will soon follow. Currently, people have to track down the original publisher of an article, find the person who deals with copyright permission and turn in a request. Then, they often have to wait several weeks or more for approval to reprint or reuse the article.
Costs vary depending on the number of copies requested, but the first five printed copies are free.
The service went live on Jan. 18. Or I want 1,000 reprints for my press kit. Or I want to put it on my own Web site. The service helps solve the problem of piracy of intellectual property on the Internet. The company already has an extensive database of newspaper and magazine publishers and titles, which users can search and use to send an e-mail reprint permission request.