Chicago Runners Launch App That Helps Everyone Take, Buy Race Photos

Store phone pics on google photos and use Instagram/twitter to sell for example "Jack Offski at #ChicagoMarathon Bib 12345"

None of uou morons understand copyright. There is no need to blur the logo. Think about it. Have you ever seen a picture in SI or some other rag with a players jersey showing a nike logo? SI didnt pay nike because their logo was in the photo.

There is no copyright issue here.

Dont Be an Idiot wrote:

None of uou morons understand copyright. There is no need to blur the logo. Think about it. Have you ever seen a picture in SI or some other rag with a players jersey showing a nike logo? SI didnt pay nike because their logo was in the photo.

There is no copyright issue here.

Yes. It is a contract issue.

ekw wrote:

. Once people start figuring that out, the market will be flooded with a gazillion photographers sending their photos to this app resulting in 10s of millions of photos for each major race. Not practical at that price point.

?

Huh? If they get lots of photos it helps them. The more photos there are to choose from, the more people will buy. What do you mean it's not practical.

This app is basically uber of race photos. They drive the price point way down. It's horrible for pro photographers though. I also wonder if a race could sue them.

I can't film a major league baseball game on my phone and sell it. Not sure about random photos. I imagine technically not.

It's a cool app idea. I mean it's pretty genius. If you had an app like this with facial recognition, imagine how amazing it would be. I could find every photo anyone ever took of me.

That being said, for race photos, I'm afraid it might not be legal. I can't periscipe an MLB game. Is a still photo different? If so, why?

So, I'm not a trademark expert, but I did a little research. Chicago marathon is trademarked, so these dudes are in the clear unless they do some really bad marketing:

http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2006/02/article_0010.html

Take aways "Unlike copyright law, trademark law as such does not restrict the use of a trademark in a photograph. What it does forbid is the use of a trademark in a way that can cause confusion regarding the affiliation of the trademark owner to the image. If consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that the trademark owner sponsored a photograph, then there may be trademark infringement"

As long as these guys never claim to be anything official, or affiliated with the marathon, I think they're in the clear.

However, I bet they could even skate this if they claim the Uber constant excuse of, "were a platform, we're not actually selling the photo" kind of thing.

Apppsicle wrote:

You're missing the entire point of the app, which is the functionality of the bib search. Are people supposed to just wade through 150,000 tweets and hope they find a picture of themselves?

Unfortunately for the app creators, the technology ALREADY EXISTS. There are already programs used by race photography companies that identify and catalog photos by numbers found in a photo. This new app may use a different algorithm to get to the same result but the technology is nothing new.

I wouldn't be surprised they run into some legal battles regarding a utility patent that already exists... In fact here are just three sites with claims to already have the technology:

ekw wrote:

Once people start figuring that out, the market will be flooded with a gazillion photographers sending their photos to this app resulting in 10s of millions of photos for each major race. Not practical at that price point.

?

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rojo wrote:

Huh? If they get lots of photos it helps them. The more photos there are to choose from, the more people will buy. What do you mean it's not practical.

Ever heard of the phrase "too many choices is a bad thing"?

At $5 per sold photo to the photographer, every guy with a camera (or camera phone) and his mother would be taking photos and uploading them to the app. The photo buyer would look up there bib number and be SLAMMED with WAY too many photos.

The point I was making (poorly I admit) was that ensuring the photo BUYER has a simple easy-to-navigate experience on the website/app would make them come back for return business. Too many photos could equal less sales in the end.

ekw wrote:

Apppsicle wrote:

You're missing the entire point of the app, which is the functionality of the bib search. Are people supposed to just wade through 150,000 tweets and hope they find a picture of themselves?

Unfortunately for the app creators, the technology ALREADY EXISTS. There are already programs used by race photography companies that identify and catalog photos by numbers found in a photo. This new app may use a different algorithm to get to the same result but the technology is nothing new.

I wouldn't be surprised they run into some legal battles regarding a utility patent that already exists... In fact here are just three sites with claims to already have the technology:

https://github.com/gheinrich/bibnumberhttp://www.scoutfoto.com/the-idea.htmlhttp://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~avidan/papers/RBNR.pdf

Licence Plate Reader Computers are used by police to scan cars on the road.

You'll need to negotiate a licence with ChiMara to sell commercial pictures.

So if I sell 20,000 pics per year I can afford to live in Manhattan.

Y'all are some ice team-eating motherf***ers. No one said it's new technology. It's an app that makes it easy for everyone at a race to upload and search one specific race, and then buy/sell the photos. If your other sites are better, go upload your photos to your site and see who buys them.

Enough with the sour grapes.

Too many photos? Are you kidding me? How about this...? we'll wait and see...

History isn't kind to those opposed to progress. Marathon Foto has been terrible since it was started. I for one am glad someone is disrupting them. You're like the old grump defending the rip-off cabs in DC and NYC who would rarely stop for you and, if they did, would ask where you wanted to go and then drive away without you half the time. Screw them. I love Uber.

Bring on the new and the better.

They should be okay as long as they don't get the bib logo in the photo or they blur it out.

I'm not sure the technology that identifies bib numbers works very well. Lots of the photo companies pay people overseas a small amount per photo to tag bib numbers. They might also do that because of patent issues.

I know other companies like Pic2go will print something like a large QR code that can be automatically identified and associated with a runner.

Lastly, the market is moving towards providing free photos to athletes and using it as an opportunity to sell sponsorship.

Thanks for dropping by, developer of this app!

Uber sucks. Unlicensed cabs. Love seeing them banned in various cities.

I, for one, like your app. Don't let these other fools bother you.

init wrote:

The market is moving towards providing free photos to athletes and using it as an opportunity to sell sponsorship.

LOL, that model is failing miserably right now. Go ask GameFace.

I believe Lifetime Events does it for all their events.

Almost a Laywer wrote:

So, I'm not a trademark expert, but I did a little research. Chicago marathon is trademarked, so these dudes are in the clear unless they do some really bad marketing:

http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2006/02/article_0010.html

Take aways "Unlike copyright law, trademark law as such does not restrict the use of a trademark in a photograph. What it does forbid is the use of a trademark in a way that can cause confusion regarding the affiliation of the trademark owner to the image. If consumers are likely to mistakenly believe that the trademark owner sponsored a photograph, then there may be trademark infringement"

As long as these guys never claim to be anything official, or affiliated with the marathon, I think they're in the clear.

This is correct, though the Chicago marathon being a registered trademark is beside the point. You can still have a trademark without registering it, you just don't have quite the same options for protecting it.