Stars gain control of online images

Sharing candid photos of celebrities on social networks like Facebook and Twitter is turning into a business opportunity for companies like Whosay.

Sharing candid photos of celebrities on social networks like Facebook and Twitter is turning into a business opportunity for companies like Whosay

When Tom Hanks posts a message to Twitter leading his 1.8 million followers to view a photo,perhaps of him in a candid moment on a movie set,it is sent to a special kind of site,one that gives him and other celebrities new control over their presence on social media. While most people on Twitter use a service like TwitPic,Yfrog or Plixi to share photos with their friends and followers,for celebrities,these services can come with strings attached,as they gain ownership rights to uploaded photos and can sell ads alongside them. A company called WhoSaya little-known start-up with a clientele that is anything but little knownoffers similar services,but grants ownership of the images to the stars themselves.

Operating in stealth mode since last year,WhoSay runs from the Los Angeles office building of the Creative Artists Agency,which represents a Rolodex of household names,including Hanks. His WhoSay site includes copyright Tom Hanks branding and a stack of fine print at the bottom asserting his legal ownership of all content,placed against warnings of fines and imprisonment for improper use.

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WhoSay has about 15 people on staff,with offices in New York and London in addition to the one in Los Angeles,said Steve Ellis,the companys chief executive. Creative Artists and Amazon.com have minority stakes,among other investors,he said.

The companys client list,by invitation only and not limited to Creative Artists,includes Kevin Spacey,Jim Carrey,John Cusack,Bill Maher,Johnny Knoxville,Chelsea Handler,Eva Longoria,Spike Lee,Enrique Iglesias,Katie Couric and more. The companys services also include automated copyright branding and a private mobile app that loops in publicists,allowing celebrities Facebook and Twitter updates to be controlled by staff.

By devising ways to protect,manage and eventually make money off celebrity activity on social networks,WhoSay aims to change how famous people behave online. We work with people who are constantly being utilised by third parties for the wrong reasons, said Ellis. The company was formed,he wrote,to give celebrities and other influential people a set of tools to allow them to manage and control their presence in the digital world.

WhoSay seeks to protect against situations like one in January,when Plixi,which hosts images,even made a deal to broker and sell photos uploaded by celebrities through a British news organisation. Celebrity traffic to our site represents 10 to 15 per cent of all of our traffic, said Sean Callahan,a founder of Plixi.com. But sharing profits with the celebrities was not part of the plan,and Plixi quickly reversed the deal after the company was contacted by a displeased celebrityCallahan would not say who. Celebrities using WhoSay,however,can bypass Plixi (or even Facebook and Twitter) to share content. Instead,they use the companys secure software to create an update,which is then automatically pushed into their social feeds. For fans,the end result is not noticeably different. For celebrities,it changes a lot.

Jeremy Beiler