Picture this: your firm’s marketing department sends over a request for some stock images for use in an online campaign. With multiple demands coming your way, you quickly dig around in your digital archives, looking for the right image but failing to check the fine print — in this case, the copyright and license metadata for each image. Finally, the perfect image comes across your screen, and you fire it off to the marketing department, confident that it’ll make a sparkling new web advertisement.

Some months later, you get a notice saying that the image in use has violated the terms of the license.  Now, the legal department has to get involved.

It’s the type of tale that would give any employee — or Chief Legal Counsel — a nightmare. And for businesses that are overwhelmed and under-resourced, it can generate all types of panic and paranoia. Unfortunately, this story is a real-world occurrence. For example, Getty often licenses its images for one-year usage (rights-managed usage). However, the actual JPG files are downloaded and stored on a hard drive, often without a digital asset management tool to keep track of license metadata. Instead, they’re put into a stock folder for future use. And large companies like Getty have the means to track usage, often outsourcing to firms that search for digital fingerprints across the web to make sure that images are properly used, both visually and legally.

In some cases, the violator will get a cease-and-desist notice. For that situation, the cost comes with the overhead of recalling a marketing campaign. A small marketing campaign may simply have to swap out an image on a website, but if the campaign has received wide distribution across a number of media streams, then the issue becomes much bigger. Not only do things have to be recalled and undone, marketing departments will have to double their efforts in creating a replacement campaign.

That’s just one scenario, but this can play out in many different ways. Getty has had some of their cases go public, and the process involved a lawsuit before settling out of court. In one such case, the settlement was the equivalent of about $4,000 — but there were plenty of other costs attached to that.

Legal fees add up fast; in that particular case, the final legal bill was about $40,000 — a stake in the heart for a small company. At the same time, news of this leaked and was picked up by search engines. As celebrities and athletes have shown us, nothing is safe in the age of the internet, and companies noted for a Getty Image usage violation can have this stigma attached to their name thanks to the way Google indexes news and search results. For the small company in question, their public image took a beating over a tiny mistake, and the collateral damage was untold amounts of dollars in lost business.

The math is simple — between the settlement and legal fees, that’s $44,000 simply removed from the company’s resources. The moral of the story is that digital asset rights management is absolutely critical in today’s business world. It doesn’t matter if an honest mistake was innocently made, and sure, there’s a chance that rights violations may never get caught. But the bottom line is that it’s a high-wire act for any organization to try, especially if it impacts long-term business potential.

The solution, then, is smart digital asset management. We’ve long passed the days when you can right-click a file and save it to the desktop to be used later. Today, image rights are imprinted on the file’s metadata, making it simple to track with the appropriate tools. An effective digital asset management application can read and track image rights usage — and limit file usage once those rights have expired. It’s an automatic safeguard against the legal pitfalls of digital images and media.

If you’ve been holding off on investing in a digital asset management application because storing files on a hard drive seems easy enough, then you’re only seeing part of the picture. One simple click can turn into tens of thousands of dollars in lost capital. Now weigh that against the cost of an effective digital asset management system that can track rights usage. The smarter, safer investment is obvious, and you also receive the functional benefits of digital asset management. In the information age, this safety net isn’t just a luxury — it’s becoming a necessity.

FETCH SOFTWORKS
http://fetchsoftworks.com/

Fetch is a full-featured file transfer client exclusively for Mac users. Fetch supports both FTP and sFTP file transfer protocols to ensure compatibility with most internet providers, web-hosting companies, publishers, and more. The Droplet shortcuts and Dashboard widgets make it easy to upload files and track the progress of the upload through the user friendly interface. View your files effortlessly on the web using the WebView tool, which also allows users to copy web addresses. Tired of wasting time and energy on monotonous tasks? Simply use the Automator actions and AppleScript recording to automate repetitive tasks. Fetch assures that all your questions and concerns are addressed through their extensive online help support.

FILEZILLA
http://filezilla-project.org/

For those of you looking for a free FTP solution, FileZilla is what you have been searching for. This open source software is distributed free of charge and provides both clients and a server. Easy to use, this cross-platform FTP, FTPS and sFTP client has numerous features. Unlike other FTP solutions, FileZilla is not exclusive to Mac or PC users but is able to run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS and more. Not to mention that it is available in many different languages. Stay on task and organized with FileZilla’s powerful site manager, transfer queue, bookmarks and filename filter. For files larger than 4GB, this FTP solution supports the resume and transfer of those large files.

ACEFTP 3 PRO
http://software.visicommedia.com/en/products/aceftp/

Whether you’re a novice or a tech savvy professional AceFTP 3 Pro is a FTP client software solution for everyone. Securely transfer your files with the ease and efficiency that AceFTP Pro provides. There is no question that your files will be secure with the software’s password protection and SSL security protocol integration features. The familiar Windows XP-style interface and the dual-plane interface make AceFTP 3 Pro easy to navigate. File transferring has never been easier as this software allows users to execute multiple file transfers simultaneously, conduct server-to-server file transfers, resume interrupted transfers, open numerous FTP sites concurrently and much more.

FLASH FXP
http://www.flashfxp.com/

For Windows users, FlashFXP may just be what you are looking for. Make file transfers easier with FlashFXP as it allows you to transfer files between other local computers running a FTP server, via the Internet, or between two servers using site-to-site transfers. Some of the benefits of FlashFXP include the multi-language support, internal text editor for quick edits, internal schedule and site states to keep track of all uploads as well as downloads among many other features. FlashFXP makes this FTP solution simple to use through the FTP only and FXP views, advances queue control, enhanced drag and drop functionality and the folder bookmarks.

CoffeCup
http://www.coffeecup.com/free-ftp/

If you are looking for a simple FTP solution without the frills and unnecessary features then CoffeCup is for you. This FTP solution is a simple and reliable way to transfer your files, and the best part is its free! Simply upload files by dragging and dropping them from your computer to your server. Due to the set up on multiple server profiles you are able to transfer your files in binary, ASCII, or auto mode. Keep your files organized using the Combo Bookmarks, which allow users save the local and remote folder. This FTP solution also makes it possible for users to pull them both folders up at the same times. CoffeCup’s direct FTP also makes it possible to make changes directly on your server to save you time and energy.

If you are looking for a complete desktop image management solution with built-in FTP, check out my recommendations for the top photo workflow tools.

Adobe Bridge CS4
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/bridge/
Adobe Bridge lets you browse, locate, organize, view and tag your digital photos. Bridge is included in all six editions of Adobe Creative Suite 4. This is the perfect solution for less advanced workflows looking to centralize and access local files.

Photo Mechanic
http://www.camerabits.com
Photo Mechanic touts itself as both an image browser and workflow accelerator and is a very popular tool amongst professional photographers. Offering a thumbnail view of your images in a contact sheet display window, Photo Mechanic makes it easy to compare and select the best in a group. Batch processing and IPTC and EXIF metadata support make it easy to organize and catalog large volumes of images.

Microsoft Expression Media
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/expressionmedia2
Organize, share and protect your digital assets quickly and easily using Microsoft Expression Media 2 (formerly iView MediaPro). This software handles organization, cataloging, metadata, editing, presentation, publishing and archiving. Streamline your tasks by simplifying the process of transferring an image from your camera to print.

Adobe Lightroom
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom
Spend less time importing, editing, managing and showcasing your images with the help of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. The software’s top new features make it essential for today’s digital technology workflow. These features include (but are not limited to) enhanced organizational tools that sort and filter large volumes of data using powerful metadata, multiple monitor support to easily and efficiently manage image workflow, streamlined Photoshop CS4 integration and volume management to manage and organize images across multiple drives.

Apple Aperture
http://www.apple.com/aperture
Lightroom’s biggest competitor, Apple’s Aperture 3 makes it quick and easy to import photos onto your Macintosh computer, even making it possible to preview and adjust images as they are being imported. Organize your files anyway you choose, whether it be through faces, places or descriptive keywords and captions. Aperture 3 allows you to compare images side by side to make selections, flag specific images and add color labels.

How can these tools integrate with your digital asset management workflow? Like WebDAM, all of the above include IPTC and XMP support so your metadata is completely compatible between applications. To further streamline your workflow, each of these tools integrates FTP so you can connect directly to your WebDAM account from your desktop to seamlessly publish your assets to the web to archive, share and distribute throughout your organization.

What are your favorite desktop tools for photo editing and image workflow?