By: Staff Reports Online Copyright Clearance Service Gets Second Chance
A little over three months ago, E&P Online reported that
iCopyright.com was down to a skeleton crew of six employees. So
we were a little surprised this week to see a press release
announcing that MarketWatch.com has just signed up to use
iCopyright.
A call to company headquarters in Renton, Wash., turned up
founder Mike O'Donnell, who left the company in April 2000 to
start Data Depth Corp. O'Donnell came back in April 2001 to
rescue the floundering dot-com, and is president and CEO again
after Data Depth Corp. purchased the assets of iCopyright.
With investments from two boutique funds in New York and some
individual investors, O'Donnell said the company is now on sound
financial footing. "One of my conditions for coming back was that
we have at least 18 months" of funding, he said. O'Donnell has
re-staffed the company and now has about 20 employees, including
full-time and part-time workers.
O'Donnell said 200 publications are currently using iCopyright's
Instant Clearance Service, which allows users to automatically
request permission to re-use content. Publishers determine the
rules for how that content may be used by consumers and corporate
customers. O'Donnell said he is now working to sign several large
publishers outside the United States.
Looking back, O'Donnell believes the venture capitalists who
invested in the company pushed too hard for growth. Like many
dot-coms, iCopyright hired too many people and lost sight of its
core mission, he said.
Related stories:
ICOPYRIGHT.com DOWN TO SIX EMPLOYEES (02/02/01)
ICOPYRIGHT.com DOWNSIZES AGAIN (01/24/01)
LATIMES.com TESTS ONLINE COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS (01/18/00)
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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