The Discovery content monitoring and infringement detection module can find both licensed and unlicensed reuses of content on the web. Publishers can employ Discovery as a business development tool, a license verification tool, and a detection tool for plagiarism and copyright infringement. Discovery works by “fingerprinting” content and searching the web to find sites that are using all or part of the material according to parameters that a publisher specifies.
Discovery enables publishers to send a variety of redress offers to sites that are suspected of using unlicensed material, and monitors the status of those offers. Discovery also provides a variety of escalation actions if redress offers are ignored.
The Discovery dashboard displays recent activity, suspect status, and navigation tips. Discovery works according to 'settings' that are based on Content that should be searched for on the web and a Budget & Searches table that defines how many searches Discovery will perform each month (many publishers are entitled to a number of free Discovery searches each month, based upon the amount of content registered each month;additional searches can be purchased). Searches can be clustered at the beginning of a month or spread out evenly, depending on publishing schedules. Additional settings for Risk & Match control variables in the algorithm that Discovery will use to identify likely suspects.
Partners, affiliates, licensees, or syndicated distributors of publisher's content can be "white listed' to prevent Discovery from listing them as suspects.
Discovery will list Suspect URLs for publisher review. Redress options include: obtaining a license for the content; placing a link and copyright notice on the content; or removing the content.
Occasionally suspected infringers will ignore redress requests, in which case the publisher has Escalation options that include five additional actions:
1. Notify publisher's legal counsel;
2. Request a take-down by the infringer’s ISP;
3. Notify an enforcement agent;
4. Request the site’s ad network remove ads;
5. Request search engine removal from indexes.
Discovery can help publishers to limit or curtail unlicensed re-use of content, while at the same time open additional revenue channels and opportunities.