Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 80% certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

McGarrity: 2.5 Billion Images Are Stolen Daily Worldwide

Tiffany Walling McGarrity · #84 The Napkin Pitch · Mar 3, 2025 · at 3:33

Tiffany Walling McGarrity pitches Metapixel, a startup aiming to protect digital media from online theft, to investors on The Pitch.

0:00 / 0:03exact quote · 3.7s

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“In fact, 2.5 billion images are stolen daily on a global level”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Globally, 2.5 billion digital images are stolen every day.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The figure of 2.5 billion images stolen daily directly reflects the findings of the widely cited Global Infringement Report published in 2019 by image rights enforcement agency Copytrack. Copytrack analyzed over 12,000 user profiles alongside IMGembed data, estimating that approximately 85% of the estimated 3 billion images uploaded or shared on the internet each day (around 2.55 billion images) were published without a valid license. This metric was widely reported by outlets including DPReview, Digital Camera World, and Forbes, and became the standard industry benchmark for global daily image infringement across photography and copyright publications through 2026. Because the global figure originates from a single commercial rights enforcement agency that extrapolated from its private subscriber base, confidence is capped at 0.80.

Copytrack's Global Infringement Report (March 2019) estimated that 85% of the 3 billion images shared daily (2.55 billion) are used without a license.
Major photography and business outlets (Forbes, DPReview, Digital Camera World) and legal publications (IPWatchdog) widely disseminated and cited the 2.5 billion daily infringement figure as an industry standard metric through 2026.

Checked against

[1] dpreview.com [2] kanzlei-franz.com [3] diyphotography.net [4] digitalcameraworld.com [5] forbes.com [6] prnewswire.com [7] ipwatchdog.com [8] thecontractshop.com

2.5 billion images stolen daily OR everyday OR per day 2.5 billion images are stolen every day Copytrack Global Infringement Report 2.5 billion images "Global Infringement Report" Copytrack 2.5 billion "billion images" "stolen" daily OR "every day" copyright statistics

assessed as of 2026-09-03

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

digital images Metapixel

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More from Tiffany Walling McGarrity

Assertion Open · timeframe Mar 2028

Metapixel's embedded metadata survives screenshots and image cropping

“It locks in the important metadata into the image itself, so it cannot be destroyed through cropping, screenshots, anything like that.”

Tiffany Walling McGarrity Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 12:02 #76 Pitchline Bonanza

Assertion Open · timeframe Mar 2028

McGarrity: Metapixel's Watermarking Survives Screenshots, Cropping, and Compression

“And we do so by applying a proactive, survivable metamark, as we're calling it, into media. And you can think of the metamark as like an invisible fingerprint, protecting it with Permanent metadata, and it survives everything from screenshots, cropping, and co…”

Tiffany Walling McGarrity Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 3:46 #84 The Napkin Pitch

Assertion Contradicted

Metapixel claims image theft costs creators $600 billion every day

“There are over 2.5 billion images stolen and six hundred billion in lost revenue daily.”

Tiffany Walling McGarrity Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 11:30 #76 Pitchline Bonanza

Disclosure

McGarrity: Metapixel Is Seeking $850,000 to Finalize MVP and IP

“We are here today currently seeking 850,000 dollars to help finalize our MVP and pay for our legal and IP costs.”

Tiffany Walling McGarrity Mar 3, 2025 ▶ 4:06 #84 The Napkin Pitch

McGarrity: 2.5 Billion Images Are Stolen Daily Worldwide

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