Copyright

[Tom Rambaut]

I have a couple of questions aimed at the pros on this site –those that sell their images and make a living from it. I guess those that are also taking great images, but are not full-timers, that surely have a commercial worth are also included.

I have noticed that a number of you do not have any form of mark or copyright imprint on your images as posted here. How do you combat the potential unauthorised use of your images – stealing them – and does the images file size have an effect on the usefulness of an image for reproduction purposes. I have also seen some software that is aligned with PS that creates a digital mark that can be tracked on the internet – is this something that others have used.

All opinions welcome,

Thanks Tom<o:p></o:p>

[Roger Clark]

In my experience and opinion, good photos will be stolen, so one should always have a copyright on the image and enough info to find the owner, like web site. If not, people can claim orphaned works. Just this evening I spend a significant amount of time issuing take down requests for stolen images. One on the home page of the Wisconsin public library, another on google's blogspot.com peddling it as wallpaper. Google is completely unsympathetic and refused to take action even though the offender is clearly showing my image with my copyright on it. If one can see the images, they can and will be stolen. The only solution is not put them on the web.

Roger

[Jim Neiger]

Many of my images have been stolen and used without my permission. I even found what appeared to be a transcript of a tv show where they went on a photo tour of the everglades with me on my boat. Thing is that it never happened. I have never even spoken to anyone about it. Pretty bizzare, huh? You can check it out here: http://countdowntoextinction.tv/snailkiteswamp.htm

Anyway, when my images are stolen, most of the time the thieves actualy give me credit for the image. This is free publicity. The thefts don't cost me anything. Its not like they would pay money for it if they couldn't steal it.

Even people who are familiar with copyright law and depend on it for their business can be copyright thieves. I once had a well known author use one of my images in his blog without my permission. You would think a best selling author would be sensitive to copyright theft.

[Tom Rambaut]

That link is realy bizzare Jim. You do not have a twin brother that you did not know about? - he also has a boat and runs photo tours.

[Danny J Brown]

Here are my thoughts which are similar to those of Jim. I often see my images on websites but they are always shown with credit so I don't get upset. Like Jim said, "Free advertising," if you are a cup half full type of person like Jim and me. Magazines never seem to steal anything so far as I've found so you are pretty safe there although I'm sure you will here accounts about that as well but it hasn't ever happened to me. I always put a copyright symbol on my images so if a person steals it, at least he'll feel a little bad about cropping out the symbol......ha!

On another note, the images on my website are right-click protected and cannot be downloaded or even printed. The same thing is true at another site where I post images for feedback, called 500pix. There might be a way around that protection but if there is, it is beyond my simple technical skills. Hope this helps.

DB

[Roger Clark]

On another note, the images on my website are right-click protected and cannot be downloaded or even printed. The same thing is true at another site where I post images for feedback, called 500pix. There might be a way around that protection but if there is, it is beyond my simple technical skills. Hope this helps.

DB


Simple, just do a screen or window capture. Or turn off right-click disable.

http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/web1/how_do_i_stop_downloading.htm

Roger

[Mike Tracy]

On another note, the images on my website are right-click protected and cannot be downloaded or even printed. The same thing is true at another site where I post images for feedback, called 500pix. There might be a way around that protection but if there is, it is beyond my simple technical skills. Hope this helps.

DB

I have found right click protected really only gives one a false sense of security. With todays tech savvy generation its darn near impossible to stop someone from getting what they want if they want it. I "stole" this from your website in less than 10 seconds. While it might not be of the quality that I would want to print it's suitable for web presentation and smaller print sizes for those without a critical eye.

Recently my sporting event company ( http://www.rockonpics.com ) covered a race. Afterwards I went to the promoters Facebook page to read the participants feedback. Over the course of a week I tracked down 11 instances of people who had stolen our images and were using them as their profile picture, watermark and all. I have to give Facebook due credit though. After submitting a intellectual property infringement form they promptly removed all violations.

[Danny J Brown]

Yeah, but you have to admit that is one good looking dude! Ha!

[Hilary Hann]

Tom, for the professional side of our business we have approached it a different way. We have 2 different websites as well as a Facebook site, all the proofs of photographs taken each week go up on 1 of the websites as well as on Facebook, watermarked and in a small size. Our main customers are racehorse owners and trainers so we give away an image from each race they win for use on their Facebook page or to send around the world as a 'brag' email. It has built up a huge ground swell of good customer relations and our paid orders have risen, not decreased. Amazing how people will now pay us for a large photo of their horse once they have a small digital version which all their friends admire, especially as they don't feel ripped off. So we give a little and have received much more in return. We also give trainers free images to include in their newsletters, but we get many more orders from their clients which cover the costs.

Very different for people selling general wildlife or nature images for stock or to magazines. We never give away our images to newspapers or magazines, they pay and get nothing free despite their best attempts. In fact, we received a phone call today from an interstate newspaper wanting a photograph to print, saying that they have a policy to never pay for photographs. Well, sorry but we have a policy not to give our photographs away so stick that in your pipe baby!!!! (or words to that affect). :w3 Can you imagine walking into a store and asking for a new pair of jeans saying that you have a policy of never paying for new clothes???? Funny business.

Not sure that helps much, but it works for our set up.

Oh, and Danny, I like the photo! :t3