Comments on: Protecting What’s Yours

By: Rob Sylvan

Rob Sylvan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:56:22 +0000

Another excellent resource for copyright registration created by the ASMP:

Best Practices For Registering
http://asmp.org/tutorials/best-practices.html

By: Rob Sylvan

Rob Sylvan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:28:50 +0000

Thanks for all the comments!

I just posted a detailed tutorial on how to apply visible watermarks on export from Lightroom:

http://x-equals.com/blog/?p=2825

By: Djuna Ivereigh

Djuna Ivereigh — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:00:02 +0000

Kudos on a great article!

By: Protecting whats yours

Protecting whats yours — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:05:40 +0000

[...] whats yours Protecting What’s Yours | Feature Article | Layers Magazine __________________ Impermanence Photography <– photos/blog/furrythings My Flickr Page Nikon [...]

By: Teresa

Teresa — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:53:14 +0000

Is there a watermark out there that can not be remove?

By: Protecting your copyright « Phluxt

Protecting your copyright « Phluxt — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:41:25 +0000

[...] Layers Magazine has a great article about what you as a photographer should do to protect your creations. The internet has really changed they way we think about intellectual property such as movies and music, but it really hits photographers hard as well. People don’t think twice when sharing a photo. Most of us are small businesses and amatuers so without the RIAA or MPAA behind us we have to defend our own work however we can. [...]

By: Walrus

Walrus — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:46:22 +0000

I don’t think you are correct when you say registration is “required before filing a lawsuit.” You can file a lawsuit without registering but “registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees in successful litigation.”

Now, the way the system works is if you haven’t registered, a US attorney is unlikely to take up your case. The OPTIONAL requirement then becomes onerous. End result: high flying infringers (newspapers, magazines, etc) know that most people do NOT register, so damages will be puny if they are taken to court, or court costs will prohibit someone filing a case, or they will settle out of court for what they would’ve paid had they bought a licence, etc, etc, and so forth.

IF infringers knew they may be liable for unlimited damages, attorney fees and court fees, do you think they would be so blase about infringing?

It is relatively easy to determine when and if you originated a digital image. It was the case with film as well but not so easy. Of course, if you lose the original, then it’s not so easy but keeping the original is a damned site easier and LESS expensive than registering thousands of images (a photographer may easily shoot a million in his/her lifetime). The system works OK if you are an illustrator but works against photographers, IMO.

Sadly, this is another case of the US forcing the rest of the civilised world to conform to its demands as it consumes more images in a world market and, therefore, the perpetrator is likely to be based in the US, requiring a lawsuit in the US.

By: Dom

Dom — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:17:07 +0000

Just regarding Georges comment – disabling right-click is not a great method for preventing theft as the thief just needs to take a screenshot to grab the image .

By: That Chris Brown’s Blog » Protecting photography displayed online through branding

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:54:25 +0000

[...] A quick post prompted by an article in Layers magazine online. While I agree with the spirit of the article, and applaud the use of a high-profile site to [...]

By: Mark Sirota

Mark Sirota — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:29:18 +0000

Rob, your embedded and visible copyright notices should include the year, as in “© 2009 Rob Sylvan”. See page 4, right column, of the Copyright Basics document: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf

By: Rob Sylvan

Rob Sylvan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:52:25 +0000

George, I’m personally not fond of the disable-right click method as it impacts usability and is not 100% effective. It might be an option for some.

Sam, You can register photos in groups. Here is an excellent (and more in-depth) article written by Carolyn E. Wright specifically on using the eCo system that should answer your question:

http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/index.php/articles/341

Glad to hear that people are finding this article helpful!

Rob Sylvan
http://lightroomers.com

By: Bobby Clarkson

Bobby Clarkson — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:35:25 +0000

I underestimated the importance of photos protection in the past and I regret doing so after a very sad life lesson. I’ve already bought very handy Bytescout Watermarking Pro app to protect my photos with visible watermarks and I gonna visit copyright.gov and tineye.com as you advise. Prevention is better than useless regrets afterwards. Thanks for your advice.