Protecting your images: part 1

Recently, a friend of mine had images from her website taken by a foreign company, who then used her photographs on their website.  When she asked them to take it down, she got a nasty email in reply, disputing her rights and the validity of her copyright.  Image stealing on the internet is easy-peasy if you can right-click or make a screen shot, so its important for photographers to know their rights and ways to make it harder.  Thus, why I've decided to dedicate a few posts to image protection.  

First, any image from this blog or my personal website is mine and under copyright.  If you take any of my images and use them on your website or for any commercial use without permission, you are stealing.  Thankfully, I have a few lawyers in my family : )

long deep breath, happy thoughts...

Now, The Copyright Issue.

This will be a two part post, delving into the options for photographers should an image be stolen off their website or blog.  Please let me know if you have any suggestions or feedback.

Part one: Copyright Basics & Copyright Registration with the U.S. Government.

1.  Your images are under copyright protection the moment they are created in a tangible form. 

2. You do not have to register with the U.S. government to be protected.  However, if you want to take legal action for infringement of a U.S. work, then you should register.

3.  "Poor Man's Copyright", mailing yourself a copy of your images, is not a substitute for registration with the U.S. government.  

4.  Most countries around the world respect U.S. copyrights.  The U.S. copyright office has a list of all the countries on their website.

5.  How to register your work with the U.S. government:  As a photographer, you can send the U.S. Government all your images at once.  You can also register your entire blog or website and anything you post or upload will be protected.  It is cheaper and faster to do it online, which costs $35.  If you do it via snail mail, the cost is $65 (fee changed August 1).  Most file types are accepted and can be sent in a zip (compressed) file.  It takes a few months for the registration process to be completed and if you apply online, you can check on its status.

Where to register online: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/

files accepted:

.bmp (Bitmap Image) 

.dwg (AutoCAD Drawing) 

.dwf (Autodesk Design) 

.fdr (Final Draft) 

.gif, .giff (Graphics Interchange Format) 

.jpg, .jpeg, .jfif (Joint Photographic Experts Group) 

.pdf (Portable Document Format) 

.pic, .pict (Picture File) 

.png (Portable Network Graphic) 

.psd (Photoshop Document) 

.pub (Microsoft Publisher)

.tga (Targa Graphic) 

.tif, .tiff (Tagged Image File Format) 

.wmf (Windows Metafile)

For further protection:

1. © - Use a copyright symbol somewhere on your image. To make one on PC, press the "ALT" key, then the numbers 0 1 6 9.  For Mac, press Option-G

2. Watermark - Placing text or an image on your photo that identifies you are the owner (your name, company, etc).

3.  There are also ways to prevent people from right clicking.  Sites like Flickr and Photobucket have an option you can click in your preferences to prevent this.  For further info on how you can do this, click here.

Next: What to do if your image is stolen and being used commercially or on another website without your permission.