RichinSeattle

This has been the subject of many previous discussions on the 'hog. Here is Steve Perry's excellent, short video describing how to manage that problem in-camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF-DT0aQDG0#action=share

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

His solution does not provide a legally defensible copyright. Registering the copyright with the copyright office does.

This is a great site:

http://thecopyrightzone.com/

RichinSeattle

… and he acknowledges that fact. It seems his main point was simply how to start the process by using the camera's automatic feature to imbed the photog's identity and exclusive ownership in the picture's metadata. Not being a professional, I'm not really concerned with this issue, but thought it would be of interest to those who are.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Sure, it's a good idea to have your camera set up to record your copyright data in your metadata. But you own the copyright whether or not you do that, or use a watermark, and both of them can be easily removed by people who want to steal your images.

jcboy3

I think this is incorrect. As far as I know, the person that takes the picture owns the copyright, unless there is a written agreement that assigns copyright to another person (e.g. the owner of the camera). This was painfully revealed with the infamous "monkey selfie copyright case", where the monkey took the picture, the owner of the camera tried to enforce copyright, and it was ruled that (a) since he didn't actually take the picture he didn't own copyright, and (b) since the monkey took the picture but was not a human, there was no copyright for the image.

No matter what the EXIF data says.

So if someone else takes the photo with your camera, you need to get written assignment of copyright or you could be at risk.