Admin wrote:
I'll talk about copyright in the US, as I don't know how it's done elsewhere.
But there is one important point to keep in mind:
While your work is protected the moment it's created, you can't really do anything substantial with that protection until you register your work with the Copyright Office by storing a copy at LOC.
Most people really don't realize it, but you can't actually sue anyone until you've filed for a registration.
Let's say you take a picture, post it online, and someone else grabs it and uses it in a poster which they later sell.
You want to sure, right? Great. But federal judges won't accept your complaint unless it's accompanied by a receipt from the Copyright office. That's in addition to proof that the work is yours.
So in order to sue, you would have to register your work even if it's at a later time, long after you've published it.
Let me repeat that again. You are protected the moment you take a picture. But you can't actually exercise that protection until you've registered your work with the Copyright Office.
For some reason, many people have a hard time grasping it. They either think that unless they register they aren't protected, or they think they can sue without registering. Both of those are false assumptions.
Since you have to register your work anyway (to sue), then you might as well register it while it's still unpublished.
Registering unpublished work has one major benefit aside from statutory damages. Registration of unpublished work is in itself proof of your ownership.
If you register your picture on, say, May 1, 2011, and the other party can't prove that they were in the possession of that picture prior to that date, then the judge would side with you. You won't need any additional proof to accompany the registration receipt.
So if you register your unpublished work, you can safely spread around not just thumbnails, but even original RAW files and not care about them being stoled. (As a matter of fact, you might hope they would get stoled and used by someone, preferably in a commercial way for a large company.)
I haven't filed any registrations in a long time, and when I did, I did it using postal service. But it is my understanding that the Copyright office accepts online registrations, and you can register thousands of images at once. So it's not that expensive.
This is the right way to deal with copyright. Now, let's briefly talk about the wrong way.
Embedding watermarks, EXIF data, printing and mailing envelopes to yourself via certified mail, getting affidavits from relatives, Flickr timestamps, etc. won't help you get your case accepted by a judge. It will be thrown out.
All of those things are nothing more than supporting evidence of your claim that the image is yours. And you will need them only if you register your work as published work at a later time just so that you can proceed with a lawsuit. But if you register your unpublished work, that's your evidence. And it is the strongest evidence a court would consider.
Additionally, if you don't register your work, but post it online, and later decide to sue someone over using it, then the most you could hope for is actual damages. And the burden of proving the amount would be on you. And the attorney fees aren't likely to be awarded. And... well it's as if you didn't really have any copyright protection at all.
Do you know why the cases where photographers get large compensations (with unregistered works) are so widely discussed? That's because they are so rare. Most of the time, authors/photographers don't get anything. And all their watermarks and EXIF data, and whatever else aren't of any help.
So in the context of forums and photography, if you post something that you've already registered with the Copyright office, then you don't need to worry about anyone stealing your pictures. Be glad if they do. But if you didn't register, then you aren't losing anything because, frankly, you didn't have anything to begin with.
I know this is a downer, but that's the reality. Not many people (especially forum owners, especially in the photography niche) would lay it out like that, but that's the honest truth of how things are.
My personal take on this is not to bother with registrations. I simply post my photos. If something gets stolen, I'll be sad about that person/company ripping me off. But that's life.
So everyone needs to make a personal decision whether to register or not. Stick with it. And based on that decision, maintain the attitude towards image theft or even the forum posts.
I'll talk about copyright in the US, as I don't kn... (
show quote)
1.Who owns the copyright on photographs?
Under law, it is the photographer who will own copyright on any photos he/she has taken, with the following exceptions:
If the photographer is an employee of the company the photos are taken for, or is an employee of a company instructed to take the photos, the photographer will be acting on behalf of his/her employer, and the company the photographer works for will own the copyright.
If there is an agreement that assigns copyright to another party.
In all other cases, the photographer will retain the copyright, if the photographer has been paid for his work, the payment will be for the photographers time and typically an allocated number of prints. The copyright to the photos will remain with the photographer, and therefore any reproduction without permission would be an infringement of copyright.
Examples:
If Bill Smith asks Peter Jones the photographer to photograph his wedding. Peter Jones will normally provide a single copy of the prints as part of the fee, but any additional prints Bill or his family and friend want must be ordered via Peter as he is the copyright owner and controls who can copy his work.
If Bill Smith engages the services of XYZ-Photos for the same job, and Peter is an employee of XYZ-Photo who instruct Peter to take the photos, XYZ-Photos will be the copyright owner and control how they are used.
2.Copyright registrationi.Why register?
The purpose of registration is to ensure that you have proper, independently verifiable, evidence of your work. This ensures that if another party steals your photos you have solid evidence to prove your claim.
Without registration it can be very difficult, and often impossible, to prove your ownership if another person claims the photo belong to them.
ii.Protect whole collections for a single fee
It is possible to submit a great many photos within a single registration, and only pay a single registration fee.
For advice on registering photographic works, please see our factsheet P-24: Registering photographic work.
3.Using the work of others
As with all copyright work, you should first obtain permission from the copyright owner before you use someone elses work.You should also be prepared to pay a fee, as many photographers will charge you for using their work.
Only the copyright owner, (or his/her authorised representative), can give permission, so you should contact the photographer, or his/her company, directly for consent. For images published on the Internet, it is typical to contact the webmaster of the site in the first instance, unless the site provides contact details for the owner of the images.
The copyright owner has no obligation to allow you to use their work, and can refuse permission for any reason.
4.Marking your work
The two primary reasons for marking your work are to ensure that those accessing your images are clear that copyright exists and that they know who to contact to obtain permission.
i.Contact information
We often receive enquiries from individuals and organisations wishing to use specific photos, but who are unable to trace the owner. It seems that many images are marked as copyright image do not reproduce without permission, but that the photographer omitted to include their contact details. This is frustrating to the person wishing to use the image and also means that the photographer may miss out on reproduction fees and exposure.
ii.Copyright notices
We do recommended that you mark your work with a copyright notice, as this makes it clear that copyright exists, and helps to deter infringement. Please see our fact sheet P-03: Using copyright notices for information on wording you notices.
For traditional prints, it is customary to use a stamp to mark the copyright notice and the copyright owners contact details on the back of the print
If you display your photos online, you may choose to use photo editing software to place a simple copyright notice across the image, (typically this will appear in the bottom corner). Ideally it should include the address of the web site so that it is clear where to go to find contact details.
For electronic images, it is also possible to include the copyright/contact details in the file properties. Under Windows for example, right clicking on a image will allow you to bring up the properties dialogue where you may enter details about the file, (though this will only work with certain file types). More typically, your image software will provide a way to insert comments into the file; this is preferred as these are harder to remove.
Watermarking may be worth considering if you have a lot of valuable images on your site.
5.Model release forms
An individual has certain rights to control the use of their image. The specific details will vary from one country to another depending on national legislation, although the general rule seems to be to protect a person against defamatory or offensive use of their image.
If you intend to sell or distribute images that include people, then it is worth getting your subjects to sign a model release form as this will protect you against any comeback.
A search on Google for Model Release Forms should reveal a number of example documents that you can use.