Copyright - DPChallenge Forums

03/27/2008 04:07:09 PM · #1

If I put a watermark on my photographs does that keep it from being stolen like a copyright or should i just pay the $45 like every hundred pictures or so. I saw another forum where some one was talking about why, and how you should copyright your photos, but then I found watermark factory. So my question is will this keep my photos from being stolen and used?

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

03/27/2008 06:23:07 PM · #2

A watermark won't keep it from being stolen. Any watermark you can put on an image can be taken off almost as easy. Even registering them for $45 won't keep them from being stolen... BUT, if they are stolen and you find out and it's worth going after, you now have a lot of teeth behind your copyright. Putting a watermark on them, even if you find out who, if you don't have them registered, you probably still won't be able to afford to do very much.

Mike

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

03/27/2008 06:38:29 PM · #3

Here is an earlier and more complete discussion (also initiated by

MikeJ).

Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF

03/27/2008 08:53:32 PM · #4

So I assume that I shouldnt post any of my photos here until I get the copyright done?

chris48083

Pentax K10D

03/27/2008 09:15:06 PM · #5

I'm currently in a copyright law class, but i am not a lawyer (so do your own research) but,

in the united states you have a copyright on your work as soon as you fix it to a tangible object (flash memory, dvd, harddrive, print, film all count). In 1978 a law was passed that made it so no matter what (even if the work was unregistered and didnt have a copyright mark on it) you still had a copyright the moment you fixed it to a tangible media. now, if someone were to infridge on said copyright then you would have to get it registered before you took it to court BUT, it is completely legal to send a letter to the person who stole the image (a cease and deciest) and tell them to stop or face legal action (they dont have to know that its not registered or that the chances are very silm taht you would take them to court).

and i wouldnt sweat getting your work registered, relisticaly someone stealing your work off of DPC wont cause major damages (it might hurt the ego a bit, but it wont cost you money, whch you would have to prove in court in order to be heard).

and dont forget that watermarks and such are not allowed in any challenge.

Message edited by author 2008-03-27 21:16:50.

03/27/2008 11:54:02 PM · #6

Chris, you can only bluff that your images are registered so far before you either have to pay the lawyer fee to continue or give up. And all the person has to do is let you spend the first few thousand to get a lawyer and start the process to see if you really are telling the truth that the images are registered. While your average grandmother that uses your image for a screen saver might not know the difference between being registered and not, someone that uses the images for commercial work in a book, magazine, web site, etc., probably has at least an idea of how far they can go and not have to worry about someone with un-registered images. Sure, they will probably stop using them, but you won't be able to collect on the fact they used them to begin with.

You are right that a copyright starts the moment you create the image in tangable form (i.e. on the CF card), at least here in the US. What registering your images does is change it so that instead of spending $10K to $50K of your own money to win and maybe not get anything in judgement (you can be right but there not be any preceived damages) that if it costs $10K to $50K in legal and court costs and you win, even if you aren't awarded a dime, the infringer is still looking at having to pay those legal and court costs. A very big incentive for them to pay the few hundred to few thousand in useage fee that you might demand. And boy is it sweet when you tell the person to talk to an IP lawyer about the trouble they are in... "and oh by the way, tell your lawyer that the registration number on these images is...". I know how good it feels. I've collected 3 times our of 3 times I've been infringed on since I started registering my images a few years ago. The one time I couldn't because I didn't have them registered and the woman was willing to take the change I'd take her to court (and I couldn't because I didn't have several thousand to even get it started) and ignored me, didn't feel so sweet. And none of my images were stolen off a photo forum. In each case they were taken from the back pages of my web site where they had to dig to get to them. Some were even test shots where I was showing lighting practice. Maybe they figured they wouldn't be noticed as not being theirs by taking those. :D But between the 3 people, their mistake made me $10k richer... with out going to court.

So ask in your class just how much money someone can expect to pay a lawyer to be able to get to the point of going to court. And how much it can cost if the other party decides to fight it. You might be surprised. :D

Mike

Message edited by author 2008-03-27 23:57:39.

03/28/2008 12:00:03 AM · #7

Originally posted by Aleema:

So I assume that I shouldnt post any of my photos here until I get the copyright done?

Aleema, getting your images registered is easy and can be done fairly quickly. The registration is effective the day they get your form, payment and images. They are working on electronic submission so it's even quicker than sending a CD. But even sending a CD just takes a couple of days to get there. And even if it takes 3 months to get your registration number, it is still effective to the day they received it. You do have to have them registered before an infringement though to get the special benifits. And if you are infringed on, you still have to have them registered before you can sue... you just don't get the special benifits if it's after the infringement. So another reason to register your images regularly.

Mike

Message edited by author 2008-03-28 00:01:35.

03/29/2008 08:43:19 AM · #8

MikeJ I am going to take your advice. I just wanted to know what type of format, picture size, pixels etc should I format the pictures on the cd and should it be a cd or dvd. I am really new to this and know little about photography.Also when sending my digital pictures to people through email, they say my pictures come out way too big. What am I doing wrong?

03/29/2008 12:17:49 PM · #9

Aleema, the copyright office says you can use any of the standard formats... jpg, tif, bmp, gif, etc., the main thing to be able to view the images if you have to at some point. When I create my copyright CD I used a image gallery program that created thumbnails as well as big images and I just ran the thumbnail part. This way I could do folders of images at a time. The size is used was around 700 pixels wide on the long side and about 35k file size. This gives a good image size to view on a screen so it can be compared in court if you need too. You can get thousands of images of this size on a CD. A CD will archive longer than a DVD, so if they will fit on a CD, I would just one of those.

When you save an image for e-mail, it's like saving it to show on a web page. You want to size it about 600 to 800 pixels on the longest side (unless you want to send a bigger image), change the resolution to between 72 and 100 (you probably left the resolution at 300) and quality about 8. That should give you an image that can be viewed on most screens.

Mike

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

03/29/2008 02:50:26 PM · #10

I checked and the pictures are already saved as JPEG but the file size seem to range from 470 KB to 2.00MB. Can you take me step by step and explain how to convert them down to 35K size as well as how to change the pixels.

Patrick_R

Canon EOS-60D

03/29/2008 03:48:37 PM · #11

The best thing to do honestly is something really easy. I write music and the way I copyright music (or at least prove that I did it first) is to put it on a CD or paper and mail it to yourself. DONT OPEN IT! Just keep stored until you need to prove that it is yours and the postmark is your proof of the date. My aunt is a lawyer and that is what she suggests anyways.