Protecting your work

<p>Hello,<br>

I'm back on photography after a loooong pause. I would like to share part of my work online but my concern is about the Copyrights of my work.<br>

What I mean is: I don't want to spend a lot of money registering my work with an agency because I'm an amateur. However, I would like to have some kind of protection if somebody wants to use my work for commercial purpose.<br>

I did some research and I've found some tips like croping the photo or seting the Copyright information in the Exif data so you can have the support that "this is my work".<br>

I was wondering if you, member of the forum, know any other way to protect your work.<br>

Thanks!</p>

 

This looks like an interesting service... http://www.digimarc.com/digimarc-for-images/professional-edition.

 

Wade

<p>If you want info on US copyright registrations and the laws involved, go here, http://www.copyright.gov .</p>

 

<p>Here's an article on ApertureExpert called "<a href="http://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2011/4/7/filing-photos-with-the-copyright-office.html">Filing Photos with the Copyright Office</a>". BTW, that's Aperture as in Apple Aperture, but many good tips in it, whether you use Aperture or Lightroom, or other application. That article points to this article: "<a href="http://asmp.org/tutorials/online-registration-eco.html">Step-by-Step Tutorial for online registration</a>" at the American Society of Media Photographers page.</p>

<p>I put my contact info in borders of my images here on photo.net, phone number and e-mail. This is as much to protect from unauthorized use, as it is to allow potential purchasers of usage rights to contact me. (I often sell rights to my images found here on photo.net.</p>

<p>After having published over 1000 images to the Web over the last ~12 years, many times I have found violators of my copyright. Google image search and the tineye plug-in have helped me find many culprits.</p>

<p>I've never registered a single image of mine with the copyright office. I have collected a "fee" from violators of my copyright many times.</p>

<p>See the "Hall of Shame" on my copyright notice page:<br>

<a href="http://www.saugus.net/Photos/copyright_notice.shtml">http://www.saugus.net/Photos/copyright_notice.shtml</a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>Jim,</p>

<p>Contact info in the border is a great idea. How do you do that? If you do it on all of yours, I assume you have something nearly automatic in your workflow.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

<p>Dan</p>

<p>Adobe Lightroom can also put copyright information on your images, both on your image and in the EXIF/IPTC-data.</p>

<p>Looked at your copyright page James, that's great stuff! Thanks for posting it.</p>

<p>Thanks to all for their ideas. I think I'm going to follow J. Harrington advise as I don't have a big budget and I'm doing this as a hobby.<br>

However, I would like to have the chance to have some profit if somebody use my work.<br>

Nelson</p>