Meta copyright data in images

meta copyright data in PSCS:

i noticed a lot of copyright related threads recently and people using visible watermarks

on their images and i'm sure it works as a good deterrent to right click-savers some of the

time... but, i also noticed a lot of posters don't use watermarks and i've been thinking

about how i could come up with an action that would embed a pattern across an image

with minimal affect to it's aesthetics but it's bloody difficult as algorithms are not my

thang. so here's a flow i've been using that you can make into an action that will enable

one click copyrighting for those who want it without compromising the aesthetics. it won't

help when the images would be stolen to be used in print - this is digital distribution

protection.

1. file> new file, (the settings for this document are not important) so just press return.

2. file> file info. choose 'copyrighted' from drop down copyright status menu.

3. insert copyight info into the 'copyright notice' field- type ' ©, year, first name, last

name'.

4. type a URL if you have one into the 'copyright info' field.

5. click on 'advanced' in the pane on the left.

6. click 'save' and name the file; something like '© 2005', save it somewhere. it will have

a .xmp tag attached automatically.

7. close the file and do not save it when prompted.

the file you've saved is a .xmp file. you then open up an existing image you want to

protect.

navigate to file> file info again. click on 'advanced' and choose 'append' and navigate to

the .xmp file you saved earlier and press 'load'. image is now copyrighted and the file

name should now start with a © symbol. you can incorporate this into your final post-

production action(s).

although the 'watermark' is not visible, the data is there in meta form so at least you've

got your name on it in the event of any discrepancies. if you download the sample image

i've posted here and save it to your hardrive, you'll notice the file doesn't start with a ©

symbol. but open the file is PS and the title will be prefixed with it. check the file info

(file> file info) and you'll see all the relevant info. you can add an e-mail address so

people can contact you for whatever reason. you might wanna use a hotmail, g-mail or

yahoo account to protect your main account from possible spam. having a URL or mail

address in your meta data will ensure people can contact you if they have any questions

about the copyright should it not be plain enough already. and it can work other ways

too: i was contacted by someone who noticed that one of my product images on a website

i ran, was being used on an auction site. the enquiry coming from someone who

wondered if the auction was legit.

if you post from your hardrive...

i found i couldn't upload an image with embedded xmp data to photo.net from my

hardrive when i was posting that way. p.net doesn't seem to support this. but of course it

works when you are hosting from your own server and perhaps, (not tested) you can

upload an xmp. embedded file to your p.net folders and post from there.... not sure about

that.

as a footnote, you can obviously use this in conjunction with visible watermarks too, so if

they are cropped out or cloned out, your copyright info will still be there. however,

persistent little so-in-so's who know what they are doing can easily delete this info. not

sure how many posters out there know about this and indeed even care, so this is

intended purely as a 'take it or leave it' post. personally i think it's worth the one click.

sample image...

BTW: where © is written above, it should be the actual copyright symbol except for step

6. the symbols didn't show up in previewing this post so i changed them to ©.

<center><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/mecan/photonet/sample.jpg"></

center></div>