Protecting your online images

[KmH]

Photo Attorney
Help! I’ve Been Infringed! |
What’s An Infringement Worth? |
Two Easy Steps for Using the DMCA Takedown Notice to Battle Copyright Infringement | NPPA
Five Things You Can Do to Protect Your Online Images |
Registering Your Copyrights Using the eCO System | NatureScapes.Net – The Resource for Nature Photographers
http://www.photoattorney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Excuses-excuses.pdf
http://www.photoattorney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Excuses-excuses-videos.pdf
Fair Use Checklist | Columbia University Libraries
The Fuss About Fair Use |

 

[KmH]

There are some really, really terrific photographers (probably tens or hundreds of thousands) who post better, bigger pictures than I do.

And, if someone uses a picture of mine, so what?

Yep. photographs are now a commodity that has little value, like bushels of corn.
A bushel of corn (56 pounds of corn) is selling for about $3.50 a bushel or $0.065 per pound.

 

[table1349]

There are some really, really terrific photographers (probably tens or hundreds of thousands) who post better, bigger pictures than I do.

And, if someone uses a picture of mine, so what?

Yep photographs are now a commodity that has little value, like bushels of corn.
A bushel of corn (56 pounds of corn) is selling for about $3.50 a bushel or $0.065 per pound.

Oh you city boy Dreamer you.... Corn as of 5:00 p.m. today: $2.72 New Crop $2.90. I wish it was $3.50 considering we have corn in the ground this year along with sorghum and soybeans. Crop prices really suck this year. Especially since we averaged 65 bushels an acre for wheat.

Wheat

Today 3.03 -1.20

New Crop 3.03 -1.20

Milo

Today 2.47 -1.05

New Crop 2.65 -0.95

Corn

Today 2.72 -0.80

New Crop 2.90 -0.70

Soybeans

Today 9.92 -0.95

New Crop 9.77 -1.10

 

[jsecordphoto]

I watermark but mostly for branding, it's small in the bottom right hand corner. Photos get stolen all the time, I use Pixsy to go after the cases that matter. 99% of my matches on there are people (mostly from the middle east and Asia) who steal my images, apply horrible filters, then post on twitter/instagram- it's annoying but mostly harmless. The few cases that matter, I submit a case and get paid for their theft. If you're running a photo business (at least one like mine) you need to post images online, theft (and seeking compensation for it) is just part of the game.

 

[unpopular]

Just do what I do, just don't take good photos and nobody will want to steal them.

Problem solved.

 

[john.margetts]

I sometimes think my system is too close to Unpopular's for comfort but when I do produce a commercially viable image, it goes nowhere near the Interweb.

 

[fmw]

If I post it on the internet that means I don't care what people do with it. I do care, it never sees the light of day on the internet.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I don't post much online. If/when I do, I watermark. It can be done in various ways so it's probably a matter of figuring out what works best to protect the photo while making it viewable (some people use more transparent watermarks, I adjust mine for a specific photo and change/adjust the color, etc.). Even if it doesn't always stop a photo being taken and used without your permission or knowledge, it might make it harder to use and be a less likely target.

Before using and posting photos on a website, look at the Terms & Conditions. Even if you don't read all of it, look to see if you're agreeing to allow the site to use your photos. Many photo sharing sites are referred to as 'photo rights grab' sites since that seems to be what the intent is, to take and use photos posted by site users.

I've gotten better feedback from an instructor from a class, or other photographers, than people describe getting on photo sharing websites. People on those seem to 'like' just about everything they see which doesn't necessarily seem like it would do all that much to help you learn or improve.

There's info. and resources on websites of pro photographers organizations like ASMP and PPA about copyright, usage, etc.

edit - And obviously it's up to the photographer how much to protect photos. I value my photography, because I've put effort and time and my ability into it, so I protect it the best that I can.

 

[chuasam]

I am a mod at a royalty free image site. One of the things I do is approve images that are submitted.

The help weed out potential spammers and whatnot, I run Tin Eye and Google searches for some of the images to see if they are submitted elsewhere. Though not a fool-proof method in that scenario, it does help determine if an image belongs to the poster.

I will periodically do the same with my images, especially those with large download numbers. Granted, I am pretty much allowing anyone to use in a non-stand alone manner, it does give me an idea where my photos are being used, and which are more popular.

That said, any of them that I want to keep from being stolen aren't allowed to play near the airwaves.

What are your thoughts on the current Carol Highsmith vs Getty fiasco?

 

[snowbear]

I am a mod at a royalty free image site. One of the things I do is approve images that are submitted.

The help weed out potential spammers and whatnot, I run Tin Eye and Google searches for some of the images to see if they are submitted elsewhere. Though not a fool-proof method in that scenario, it does help determine if an image belongs to the poster.

I will periodically do the same with my images, especially those with large download numbers. Granted, I am pretty much allowing anyone to use in a non-stand alone manner, it does give me an idea where my photos are being used, and which are more popular.

That said, any of them that I want to keep from being stolen aren't allowed to play near the airwaves.

What are your thoughts on the current Carol Highsmith vs Getty fiasco?

I hope she wins enough to buy Getty and then cleans house.

 

[JoeW]

I think some people are being a bit over the top to the original post. The person starting the thread isn't looking for foolproof options, just trying to see if there are other ideas to consider to try and minimize this.

One thing I've sometimes done and I know others who do this...only post low quality images (i.e.: save the image so it's much smaller in size). With a lot of websites, this doesn't reduce the viewing of the image much. But it does mean that if someone steals it with the idea of printing it out as their own, they end up with a photo file that is 39kb or something that you really can't print and expect anything decent.

 

[limr]

Given how many students' knuckles I've smacked (not literally, relax) over the issue of plagiarism, you'd think I would be hyper vigilant about preventing people from plagiarizing my own work that I post online. But I am not. If it's just a cell phone snap, I don't give a rat's ass. If it's something I'm more invested in, I'll size it down to make it difficult for use offline, and I make sure settings are "All rights reserved" on Flickr. I used to watermark the images I used on my blog, but I haven't written on my blog in a long time and haven't bothered to watermark anything I've uploaded here or Flickr or the other forum I post to. I suppose the most likely place anyone would get my images would be Facebook, but I don't post my "real" work there. I just think it's highly unlikely to happen so I just don't really worry about it.

 

[Dikkie]

... should add some 18+ content in the watermark to prevent people stealing it.