Fort Wayne Wedding photographer
This short article will look at a few areas that should concern all photographers.
1) Image theft
2) Recourse
3) Redress
4) Legal remedies
As a refresher; COPYRIGHTS are granted to creators of original works. This does not only apply to photography; music, lyrics, movies a poem etc..are all works that can be copyrighted.
All of these come under the heading of “Visual arts”.
As soon as you take the picture, YOU own the copyright. This means until you grant certain permissions/rights, your image/images are protected by U.S Title code 17.
Simply stated, no one may make copies or “use” your images without your permission.
Although the law is on the photographers side if a infringement occurs, this does not mean someone can’t steal our images, no more than a law that prohibits armed robbery protects those who are robbed at gunpoint.
From the outset, let me state clearly; you can not protect your images from being stolen if you display them publicly. Re-read that last sentence.
The internet has become new hunting ground for image thieves.
I won’t go into the technical means image robbers use, but suffice it to say, right click inhibit does not offer as much protection as many think. There are avenues we as photographers can pursue to limit our liability and exposure to image theft which I will get to shortly.
Copyrights is a legal matter, it therefore follows it is also a complex matter. In it’s final form, judges and juries usually decide if a infringement has occurred and what if any monetary settlement will be paid.
Photographers will argue at length about who is right and who is wrong in a copyright case, but the simple truth is "no matter what the fans say, it ain't a ball or a strike til the umpire calls it."
Perhaps this example will help to understand.
If someone stole a rental car and drove it for a week, that person would be guilty of more than one crime.
1) Theft of property
2) Theft of services
3) Unauthorized use
Think of the car as your image. You can certainly allow someone to (rent) your image if they pay for it. The rental car company owns the car and rents it out and charges fees depending on use. The longer you have the car, the more it will cost. A truck rental often costs much more than a car because of the (use). (i.e) Commercial licensing of images (advertising use), is far costlier than editorial licensing.
I spoke of LICENSING our photos in the first installment. We editorial photographers license our photos. The cost of licensing depends on the use of the image.
Licensing images will make a great article for another time.
How about the person who pays for their rental but keeps the car one more day? Yep; they have to pay for the additional day.
OK, so we know images can and are being stolen.
We know there is nothing we can do to stop the theft if we decide to display our images publicly.
Is there anything we can do?
Sure. Here are a few ideas.
1) Always include the © notice on your photos. Sure, anyone with even minimal skills can clone away the symbol. The point is that the symbol was present and put the world on notice “Do Not Copy.” Later, if you need to file suit for infringement, this little © symbol may be all that is needed to prove the infringer WILLFULLY violated your copyright...If you can prove it. That is another matter.
*Since the Berne Convention, the © symbol is no longer a requirement.
2) Post images to the internet at lower resolution.
While this does not prevent image theft, it renders the image all but unusable for commercial and print purposes. I can assure you, a low resolution image that appears acceptable on our computer screens, will be of no interest to Field & Stream Magazine.
3) Metadata:
There are (2) types of metadata that are of concern to photographers.
One is machine generated; the other is user generated.
Machine generated, or more appropriately “camera generated” metadata is done when we take a picture.
A very small amount of textual information is generated by the camera which is attached to the digital file. The basic information contained is type of camera used, brand of camera, settings such as f/stop and shutter speed, sometimes a date the photo was taken.
Going a step further is “user generated” metadata. This data can be typed into fields under the heading of IPTC, or (International Press Telecommunications Council).
Some textual data most professional photographers will add to this field are, (name of photographer, copyrights, date, type of media, licensing rights, location, keywords, contact info.
User generated metadata allows far more information input than does machine generated.
User generated data is input to our photo files thru a number of image editors. Adobe Photo Shop, Adobe Lightroom, Nikon Capture NX all have this capability.
An added benefit of typing in keywords is the cataloging and retrieval of images later on.
Perhaps you have thousands of images by now; proper keywording will aid greatly when you want to find that photo of Aunt Martha under the pine tree you took in Miami.
So how does this help us in protecting our photos from un-authorized use?
While this type of data can be stripped from the image file, it does allow one more layer of protection. This is especially true when we license our images to publishers or stock agencies who generally operate above board in their dealings with photographers. If our contact letter is lost or misplaced, most agencies know to look at the metadata.
At a minimum, I highly suggest adding contact information such as phone number, your name, as well as your copyright information.
So; what if your image appears on another website without permission from you?
There are “some” things you can do.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act
If you suspect infringement of your copyright, you can notify (in writing) the website where you believe your image is residing without your consent. You the photographer will be requesting a “TAKE DOWN” notice. You will be required to provide as much information as you can including the IP, URL etc... of where your image is residing.
Here is a LINK to read more on this topic as well as how to file a complaint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyright_Infringement_Liability_Limitation_Act
If I don’t register, can I still file a lawsuit if someone steals my image?
Sure you can.
You may be entitled to a “damages” claim for a few dollars or you may be awarded $150,000.
What’s the difference?
REGISTRATION!
Photographers (should) register their copyright with the U.S copyright office in Washington DC.
By doing so, you are entitled to far more than simply damages.
By registering your copyright, we have the right to ask for statutory damages up to $150,000 per image infringed and attorneys fees. If we have not registered our copyright, we can not even bring suit in federal court. It is that simple.
The following link is provided if you wish to read the legal mumbo jumbo concerning copyright law.
http://www.copyright.gov/
In reality, will you be bring suit in federal court if someone steals your images?
Highly doubtful for a number of reasons.
1) Copyright attorneys are very expensive.
2) The party you are bringing suit against may not be able to pay.
The situation might make sense if it were a large company with deep pockets who stole your image and made a ton of money off your photo in some national advertising campaign.
Chances of that happening? Slim to none.
Large companies don’t steal images. They buy the license rights for far less than $150,000.
Why bother to register then?
It’s easy and it is not expensive to do so.
It costs about thirty-five dollars to register up to 750 unpublished images.
If your images have already been published, you have up to (3) months to register them.
Photographers may now register electronically via the copyright office website, although I still recommend mailing your submissions via the good old U.S Postal service.
If you wish to read case studies as well as gain a deeper understanding of copyrights, The ASMP, American Society of Media Professionals maintains a great website with quite a bit of free information. They can be found at www.asmp.org/
Any questions you may have can be directed to me via email from my website HERE
..or EMAIL me.
Fort Wayne Wedding Photographer
Fort Wayne Editorial Photographer
1 comment:
Good information...Thanks
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