Copyrighting & Photography??

Simon Woodward

Simon Woodward

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Simon
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Hi all,

I'm am just moving into freelance photography.

I was wondering if someone here would be kind enough to explain what i should do in regard to copyright?

Do i have to register or something to display a copyright noice by work?
Do you pay one fee & it covers all future photos, or do you copyright select images?

I'm a bit worried about people stealing my work & selling it as prints on ebay. It seems to be happening a lot on sites like Flickr & Deviantart.

Thanks very much for your time.

Simon
:D
 
As far as I'm aware, you own copyright whether you 'declare' it or not. Of course if you don't, it's far easier for someone to claim their use of your work is a 'genuine error'.
 
As a freelancer, you are covered automatically. All your work is copyrighted. This is covered by the Copyrights Designs & Patents Act 1988. You don't have to register anything, you don't have to mess about with EXIF data, and you don't have to watermark your images with a copyright notice.

From the moment they are taken, they are your property, and you own the exclusive copyright.
 
Just be very careful about where your high res images go! Use the IPTC copyright metadata field, don't put anything online at more than 72dpi and watermark anything that goes online...
 
Yes, wise advice there. Whatever you use, Flickr, etc, I wouldn't put up images bigger than 800px on the longest edge, and don't supply them at 100% quality.
 
Uncanny timing. I was given a CD of "stock images" some time ago. I TODAY got a letter from GettyImages requesting an immediate payment of £1,800 and removal of an image due to copyright infringement.

The CD was given to me by a close friend, who has all sorts of graphics and photos for use on web sites in vast collections on DVD and CD etc. The letter says non negotiable and its from their legal depo. The image was used on a news article, and was 180 x 100 pixels.

F*ck :(
 
As has been mentioned once you have taken the image it is copyright to you and you do not have to register it. However, if you think you might ever have a legal battle and be able to get large sums in damages you can register your images with copyrightservice but this can work out very expensive. I know a couple of people from stock sites who do the equivalent in the USA and the charges pay for themselves in in the damages they recover. Especially when they find people selling their images as prints or within CD's on Ebay etc.

EdinburghGary - in case you have not already come across it there is a very long thread here about Getty sending out invoices. I have not read it all but have come across it elsewhere and gather that some people are paying.

Stock Images/CD's - these are generally only licenced to the person/firm who purchased them and often for limited uses and a restricted time frame.
 
Despite copyright being automatic the moment you take the photo, I think it's prudent to take some simple steps (as mentioned above) to not only protect your work but to make it clear to others that you own the copyright. Down to common sense again and preventing people from illegally using your photos is easier than finding and taking action after the dirty deed has been done! To sum up as mentioned:

Keep the dimensions of the photo small to make any prints taken from it of a low quality
Visibly watermark it discreetly so as not to ruin the image but enough to be seen and also in a place on the picture where it can't be cropped out.
Compress the filesize so that it's still good enough for web but not good enough for print

One particular method of watermarking is embedded into the picture which is invisible to the eye and requires special software to decrypt - I don't know the technical side of this and only glanced at the company that does this but I do remember it's bloody expensive!

A very cheap and old fashioned way of confirming copyright to you (should you unfortunately end up with a legal case) is to print the photo, date it and mail it to yourself. When it arrives the next day don't open the envelope, keep it sealed and mark on the outside of the envelope the full contents if there are several photos. The Royal Mail postage marking proves the date and the unopened contents (opened under witness of a solicitor etc) proves it's your work. For thirty odd pence it's a pretty cheap alternative.
 
Thank you everyone - that is just what i needed. :)

In regard to the postage thing - i assume this would work just as well with a cd of images.
Can't see why not.

Thanks again - One less thing to worry about! lol

Simon
:)
 
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