How Do i copyright a photo?

Question

how do i copyright a photo? or what do i do so that no one can copy and paste it or steal it?

Answer 1

If you take the photo yourself it is automaticaly copywritted.

Answer 2

If you took the photo yourself it is automatically copyrighted in your name.

Answer 3

Ted is correct. You automatically have the copyright to whatever you create when you create it provided you are creating for yourself. For example you usually don't own the copyright to photos your employer pays you to take. If you want to register your copyright you can submit your photos to the US Copyright Office.

Answer 4

You can use VSO Image Resizer which is easy to use freeware to add a watermark to your picture(s), I would consider it a lot easier to use than PhotoShop.  You and add a image onto like a real filagram or you can type in the text you want to be applied on the picture.  

You can do more than 1 picture at a time because you convert a bunch - as a batch to apply copyright to a set of pictures, real handy.

Answer 5

Copyrighting a picture won't stop someone from making copies and passing them around. Even encrypted commercial movies get ripped and put on torrents.

Don't waste your time. If you never post the picture online it will never be copied. That's the most sure way.

A watermark can be removed with blurring tools, so that won't stop someone, either. You could use Photoshop to add "Copyright (C) your name" somewhere on the photo, but that is easy enough to remove or crop out, too.

Answer 6

The others are all correct. To get the copyright symbol type in alt 0169. This will make the © symbol. This will not work on a laptop keyboard for some reason.

You can register them but it can be expensive to keep doing that. Your best bet is to put a watermark on them with your copyright notice. Of course you could avoid all of this by not posting them on the web in the first place. Even after doing all this if they are on the web people can still steal them if they know what they are doing.

Answer 7

Anything you create is automatically copyrighted to you but I don't recommend this method because

1) it's not secure

2) you can't sue for monetary damages

3) you have no easy way to prove you did/took it

You need to go to the US Copyright Office which is copyright.gov (or the one for your country) and get the form VA (visual arts) or you can apply directly online now. The charge online is $30 I believe and $45 if you mail it. Once it goes into the US Copyright system, you have the ability to sue for damages if people steal/use it without your permission.

There is no way to prevent copy/paste (even if you had it in flash someone could do a printscreen from their system). The good way is watermark, the best way is a digital watermark to track it and make sure it is registered with the copyright office.

Answer 8

Add a copyright symbol and have the courtys legally copyright it

Answer 9

This is a good question.

First, as soon as you create the image, you own the copyright.

If you want to register the copyright, you can download the form from the Copyright Office, follow the instructions and send it in with a copy of your images on a compiled CD or DVD (depending upon the number and size of your files) with the filing fee and then you have your bases covered.

To prevent people from stealing your work, you can use a program like Photoshop to place a watermark across your images with your copyright notice.

If you happen to have a Nikon DSLR, all your images can have the copyright notice placed directly within the EXIF data on each file at the time you take the shot using the "Image Comment" feature on the camera. Just type in "(c) 2008, Your Name, Your phone number and it will appear on all the images you shoot from then on.

Answer 10

If you don't want people to steal it but you still want them to enjoy your work, you could try creating a watermark with your name/ company name that goes over part of the image.

But make sure to put in a spot that it wont easily be photoshopped out of.