How do I copyright my photographs?

Question

Hi,

I'm in the U.K and I would like to copyright the pictures I take for my blog. I have seen them come up on Google images and know others have downloaded them. How can I do to protect my copyright?

Answer 1

Just an FYI, even with copyrighted images, anything you post on the internet can (and likely will) be used by somebody somewhere without your knowledge. Copyrighting hardly stops anyone from using stuff they find on the web (just being realistic here). A better deterrent is to make any photos you post very low resolution and small in pixel dimension before you post them. That way, at least they can not be used for commercial print processes.

Answer 2

You might want to use a watermark so it shows on top of your images such as a @ symbol or your website or business name.

Other than that when you import the images (I use photomechanic) add the copyright to the IPTC

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

Answer 3

In all of Europe and the US, copyright exists the moment you make something original, so you don't need to treat copyright like a patent.

The problem is when someone rips you off and then you have to prove that the copyright was yours and not someone elses. People used to mail themselves a copy of the photo and leave it unopened, but that wouldn't work now as it's too easy to forge the postmark.

Now if you have digital versions of your photos, you can upload them to a special webpage and they fingerprint them and record the time you uploaded. This means that you have an independent record showing when you made it. No one will be able to argue with that! :)

I use a service called http://www.provemycopyright.com because you get 1Gb of space to upload lots of photoes.

Watermarking them would also be a good idea, but people can take the watermark off and it doesn't INDEPENDANTLY show the time that you originally made it.

Hope it helps

Answer 4

i don't think you can... you might be able to copyright future photos but the ones that are out there its too late... there may be 1000's of copies out there try searching google for copyrighting images

Answer 5

Don't know how it is in the UK, but in the States, copyright is assumed at the time of creation. My D40 has the ability to implant my copyright info. I also keep the original files, in case a question of copyright infringement should arise. You can also imprint your own copyright text onto your images before posting, or use digital watermarking like Digimarc.

Answer 6

Don't use Google images, other sites like Shutterbug put a transparent layer over the photo so a right click>copy photo just copies a transparent layer. Its not totally foolproof, but it deters the average thief.

Chris