In the next few months, I am likely going to start selling prints of my photographic works. In addition to being a way to dissememinate my art work, it might bring in a buck or two. Can’t beat that with a stick.
How do I go about protecting the works?? I’ve no idea what route to take to best insure that my photographs are protected from ( at the very least ) being spread around the Web without my permission, and compensation.
Thoughts?
Thank you all in advance for any advice,
Cartooniverse
(I’m assuming you’re in the U.S.)
When you create a photo, it is copyrighted, and you have the legal right to control its reproduction. However, it might be tough to prove that a photo is yours, or that you took it first. To be absolutely safe, you need to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office.
http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html
Registration confers two main benefits on you. First, it makes it much easier to prove that you’re the copyright-holder because it shows that you had access to the work at teh time of registration – if a copier claims he took the photo five years ago, but you registered it seven years ago, he’s got to be lying or mistaken. Second, it greatly enhances your ability to get money damages in recompense for unauthorized copying.
It looks like registration is $30, although there may be a better rate for a whole bunch of photos. Unless you’re charging a lot for these, that cost might not be worth it, especially since you can still enforce a non-registered copyright if you find someone is copying it without your permission. (Although your ability to get money damages from the copier is very limited, your right to make them stop copying you is fully in effect, assuming you can prove he stole it from you and not the other way around.)
–Cliffy
If you’re really concerned, you must consult a qualified attorney.
Many, many copyrights are never registered until a dispute arises. So long as your copyright is registered before you file suit, you have available the full range of remedies. So it might not be worth spending the money for registration unless and until there is a problem.
Your best best is to keep a good record of your works and to attach your copyright credit to all images. A creative work is copyrighted as soon as it is created. You don’t necessarily have to do anything.
The cheapest bit of added security (aside from good record-keeping, which is the best of all) is to send yourself the photos via registered mail and never open the package. Then, if a dispute arises, you have a sealed, dated document containing your work.
On a related note, say it’s a digital photograph. How does one copy protect it?
Here’s all the info you need.
Yes, technically, your photograph is copyrighted from the moment you’ve taken it. However, for maximum protection you must register it with the US Copyright Office. You can batch register work. You don’t need to pay $30 for each photo. You can just have “Joe Schmoe, 2001 Unpublished Photographs” and copyright that. You can do digitally by scanning them and sending a CD, or you can do it with film and print film. Look at the web site, all the details are there. Same rules apply for digital photographs.
Two things, though. Previously published images must be registered separately from unpublished images. Also, previously published images need to be registered with a copy of the first publication of your work.
If your image is not registered, your legal recourse is fairly low. You can only sue for actual damages. However, with registration, you can sue for actual damages, court costs and possibly be awarded punitive damages of up to $150,000, depending on how willful the infringement has been. Yes, judgements have been handed down for quite high amounts in such cases.
So do register them. Please check out that website. It is specifically for photographers, and has EVERYTHING you need to know about copyright registration.
Are we going to get a chance to see these photos and possibly purchase them ourselves? Surely you want your Doper friends to have a crack at them!! Maybe you can put up an image gallery without prices or something, and we can contact you if we’re interested.
Nope. AFAIK, and IANAL, but that certainly will not allow you the full recourse of the law. YOU MUST register your images to have the fullest protection and the arm of the law on your side. There’s a lot of crooks out there, believe you me. Sending yourself photos in a sealed envolope is not gonna cut it.
Sorry, for digital registration, you also need a hard-copy printout to accompany your CD.
Actually, this may be a nice idea. I wouldn’t mind pooling together some of my stuff as well. Perhaps we can have a whole SDMB art page where members can buy each other’s original works?
Yes, yes, yes. You must register your images in order to have available the full range of remedies under the law. But you need not register them now. Registration only becomes an issue at such time as you bring suit, and you can register your works at any time prior to bringing suit. It doesn’t help you protect your copyrights before that. Before you spend any money registering, get some good advice. For now, just having proof that you had possession of the images at a certain date (by using that registered mail trick, e.g.) might be sufficient.
Yes, ascenray, but you must register within 90 days of first publication, or else you cannot get punitive damages or court costs recouped to you.
Trust me, it’s worth the $30. Listen, for one photo used at minimum size (1/4 page or less) I usually charge a minimum of $200 for one-time one-publication use. $30 is a wise investment and considering how many photos you can copyright at one time for $30, it’s very cost-efficient. I’m just getting around to doing this now myself. I’ve been infringed before, and there was nothing I could really do about it, as I did not spot the infringement within the 90 days of first publication. Therefore, I could not recoup court costs or punitive damages. Had I registered, perhaps I’d be several thousand dollars richer today.
Oh well. Live and learn.
pulykamell, I thank you for that link. It’s rather compelling. I have to get on the ball, both with past images AND those I’ve recently shot. The idea of shooting them over onto digital and storing them onto a CD and submitting THAT is pretty darned appealing, I will go that route. I will attempt to submit as many on a CD as they will allow. ( I have to print this out, and read it like a bazillion times before I send in said photos on CD ).
I could forsee copying each frame off of contact prints, using a Macro Lens- and submitting a CD burned with those images, to copywright them all. All are UNpublished as of now, so this bulk submission idea might pan out for me.
I’m appreciative to all of you for the ideas, keep em comin’.
pldennison, I am planning to offer high quality ( like there’s any other kind?? 
) B&W Prints of my works. There may be a few color prints, I’m not sure yet. The web design is just being roughed out, I’ve a few ideas and have not met with my designer as of yet. I’ll post here, most surely, when it’s ready to go.
Cartooniverse
Everyones answering your question about copyright; now what about preventing them from flying all over the net?
I strongly suggest that when you save your images in jpeg form in Photoshop you save them at low quality (1-2).
This will not only keep the megabyte size of the images small (for faster loading) but it will make the image really sucky for someone to try printing for themselves.
And try the Digimarc registering system.
A few other points, Cartooniverse:
Remember, when registering the stuff on CD (Whether you take digital photos of contact or slide sheets or scan the sheets in), you still need a hard copy print of the digital files to submit. Each print should have like 16-20 images on it. A simple Epson printer hard copy will do.
You can also use copyright as leverage for clients who publish your work and don’t pay you. There’s also contracts on the website I linked you to, and if a client publishes an image before paying you, that can constitute copyright violation. Usually, you allow your client a 30-window, plus a clause indicating late payment will result in triple fees, interest, etc. If they still don’t pay you can then threaten a big lawsuit, and they’ll pay you.
(I don’t know if that’ll be the purpose of your work, but just in case, it’s good to know.)
For your web images (and I’m also guilty of not doing this), it helps to put a copyright notice ON each image. Or create a frame around each image with a copyright notice on it. If somebody cuts that frame out, that helps prove the willful intent to violate copyright in court. Also, each page should have a copyright notice and, ideally, there should be some sort of agreement you click on in the beginning of your web page. See http://www.sethresnick.com to see how some photographers implement this idea. Not all photographers do this, but it also helps proving willful violation of copyright.
Storing low-quality JPEGs helps, but it doesn’t necessarily eradicate the problem. A 72 dpi photo at 8 inches across on screen can be resized to about 2x3 at 300 dpi. Even if heavily jpegged, that may be good enough for some publications. I’ve seen more pixelated photos than that appear in print.
I’ve noticed quite a few embedded copyrights ( copyrights? copywrights? which is it?? ) in Web images. The idea of a frame around the image appeals to me, because these photos will appear for the sole purpose of showing people what they might wish to buy as art.
Slugging a copyblight ( I’m tired of typing it out…) into the image itself bothers me. I’d rather go with the frame approach. This is GREAT stuff, thank you so much.
copyright – it refers to the right to copy, which you as the author hold exclusively unless and until you decide otherwise.
–Cliffy