Copyrighting

[leod]

The discussions of signatures on pics posted on the web that have been posted lately has me wondering at the use of this copyright © symbol by some on their pics posted on the web ??

Does putting this symbol on a pic have any legal standing without some type of copyright registering (if there is any for pics)??

This question is mainly about non-professional photographers using the symbol, but input from the pro's are welcome too

Any thoughts/opinions??

 

[clutchkiller]

Here is a link to a copyright form that you can fill out to have an image copyrighted: http://www.copyright.gov/forms/formvai.pdf There is a lot of good information, but a lot of it seems contradictory (it's a government form so it has to be, lol).

From my understanding, you do not need to add the symbol but you should have some way of proving that you are the original photographer (for instance, exif data or a water mark on the image). If you read through the link I posted, it states that you should place the symbol, and year that it was taken... and if you read a little farther, it says that the copyright symbol is not necessary after 1989. The way I see it is, the image is your intellectual property and no one has the right to claim it as their own.

I think Lan-lord gave the best advice on this... If you don't want someone taking your image, don't post it on the web.

 

[leod]

Thanks for the link, it answered a lot of my question

 

[foulshot]

I think a lot of people put it on just too keep others from copying the photo and trying to pass it off as their own. I would say a watermark isn't a bad idea either if you are going to post the photo on the web.

 

[leod]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

I would say a watermark isn't a bad idea either if you are going to post the photo on the web[/b]

.


How would you do a watermark? Is it a camera or PS function?

Although I have taken a lot of pics I am just now trying to move off of the "auto" and also starting to try and do some basic post processing

Thanks all for the info

 

[Hideandwatch]

Leod, I dont know if any of the higher end SLR cams have that option or not, but I would think not. I do know that it is a tool that can be used in Photoshop 7.0

 

[foulshot]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hideandwatch @ Jan 14 2007, 06:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Leod, I dont know if any of the higher end SLR cams have that option or not, but I would think not. I do know that it is a tool that can be used in Photoshop 7.0[/b]

Hideandwatch covered it, it's a function of your software used for postprocessing.

You can however put some personal information in the file data associated with the picture using your camera. You'll have to check your users manual to see if your particular camera can perform this function. Look somewhere in the MetaData section(if it has one).

Example: I put in my camera under owners name~©Zach Hewitt 200x , and just change the year every january.