Why is Copyright Needed?
In this digital age, it is not uncommon to have your pictures stolen or used/reproduced without your permission. This is also referred to as copyright infringement, which is becoming harder to avoid due to social media. Speaking from experience, I believe, no photographer likes to be stripped off the credit for their hard work.
If you are a photographer who has spent days to get a perfect shot and you see some random person from across the border using your image on his Twitter without credits, you wouldn’t feel so great about it. Would you? Especially, if you were hoping to earn some bucks from that image, you will feel enraged.
Photographers who click pictures of nature and scenery often find their pictures stolen online. Although not many people are aware of it, there actually is a way to stop people from stealing your images, which is to copyright your photos!
If you have registered copyrights of your pictures, you can legally sue any individual or organization who tried to steal them. If you are lucky enough to win, you can also get a decent monetary compensation.
How to Copyright Your Images?
Every time you click a picture, you automatically have its copyrights. The next step is to register those copyrights officially. The best way is to register copyrights of your images BEFORE you publish them online. Once they’re online, the documentation gets more complex. In order to do so, you first need to look up your country’s or city’s Copyright office. This is often also known as the Intellectual Property Organization (IPO). You can easily find your respective copyright office by a simple Google search. Depending on where you are based, you can then file for copyrighting of your images.
For instance, if you are doing this in the USA, you can easily file for copyright registration via an online eCO form on the official website of the United States Copyright Office. You will have to upload all photos in a .jpeg file format, along with an Excel sheet giving titles for all the pictures. You can copyright up to 750 images for around $55 USD. Similarly, in Canada, you can do so for about $50 CAD.
A few other things to try if you wish to prevent people from stealing your work without credits:
1. Put a watermark on your photographs before publishing them online.
2. Only publish low-resolution copies of your photographs so it’s harder for people to reproduce them.
3. Add metadata (photographer name, contact info, copyright info) to your photograph using any software application like Adobe Photoshop.
4. While posting on web, add a transparent layer on top of your image using CSS. After this, when people try to copy your image, only the transparent layer will be copied.
5. Using JavaScript, disable the right-click option. This stops people from downloading your photographs.
How to Find If Your Copyright is Being Ignored?
One of the easiest ways is to use a tool like TinEye or Google Image Search. You can upload your image and see where else on the web it is being used. It might not be 100% accurate, but it still covers a great depth. Once you know who is infringing your copyright, you can contact the person directly and force them to remove it. It is possible that they might not even know they are infringing your copyrights. In the worst case, you can also take a legal action.
Nevertheless, in today’s age, it has become quite crucial to register your copyrights. It might require a little effort but after all, it is worth it.
