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Position:Home>Visual Arts> Copyright Questions?Question: Copyright Questions!? I want to copyright my photography like I see some other online photographers do!. (Like with a water mark on the picture)!.
What do I have to do to Copyright a photograph!? Do you have to do anything special!? Or do you just put the C sign on the photo!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: There are ways to copyright a photo!. The poor mans copyright is to send the photo to yourself in a sealed envelope, with postage cancellation on the seams of the envelope, registered mail!. Don't open it!. It will stand up in court!. Unless an image is so outstanding that it deserves the expense of a real copyright, then I wouldn't bother!. Hate to put it this way, but outstanding photo's are now a dime a dozen!. That is why I have declared all of my images part of the public domain with only a few minor restrictions!. Legit publications, such as newspapers, magazines will accept your work as copyrighted and honor that!. They have better things to do then end up in court with copyright issues!. Source: Worked for a decade for a major newspaper, part of that was in the photo department and part of that was accepting photo's from outside sources!. =============== Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated Confucius 551 - 479 BC =============== Peace Jim http://www!.ChinaBlix!.com !.Www@QuestionHome@Com Any photograph you take is copyrighted!. However, for the most possible protection it must be registered with the federal Copyright Office!. This, of course, costs money!.Www@QuestionHome@Com As soon as you take the picture it is copyrighted!. You can watermark them, sign them or mark them in any way you want!. For the most protection you will need to register them with the copyright office!. This can get expensive so I wouldn't bother unless you have a real fear that someone is going to steal your photographs for use in advertising or publication!. The following link is to the form that you would need to register your photograph!. http://www!.copyright!.gov/forms/formvai!.p!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I'm assuming that what you are saying is you want to post your photos online, but you want the added protection of a watermark symbol on your image!. If you are using photoshop there is a little add on plug in called digimark which will watermark you image!. If you are using or participating in a service like iStockphoto, they watermark the image at upload!. You can easily create a watermark yourself as well by using software like photoshop!. All you really need to do is type the text you want, such as John Smith Photography ?2008 and drop it in!. How transparent or what color and size is up to you and the tools you use!. Hope that helps!. As for copyright laws and copyright protections, there is a lot of really great info out there, so just spend a little time on google!. It's worth it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com You would look for a developing place that has professional paper!. You can get the paper that has the copy right mark on the back!. But just because you have a copy right on the back of the pictures does not mean nothing!. They can still scan it and make copies and they get more prints that way!. Lots of places look the other way!. Or with high quality printers at home!.!.!.scanning and printing is so easy!. One main reason to have a copy right if someone sales your picture for money for profit!. then for legal reasons you can take actions!. but you never know what people are doing with your work!. its sad where is the respect for the photographer and there hard work!!!!! best of luckWww@QuestionHome@Com You really don't need to do anything as the photos you take are automatically copyrighted upon taking them!. Don't be duped into thinking you need to spend money or do anything sophisticated!. That said, see the referenced site below to give government and legal opinion and how others have responded to the question you asked under "discover" on this site!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |