Copyrighting your work?
 

Hey guys, as many of you know I'm quite interested in photography despite my lack of posting much of my work on here. I took some shots of the albino buffalo in Jamestown, ND and am in the process of learning how to copyright these pictures and then possibly (hopefully) sell a few for postcards. Does anyone have experience doing this? If so what is the process and how long does it actually take? My mom mentioned the poor mans copyright idea which I'm planning to do however I'd like a more official way of doing it.

Copyright is granted automatically upon the creation of a new work. You don't have to do anything for it, it's automatic.

If you're really concerned about it, you can register your work with the copyright office. That provides proof of when you created it, and that you're the original owner. Honestly, though, unless you expect to make a career out of selling photographs it's probably not worth the effort. You already hold copyright over your works, and that should be good enough for any situations you're likely to encounter.

U.S. Copyright Office - Forms

As an aside, it is a good idea for anyone looking to get into the arts in any professional capacity to familiarize themselves with applicable laws. For you that's going to be US copyright law and WIPO. Wikipedia is a good place to start.

As usual, Martian is spot on. However, I'll add that if you're especially concerned about someone claiming your work as their own then you're best off doing exactly as you are - keep your work away from the internet.

There are plenty of web services where you can have postcards made but you're probably better off checking out your local shops - be sure to tell them you're a local artist and maybe you'll get a discount.

Also, if you're willing to sell your work as postcards, have you considered selling it to online stock agencies? There's a lot of info to drum up but give this site a shot (har har).

You may want to consider using Digimark in your keepers. It embeds your information into the image file. No reputable shop will print from it without first contacting you.

Also, spend the $20 on the current copy of Photographer's Market. It's an annual publication that has hundreds of outlets for beginner to established professional.

I am in the same boat as Miss GG, thanks for all the info guys!

Get a camera that embeds all the pertinent information in the EXIF data, such as your name, copyright info, camera model, serial number, date taken, sequence number, camera settings, location, etc. You can also do this in programs like Photoshop.

Then save an archive version of your photo with the all the EXIF data intact.

It's true that this EXIF info can be stripped out or lost, especially if you post on the internet, but since you have an archived version of the original file in your possession, you have proof that you created the original image.

You can also put a copyright notice and copyprotect (prevent right-click downloads) of your images by publishing them on Flickr, which dates the image and displays the EXIF info. Thus, it's a public record of your ownership of the image.

As a last resort, putting your images for sale in microstock public databases like istockphoto or bigstockphoto will also help cement your copyright and ownership credentials. I've made nearly $5000 over the past 6 years having my photos in both of these sites. The only drawback with microstock is that your photos thus become non-exclusive and you often have no idea of how or where your photos are being used.

there's some mighty good info in this thread :)

I recall, from my days taking creative writing classes, that you can also mail yourself your work, and keeping the envelope intact (not opening it) will prove ownership of your material should a question ever arise as to whether the material is yours or not; the post mark date is verification of when the material was created. That obviously works better with documents than photography, though, and that was quite a few years ago, before many of the online options were available.

The above is correct as far as I know. One other alternative is to put some of your work in the creative commons:

Creative Commons

For those works that you *don't* want to retain exclusive copyright on, the creative commons is a great way to define what you want to let others do with your work.

A story:

I don't have any aspirations to be a professional photographer, but I like to try for a few good shots now and then. About a year ago, I put some of my pictures of our local drum circle on flickr, under a creative commons share-alike by-attribution license. A few weeks ago, someone from the drum circle asked if they could use the pics for their newsletter/website/etc. I was happy as a clam to share. For a professional photographer, I think the advantage of this situation would essentially be free advertising - the work is still attributed to, and owned by, the author. The drum circle doesn't have a budget to pay for photographs, so there isn't any revenue lost.

Great info here!
Thanks