Protecting the copyright of your images
Ever since I entered the world of photography, I became more conscious about copyright issues and intellectual property rights. I think we can agree that content creation is the way forward in this technological era. Sadly, this trend is accompanied by rising infringement of rights, such as image theft.
Recently, a Swiss photographer called Madeleine Josephine Fierz was disqualified and stripped of her awards from two photography competitions: Moscow International Foto Awards and Fine Art Photography Awards. Her winning entries were actually taken by another photographer, Sasin Tipchai, who is based in Thailand. Tipchai had uploaded his stunning works for free to Pixabay, and his generosity was unfortunately abused. Moreover, if he did not highlight the theft to the organisers, Fierz might have gotten away with the prize money and honour.
(Sidenote: Tipchai's images are absolutely beautiful and he definitely deserves more recognition.)
Taking a photograph is not as simple as clicking the shutter. We have to acquire the (expensive) gear, hone our skills, travel and often incur hefty expenses to shoot at our desired location and finally edit the images on our computers. What can you do, as a photographer, to protect your images then? For me, I currently watermark all of my images. Firstly, it is to deter the 'lazy thieves' who go for the easiest images to steal. Secondly, my watermark contains a link to my Facebook page, thus leaving a form of contact behind.
However, using a watermark is not fool-proof. A recent article by PetaPixel highlighted how easy it is for AI to remove translucent watermarks. I do not think we can completely stop image theft unless we slap a huge opaque watermark across our images and ruin them aesthetically.
You can check if your images have been stolen by using reverse image search. Several engines offer this capability, such as Google Image and Pixsy. I tried it once for fun on my image of the Milky Way in Jasper National Park. The image was shared by Tourism Jasper (without proper credits and cropping out my watermark until I made a fuss about it) thus I figured that would be most susceptible to theft out of all the photographs in my obscure portfolio. True enough, I found the image on a Chinese website:
I decided to contact the website. I feel that most people would be kind enough to add in credits/take down the images if you communicate with them. Of course, there are always horror stories of exceptions. This is the updated page:
I am not even using that Instagram account anymore, but it sure does feel nice to be credited for your work. After all, I stood for hours in the cold for this image :D Fun times.
To make it clear, you do not have to use a watermark in order to have copyright protection, nor do you have to register the copyright. I have taken a class on business laws before, and this is how copyright works (primarily in Singapore):
You do not have to use the copyright symbol as long as you can prove that you are the author.
The copyright of the item is not related to merit i.e. it can be a poorly-taken photograph but it will still be protected.
The copyright lasts for the life of the author and 70 years after his/her death.
If you are critiquing, you have to acknowledge the source.
If you are a victim of image theft, it is your right to contact the person using your image illegally and make your stand about your permissions. Otherwise, the law is on your side.
