Copyrights

15 years ago

Over the years there have been lots of discussions about copyrights and protection and registration of copyrights offering additional protection.

Here are a couple of sites that explain that yes...as soon as you take the photo you can put (C) on it (that's supposed to be in a circle) as you can say it's copyrighted, but registration of the copyright provides further protection and gives you additional ammo ("HEY guy, you are using a photo that is copyright registered" and you can get much more $$ damage should you take the legal route....as I did).

Just thought these were interesting. First is about the Berne Convention fo the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the second site is just a site that says what advantages copyright registration has.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Kristi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works

http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/copyrightsandtrademarks/f/whyregistercopyrite.htm

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Comments (4)

kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
15 years ago
BUMPING MYSELF...can this get incorporated into our FAQ under "How do I protect my photographs?" or something similar?
K
joshy46013
15 years ago
Kristi,

Thank you for this!

What happened with your photo that you had to take the legal route? It's not very often you hear someone actually going through with it ;)

Josh
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kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
15 years ago
It's a very long story, but a printing company had used a copyright REGISTERED photo of mine in an unauthorized manner. It was an underwater photo that was particularly interesting. I gave them many opportunities over 3 months to make it right and pay me for the use. When they called 7 days after the deadline, I told them to call my lawyer...the guy was shocked! A local lawyer had taken the case pro bono since it was a slam dunk...the photo was registered and there was nothing to fight!(see how easy that is)...and he got me more than $10,000 in damages from them (he took his 30-40%), but if they had paid as they should, it would have cost them about $1200. IF I had registered the photo just a few months earlier (my mother was dying and I had better things to do) I could have ruined the company...or so the lawyer says.

SO...think about registering your work. It's not that expensive and nice "insurance".

I speak from actual experience!
Kristi
kaboehm (zone 9a, TX USA)
Original Author
15 years ago
bump...as this may help some who are having photos used without authorization. I don't even know that Josh read this scenario as I got no acknowledgement that he had...
K