Copyright

Maria Pallante named as Register of Copyrights

by Brian Smith on June 2, 2011

Maria Pallante has just been named as the new Register of Copyrights for the U.S. Copyright Office. Ms. Pallante is a strong advocate for the rights of individual artists/creators and has been a champion for maintaining strong copyright protection in our country. She is a great asset for our cause.

This past March, as Acting Register of Copyrights, she gave the Copyright Alliance a unique opportunity to provide the Copyright Office with thoughts from artists about the important role of copyright and the Copyright Office in our society. Several hundred responded with comments which the Copyright Alliance synthesized into a letter and delivered to Ms. Pallante.

Hopefully this appointment bodes well for all of us.

Tagged as: Copyright, Maria Pallante

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Double Helping of Bad News for UK Photographers

by Brian Smith on February 17, 2010

in Copyright

The Copyright Action website details the ugly truth behind two possible changes to UK copyright laws. Going a step beyond the ugly-enough Orphan Works bill proposed in the U.S. last year, the British version essentially strips away rights of creators:

“The quaint notion that the author alone has prime and inalienable rights over his/her own work, must be able to restrict usage, negotiate a fee, prevent usage they consider immoral or distasteful, or assert their moral right to attribution, is about to pass into history. This is the biggest change in UK copyright law in 150 years. It also punches holes through the Berne agreement, international copyright law and TRIPS.”

Making bad news even worse, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is proposing a new code for personal information online that is a virtual ban on public photography which ONLY applies to professional photographers:

“Mindful of the damage this would do to tourism and how much it would piss off Joe Public to be told he can’t use his cameraphone in the street to make humiliating snaps of his drunk mates for Facebook (and quite possibly subsequent orphan use by Rupert Murdoch), ICO have decided that this lunacy shall only apply to pro photographers, a small enough constituency to castrate with impunity.”

Worst Bills Ever!

Tagged as: Copyright, Copyright Action, Editorial Photography, England, Orphan Works, Public Photography, Street Photography, UK, United Kingdon

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What Every Photographer Needs to Know About Orphan Works Legislation

by Brian Smith on November 27, 2007

in Copyright

“Orphan Works” Legislation is currently floating around Congress and this legislation essentially gives pirates a free pass to S-T-E-A-L photographs if they can’t locate the creator. Simply put, my good friend former ASMP President Clem Spalding describes “Orphan Works” as “Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers.”

Orphan Works will essentially strip the guts out of Copyright protection taking away punitive damages in the event your images are stolen if the thieves can prove that they tried but were unable to to locate the creator. Editorial Photographers is one of over 20 photo associations around the globe opposing Orphan Works.

To put the impact of Orphan Works in simple terms – it would be akin to enacting a law that makes it ok to steal from the local convenience store as long as no one was behind the register and then if the cops actually catch you with the goods, the thief would only be liable to pay for the goods that the stole without any penalty for the theft.

It is absolutely essential that you embed your copyright and contact information in the metadata of every single image that leaves your computer. You can locate this while in Photoshop or Bridge by selecting File>File Info. Every photographer should fill in the following fields:

Description: Copyright Status, Copyright Notice & Copyright Info URL

IPTC Contact: Creator, E-Mail, URL, Address & Phone

IPTC Status: Copyright Notice

Using “Save for Web” certainly optimizes images for quick web loading, however it generally also strips out all the metadata that helps safeguard your images from piracy. In the latest version of Photoshop CS3 (version 10.0.1), the “Save for Web” feature now gives your the option to “Include XMP” in the Save for Web dialog. When this option is enabled, all XMP data — including the creator copyright and contact info — is included in the optimized file.

In addition to embedding Metadata to your files, I’d also suggest a visible copyright on the images. I’ve never really liked the look of slapping watermarks all over images, so I decided to follow my friend Seth Resnick’s suggestion of creating a border around the image an placing the copyright notice in the border area. As part of the Photoshop batch actions I run to create web images, I add an extra 10-15 pixels to the bottom where I place the copyright notice. The idea is to treat this as a design element – not a distraction.

Most importantly, if anyone were to steal an image (and hopefully that won’t happen) cropping out the copyright automatically elevates the theft a willful copyright infringement which is subject to the harshest penalties. More about copyright can be found on the Editorial Photographers website.

Tagged as: Copyright, Legislation, Metadata, Orphan Works, Saving Photos for the Web

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