Do not restrict your work

[Devaiah PA]

I always see "(C) copy rights reserved" on all photos.

If you are a established professional and if your photos are earning your bread and butter, then the above statement holds good.

Often found : Copy rights statement and Names are water marked right in middle of the beautiful pictures. Do not spoil your work when sharing. Let others enjoy your work. Every one deserves recognition for their work, but keep the names and messages out of the main subject in your pictures.

If you are an amateur and if photography is your hobby, then do not restrict your work to die in some unknown personal website. You can consider "(CC) Some rights reserved" and share your work.

Visit http://creativecommons.org

The above statements are my personal thought and open for discussion, hope it does not hurt anyone.

-Devaiah

[KrishnenduKes]

Controversial Topic of discussion.

Approved

[synn]

All of my pictures are shared under Creative Commons for non-commercial use. It's the reason why I stopped watermarking months ago.

[hitanshu]

Nope boss. The work of a friend of mine was utilized by another friend (both on a well known internet community) for a newspaper article without due credits. That was done by a journalist no less.

You are free to let others enjoy your work - why advocate others to follow your example?

[Aryan]

^ Agree completely with Tau, here. People do use someone else's work freely, and without giving ANY due credit whatsoever.

[anvancy-(macro analyst)]

there are too many complications involved.i mean posting on net people start using for "commercial" purposes and not "personal" purposes.so somebody is making money from your work.so in the end you are at a loss.thats why these watermarks.posting bigger sizes also gives those stealers an edge since bigger shots hold more data.so better clarity in printing.

its all under personal thing.watermarks are also an identification tool.u can immediately say that this is an x person's shot by seeing the watermark.

we put the C and the watermark to avoid unnecessary stealing.thats our point.not showcasing that we are stubborn and dont want to share with the world.

even some of my photos are in blogs,but each time the author took prior permission before posting it.we also share our images.but we keep it away from unnecessary "commercial stealing".

taking your question,watermarks are mainly off center and in between since they will be harder to throw out.if you put ur mark at the bottom or corner,a simple crop eliminates your mark.so have to take certain steps.

Anvancy

[Deltaone]

My two cents:

I don't do this professionally or with an aim to making money. At least not at the moment :P. So, i don't really bother with watermarking. Frankly speaking, i donot think my shots are at a level where anyone has to bother stealing them either :D. Then again, if someone uses my shots for something and doesn't inform me, well then that's that :D. I don't really care too much either way at the moment anyways.

This is a personal opinion and it should be noted, i have been noted as slightly off my rocker by many people. So, yea thats bout it :P.

[Devaiah PA]

I am not forcing any body, Those thoughts came up when I saw a beautiful picture with a name right in the middle.

I just wanted to start a debate to understand what is in our interest as amateurs (professional members excluded). I hope the discussion will address issues like how to get credit for your work.
Options:
1) (C) Copy Rights Reserved
2) (CC) Some Rights Reserved
3) Freely Sharable

Few days back I was trying to understand what (C) stands for, Below is what I understand.

(C)Copy Rights reserved: No nobody should touch it. This holds good when I am already earning form my current work and it is not available for others to use freely.

(CC) Some Right Reserved: It provides the below options and I feel it is more flexible for amateurs.

Allow commercial uses of your work?
Yes/No
Allow modifications of your work?
Yes
Yes, as long as others share alike
No

The below link explains the different licenses:
http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses


Some statements made by others members:

"The work of a friend of mine was utilized by another friend (both on a well known internet community) for a newspaper article without due credits."
A) (CC) has a solution
http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/3.0/88x31.png


Power is down, I need to switch off my PC, I will get back...
I hope we can collectively discuss what is inour best interest.

[hitanshu]

Well that's exactly my point.

its an individual decision ... so let's agree to disagree and the OP respects others' decision to watermark :p

[Nakul]

Watermarking is a good thing as per me, because it gives due credit to the photographer. THe concept of CC is pretty good, but how much of it would be valid is a different question. the same topic is a constant debate in the IT field ( The free software movement and the likes )
The view/idea of CC is good, but pratically not sure. Unless and until there is a legal obligation to it, it doesnt stand a chance. Now thats my view of the general concept of CC.
With regards to the topic at hand, I second the motion that having watermark bang on at the centre is a bit distracting, but it should be personal call as suggested by Hitanshu. But I have seen most of the members of thePin giving due credit to the photographer. That is something i really admire and I am not sure if its a rule in our groups or a personal initiative.
Bottomline as per me is the debate is kind of on the same lines as asking whether photos should be editted using softwares or not. Personal opinion is what ranks best.

[Devaiah PA]

After reading the replies.
Yes, I agree that editing photographs is a personal choice. I was more driven by the "Joy of looking at beautiful pictures".

As a learning exercise and educating myself and others in necessity, I will read/write more of (C) and (CC). If anybody has more knowledge on the same can help me/others to understand it better.

Regarding protecting picture with water marks, Piracy cannot be stopped with a water mark :( . Even a Opaque watermark can be erased. The Photoshop experts is this forum can explain it better.

Regarding fighting with the pirates for misuse of your material. We need to learn the methods of copyright protection. Pasting a (C) is not enough. Evidence of original art work is also very important. Registering Artwork is expensive. Methods such as "poor mans copyright"(self Email) might help.

I will post small tutorial on (CC) by this weekend. (only for those who require it, other ignore)

The truth: Millions of photographs are out there, Thousands of pirates are looking at it.
Leonardo da Vinci could not protect Monalisa.
Bill gates could not protect Windows. (Do we own a licensed copy of windows? :eek:). I admire Windows
Richard Stallman never protected GNU project..It is free and I use it extensively - Gimp is :cool:. I love GNU Project.

[Nakul]

After reading the replies.

Richard Stallman never protected GNU project..It is free and I use it extensively - Gimp is :cool:. I love GNU Project.


Beg to differ on this one. The Gnu project is protected under the GNU GPL. The code can be used as long as due credit is provided to the originial coder. An thats the main reason he wants ppl to use the term Gnu Linux rather than just linux. I know i am gettin out of the topic at hand,but just wanted to make this clear. :)

[anvancy-(macro analyst)]

criminal minds are always one step ahead of regulators and stuff.

simple procedure in lightroom makes meta-data presets possible where in you can set copyright stuff.this is then embedded in your every shot's EXIF.but the sad part is that there are EXIF editors too.so we cant actually protect but try to prevent it.

Anvancy

[synn]

Tonnes of commercial and non-commercial photographers publish their works under CC without watermarking. Trey Ratcliff is one example. If one wants to steal your work, they'll do it no matter what. However, not everyone out there is a douchebag who steals pics without permission. Non-watermarked images have greater chances of being published (Commercially or otherwise) and increase your chances of being visible online. A blogger who thinks that your pic is cool and posts it may just be getting more hits per day than your Flickr page has ever gotten.

As Anvancy said, setting up metadata and/ or a digimarc digital watermark is how far I'd take it these days.

[hitanshu]

theek hai yaar. Its simple. I prefer to scratch my crotch - you don't!

I don't see how even one individual will change after this discussion.

We're here to shoot, not chitchat :p

[synn]

I'm not convincing anyone to stimulate the follicles on their privates, I'm just giving logical reasoning as to why some of us don't watermark. Contrary to what you said, I AM one of those individuals who changed his mind after reading a similar discussion.

We shoot out in the field and chit chat about related things here. Ain't that how it works? Discussions related to copyrights are VERY relevant to anyone who takes his/ her photography seriously.

[Devil.DJ]

I'm not convincing anyone to stimulate the follicles on their privates,

:D :D

I am not forcing any body, Those thoughts came up when I saw a beautiful picture with a name right in the middle.



*cough*

OT : sorry man : But are you referring to a "Tiger's" picture ???

[Devaiah PA]

:D :D

*cough*

OT : sorry man : But are you referring to a "Tiger's" picture ???

Devil,
You have justified your Name :D. art of reading minds?

There are many beautiful pictures out there. Not just one

[anvancy-(macro analyst)]

theek hai yaar. Its simple. I prefer to scratch my crotch - you don't!

I don't see how even one individual will change after this discussion.

We're here to shoot, not chitchat :p

Lol! from watermarking we went to our privates!

Anvancy

[arijit]

i hope the discussion is not over...i m a little late...:)
well in my opinion watermark doesnt make your work unusable. i give a practical example. a friend of mine got his work published in a magazine. people got to his pic via google on deviantart.com and sent him an email for required permission.
people can still use your work but then you are duly notified of the use. if not commercial money making, it is a motivation for the photographer...isnt it?
+ a second benefit is - publicity.
if you are struggling photographer or wanna be photographer, i am sure no one is going to put up his ad on the net or tv. these pictures are the publicity one can manage. suppose i put up a wallpaper of anvancy's pic, 10 more people would come to know that some macro expert is around named anvancy. may be he will get some assignment if some1 in my known circle want the kind of collection he has. (another friend got a calender published in this manner and earned 5k for it) :):):)

so this (c) help...rest is personal choice!!!!!

CC was a good idea originally but could not be implemented as it was supposed to be.!.

[Daniel Browning]

Do not spoil your work when sharing. Let others enjoy your work. Every one deserves recognition for their work, but keep the names and messages out of the main subject in your pictures.


I've earned my living for the last ten years writing software that is licensed under the GPL (and a few other licenses), so it's no surprise that I license most of my photography under Creative Commons. I think most people avoid it because they are not aware of the benefits (e.g. increased exposure, new revenue streams, etc.). When I advocate it, I don't use language quite as strong as yours, but I do encourage folks to at least try it and see if it positively impacts them.

[Devaiah PA]

I've earned my living for the last ten years writing software that is licensed under the GPL (and a few other licenses), so it's no surprise that I license most of my photography under Creative Commons. I think most people avoid it because they are not aware of the benefits (e.g. increased exposure, new revenue streams, etc.). When I advocate it, I don't use language quite as strong as yours, but I do encourage folks to at least try it and see if it positively impacts them.

Dan,
Welcome to Photographer.in
Nice to know that there are a lot of people who publish their art under CC.
I am a starter, hope CC is the right tool for me.

[hitanshu]

sab kuch english hota hai india mai:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dfc/discuss/72157623492565286/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/subirbasak/4381175765/ versus the original;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/subirbasak/3551152337/
In images:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2752/4381175765_63c7cb3c95.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3630/3551152337_aac2fa8788_o.jpg