Safeguard Your Hard Work with Copyright Protection February 2004 by Lauren E. Darcey Many amateur and semi-professional photographers have dangerous misconceptions about copyrighting that can easily result in missed publication opportunities and lack of recognition and compensation of their hard work. If you've ever published your images - whether it be on the web, magazine, or in a newsletter - then you owe it to yourself to spend five minutes at least understanding what you can do to protect your original works. The most common mistake people make is believing that they do not have a copyright on their work unless they file with the U.S. Copyright Office. In truth, you own the copyright of your work the moment the work has been created - that means when you take the picture. So why do you need to register your copyright if it's automatic? Well, you don't. However if you ever need to file a lawsuit, you must go and file your official copyright registration before a claim can be made. Also, your court case will be greatly strengthened if you had registered prior to the infringement and the person using your work should have known better. Now that you know your works - both published and unpublished - are copy written, it's time to make sure everyone else knows it, too. Perhaps at some point in your photographic career, someone has "borrowed" a photo of yours and used it. Sometimes its flattering, and sometimes its obnoxious. You want to protect your rights for several reasons. Firstly, you should get recognition if someone wants to publish your work. Secondly, you may want to be compensated for the work you put into the image. Finally, you may want to control how that image is used - and make sure its used appropriately. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and the people who want to use you images is to make it clear at all times that the images are not public domain - the rights to these works belongs to you. You'll want to get used to stamping "© 2002 John Doe. All rights reserved." on everything, where 2002 is the first year you published the work, and John Doe is the person who owns the copyright. Just one more minute of your time... Many a photographer has not registered their copyright because it would be quite expensive and time consuming to fill out a $30 registration form for each photograph they want to protect and I for one wouldn't blame them. However, the Library of Congress Copyright Office likes paperwork, but not that kind of paperwork. They allow copyright registrations of collections which are quite simply a bundled-up version of your published or unpublished work. In order to register a collection of your work, you need to meet several simple conditions: The collection must be orderly The collection must be named as a whole. E.g. The Works of Lauren Darcey - 2001 The copyright registration must be same for all items in the collection You authored the collection (for multiple authors, see the Copyright Office website) So let's just recap. If you are serious about your photography then you should be serious about protecting your rights as a photographer. You get an automatic copyright the moment you shoot the picture, and you should remind everyone that you have it to avoid any misunderstandings by tattooing "© 2002 John Doe. All rights reserved." on everything you can. Lastly, you've really got no excuse to avoid putting together your collection and registering your copyright so consider this if you ever think you'd pursue a claim against someone who's misusing your work. For more information about U.S. copyright law, check out the U.S. Library of Congress Copyright Office.

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