Monday, July 7, 2008

Copyright ©

Perhaps I should be flattered, however I am somewhat surprised to see my photos on another website with no credit given and no permission asked.

I realize I have been posting photos without watermarks or other distinguishing characteristics, however - I did this because I felt it makes photos less attractive and it would be a tad presumptuous to assume that others would want to use my work.

Evidently I was wrong.

I still retain a copyright to my images and the contents of this blog regardless of if it explicitly is watermarked or not (see copyright at the bottom of the page). Just because some photos aren't marked does not mean they can be taken and used however someone else sees fit - particularly without permission.

I am afraid that I will have to resort to marking each photo with the logo above or something similar so people don't assume my photos are fair game.

My belief is that someone really enjoyed my photos, which makes me happy - that is what I post them for. If you are interested in anything you see here please ask by commenting on any post before you put my things to use!

Thank You!
Emily

If you are interested in making sure your content is not being used elsewhere, I recommend signing up for google alerts and also checking copyscape

7 comments:

Jul said...

Yikes! Who was it? Out the thief!

N said...

That sucks...how do you put watermark on it or even write your name on the photos?

Anonymous said...

It's a shame !
People are so stupid sometimes !

Anonymous said...

Hey Emily,
That's really in bad taste. Sorry to hear that someone did this. I know that people know better. We're all behind you.
Troy

Emily said...

It's unfortunate but it's made me more aware. Thanks for your support!

The person has sent me a comment which I didn't publish because I am not trying to embarrass them. I didn't have a way to contact them on their blog without making things public, which is why I resorted to doing it here - and to let people know why I was now stamping my things.

bluefish - I use photoshop to mark mine. You can make a stamp or watermark that way. I am sure there are other programs as well. If you have any photo editing program just google watermarking and the name of the program you have.

Moya said...

So how did you discover your photos?
Thanks for making us all think...

Emily said...

Moya -

There are several ways to discover if someone is using your content:

1. Checking google alerts. You can enter topics or searches unique to your blog and it will alert you on the topic of your choice as often as you desire.

2. Checking referrals. Looking at the ways that people are arriving to your blog through google analytics or a similar program.

3. copyscape.com. It is a site to check for plagiarism. Sometimes people will duplicate your entire website and then run ads off of it to make money.

4. google images. Check unique file tags.

Alternately, you may also want to find other problems, such as if your photos are hosted on another website that you have your settings are private if that's what you desire.

You can also opt out of being searched through search engines.

I hope that helps!