4 replies to this topic

[nev_payne]

Just a head's up to the staff here and the budding photographers on TMF.

 

This most recent bill - The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 - changes how your photos are handled online and should they not be watermarked, or tagged in metadata (detailed file information behind the photo's file) in such as way as to not be yours, they can be used by whoever wants to. Furthermore, that new "owner" who uses your photos, can then claim that photo is theirs and proceed to pull in royalties from it.

 

This has particular impact on so-called "orphaned" photos - those that have no apparent owner on the Internet after a suitable amount to research is undertaken to ensure they have no owner, or have been uploaded and "neglected" after a period of time. This, as The Register comments, is also susceptible to people taking the opportunity to photoshop watermarked photos removing metdata, and again claiming it as their own after "due diligence".

 

Very well worth noting this in the future, where you upload your photos and how you prepare them prior to uploading.

 

Thanks, stay safe out there :)

 

 

Sources:

http://www.theregist...r_act_landgrab/

 

https://www.gov.uk/g...es-royal-assent

Edited by nev_payne, 29 April 2013 - 10:02 PM.

[Vipernoir]

There is an example of this in the Mini Community at the moment.

 

No names, but someone is stealing photos and putting their own watermark logo on them for use on both their site and Facebook page...

[sonikk4]

How do you go about water marking your photos. i have no idea how its done so a heads up for dummies here would be good.

[roberts]

This change in regulation is causing some upset with photographers, a mate isn't happy at all.

 

I don't know all the ins and outs, all I do know is that it won't make a blind bit of difference in the real world - if someone wants to steal a photo, they did anyway. The internet is a big place, so finding out that one of your photos has been stolen is near impossible.

 

However, it shouldn't be a change in the regulations though that makes you watermark your photos, you should watermark them anyway just to try and be safe.

 

Here at Optimise we have always made sure we watermark every photo we upload to the internet (be that on a forum like TMF, photobucket, facebook, twitter or our website) to try and stop it happening, but... every so often it still happens and we see a photo of ours being used by someone else.

 

But by watermarking every photo of ours, someone else using it kind of works as advertising for ourselves - so it has it's plus side.

 

Thanks
Andy @ Optimise Automotive

Website: www.optimise-automotive.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 (0) 1782 579 080

Edited by roberts, 30 April 2013 - 05:52 PM.

[Steely]

I've recently started Watermarking my pics but to be honest I think that if someone wants your pic that bad then the watermark will mean nothing. It is possible to remove it.