As a photographer (a software developer), I am always aware of protecting my rights under copyright laws. Although not too difficult to understand, I know there are many misconceptions. Note that it is different for the software world, especially when you are working as an employee of a company. What I am concentrating about is for the photography side, which works as creative work, and where your original work of art is protected the moment it is created a “fixed in a tangible medium of expression” (be it printed on paper, or posted in the web). As for the web, there are conflicting ideas and comments on it being considered “published” when posted.
There are always some good questions you may ask
- Does a message saying “copyright by XYZ” is enough? Do I have to use the little (©) symbol and the year the work was created?
- Do I have to register the work with the “Federal Courts?
- What if I post my copyright inside a digital image’s metadata such as the International Press Telecommunications Council Photo Metadata (IPTC) data or Exchangeable Image File format (EXIF)?
I am not a lawyer and will not be able to give you a long rundown of it, but want to point out a nice recent article by Digital Photo Pro magazine that answers all these questions and more.
(Thanks Mark!)
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