The
UK has recently passed the Enterprise & Regulatory Reform Act by Royal Assent,
which, among other things, creates a method by which “Orphan Works” can
be exploited. Simply put, if you are unable to identify the copyright
holder of any photo, drawing, painting, music, film, etc. -- after
conducting a “diligent search”-- then it may be considered an “Orphan Work.” This is a legitimate problem for many galleries, libraries,
archives and museums that have acquired works over the years, as without
knowing who created each, it’s not possible to know whether copyright
is still in effect. For example, If they use a photo to make a postcard
to sell in their giftshop, and it turns out that the photographer is
still alive they may find themselves in court fending off a copyright
infringement.
In
2008 “orphan works” legislation was progressing through the US
Congress. A bill did make it through the House, however no corresponding
bill ever made it out of the Senate (you may recall fall 2008 was a
little hectic what with near financial ruin due to the home mortgage
derivatives market collapse). While many thought that would be the end
of it, with the UK ERR act passage, this issue may be revisited sooner
than some expected.
With
all of this in mind, if you are going to share your images in the
“World Wild West” here are some ways to make it easier to identify you
as the creator/copyright holder of your digital photographs. Taking some
(or all of these steps), should mean there’s little chance that you’ll
find your images being labeled as “orphan works.”
Add Metadata In-Camera
Some
of the higher end digital SLR cameras allow you to add a Creator or
Copyright Notice to the Exif metadata that is written to each image file
just before it is saved from your camera to your memory card. Many
Canon and Nikon models offer this in a number of their midrange or
higher end digital cameras. On Nikon cameras you can enter an “Image Comment” using the controls on the back of the camera in the menu.
On many Canon models, this is done using software provided by Canon,
and then loading this info into your camera via a memory card.
Add Metadata post-capture
As
soon as possible in your imaging workflow be sure to embed your Creator
and Copyright information as photo metadata using IPTC and XMP
standards. Use image applications, browsers or cataloging programs to
put in your name as the Creator, and as the Copyright holder in all of
the images you have taken before you upload them to the web or
distribute to others. To make it easy for others to find you; you
may also want to include some basic contact information. At minimum,
include your website URL, if not your address, phone number or email
address. The Meta tutorials on Photometadata.org will show you how to do this for a
variety of applications.
For
those of you using iOS “smart-devices” (iPhone & iPod Touch)
cameras, check out Marksta, an app that you
can use right after you capture an image to add up to about 20 IPTC/XMP
metadata values.
Watermark your images
Create
a visible watermark that you can place over each of your images. There
are numerous tutorials that show you how to do this with Photoshop,
Photo Mechanic, Breeze Browser and other applications. I just discovered
recently, you can even do this with the free Picasa application from
Google (Use the File >> Export Picture To Folder option). If you
are using an iOS “smart-device” (like the iPhone or iPod Touch with
cameras), Marksta can apply a visible watermark as well as embed your
contact and copyright info.
Carefully Choose Where You Upload Your Images
You
will have the most control if you upload and share images from your own
website. If you are going to use other services, be sure to first read
their terms of service. In addition, you want to make sure that they are
not “stripping” your metadata from the images being displayed. The
Embedded Metadata Manifesto website has a chart showing which Social
Media Networks preserve photo metadata. http://www.embeddedmetadata.org/social-media-test-results.php
You
can find other details on many more sites by reviewing the preliminary
results of the “The Controlled Vocabulary Survey regarding the Preservation of Photo Metadata by Social Media Websites”. If you don’t find your service of choice, consider adding to the ongoing survey.
Join the PLUS Registry
The
Picture Licensing Universal System Coalition is an international
non-profit organization with a tightly focused mission: to simplify and
facilitate the communication and management of image rights. PLUS
membership is free, and allows you to add a Registry listing. Clients
will be able to search for you by name, and even search for your images
(using an image recognition engine). The PLUS Registry will serve as a
global, multilingual hub for other registries, and will allow
registration and search using third-party applications and plug-ins.
Register Your Images with the US Copyright Office
This
isn’t only for US Citizens. Registering your images gives you
additional protections, such as being able to ask for statutory damages
and attorney fees if you win an infringement case. Detailed info can be
found in the ASMP Copyright Tutorial.
Lastly, while it’s not going to immediately help your own case, please consider supporting the Embedded Metadata Manifesto and lobby against the stripping of metadata from all digital files.
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