I think if you post pictures online you have to be prepared that people will
download them and in some cases use them. The java script messages that
people put in thier web sites to block right clicking can be got around with
screen capture and by finding the file in the windows temporary internet
file if you know how. Probably the best and only way to keep people from
nabbing your pictures is to use a digital watermark (there are programs
available which do this) But a digital watermark usually prints a large
word across the picture and obscures the subject, I know everyone has seen
pictures with the word "sample" scrawled across it.

As an artist I have concerns about my pictures being used without my
consent. I don't really like digital watermarks because to me it's like
defacing the artwork. I don't post anything that I don't want others to
download and possibly use. Another way of protecting copyright is to keep a
file of the artwork or photograph on cd in the orriginal size of the work
file and in all the parts. I work with Photoshop and my working file can
have hundreds of layers and be 100mb or even larger and 600dpi or more as
well as 60000 x 40000 pixels. The size of the final merged picture can be
almost as large and saved as anything from a pdf to a jpg or tiff file.
Burned onto a cd it's there for archive purposes and in case I want to
change something later. I doubt anyone would post a 100mb picture to their
web site This way if you ever need to you can come back and show you
truly were the artist who created the picture in question and take a
copyright infringer to court if needed.

Shell


"Ray" wrote in message
...
From the US Copyright Office website:

"Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed
form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the
property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those
deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright."

...and

"Copyright Secured Automatically upon Creation
The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently
misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action in the
Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. (See following Note.)
There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration. See
"Copyright Registration."

Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is
"created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time.
"Copies" are material objects from which a work can be read or visually
perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as
books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm.
"Phonorecords" are material objects embodying fixations of sounds
(excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture soundtracks), such as
cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for example, a song (the "work") can be
fixed in sheet music (" copies") or in phonograph disks (" phonorecords"),
or both."
--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!


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