The Copyright Office now offers a toll-free line in an ongoing effort to improve copyright public services. Callers can now dial 1-877-476-0778 to ask questions about copyright registration, including use of the electronic Copyright Office (eCO), the Office’s online registration system. When patrons call the toll-free line, they will be prompted to select the Copyright [...]

Check these important posts from Gunar: Google in the hot seat for stripping metadata in image search results What should Google do about media metadata? Great quote: There will always be people who steal.  That is not the problem to solve.  The challenge is to raise the overall awareness of the ownership of the media, and educate the consumer [...]

Dave Warner over at http://www.lensflare35.com/ interviewed me last week to talk about legal issues and my photography.  We had a great time, including making a new tune for the “D-M-C-A.”  The podcast is available on Dave’s site or via subscription in iTunes.

Thanks to Mike Johnston over at The Online Photographer for including the “Photographer’s Legal Guide” on his list of “The Best Photography How-To Books!“ Order your copy of the ”Photographer’s Legal Guide” from the Products page (for the e-book version or for an autographed softback copy) or from Amazon for a softback copy or for a Kindle [...]

Q. If I hand my camera to another person to shoot a few frames, who owns the copyright for the images? A. 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. Unless the photo is a [...]

John Harrington recently has been writing about photographers working for free.  The promise of future paid work is often the response of those caught infringing your photos. Don’t believe it.

Photographers’ images usually are infringed by others copying the image, either in whole or in part.  But photographs also may be infringed when others copy the expression of the photograph. Ray Dowd over at the Copyright Litigation Blog recently reported on a prime example of whether a stained glass window infringed a photograph.  The court [...]

The law related to copyright can be confusing. Unfortunately, photographers often rely on fellow photographers or random Internet postings for their information, which may be incorrect. But a free and great resource is the U.S. Copyright Office’s website. For example, one photographer asked about the ramifications of a nom de plume for copyrights.  All he [...]

It’s almost a must now for photographers to post their images online.  With the advantages of a broader and more accessible market, the Internet also has the disadvantage that it’s much easier for others to steal your work.  But there are things you can do to protect your photos. 1.  Register your copyrights to your [...]