Copyright has been a subject that has been of interest to me for many years, starting back when I worked with digital artists and the online signature tag community. This interest expanded when I started working as a web designer and became aware of the copyright minefield on the internet.

When I first started online I was wary of sharing personal images online and everything was heavily marked with my name. Then social media arrived and privacy concerns were added to the mix. I’m pretty cautious about what I share online.

I’m pretty lucky that, as far as I know, no one has ever used one of my images online without my consent. I’m always mindful of crediting images I use, especially if it’s for work. If I need to search for an image to use I make sure it’s licenced for creative commons.

So what can you do to protect your images?

Learn as much as you can about image copyright. Here’s some great resources:

• Photographers Rights, General Privacy, and Copyright in Australia
• Creative Commons
• Who Owns Photos and Videos Posted on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?
• 10 Helpful Websites for Protecting Your Photography Copyrights
• Photo stealing and photography copyright – what if somebody is using my photos?

Learn how to add copyright information to your images either on your camera or after once you have downloaded them to your computer by editing the EXIF data

Watermark your images

Upload low res images

How do I protect my images? Watermarking and adding copyright info into the metadata. On social media I only upload low res images.

At the end of the day though, if someone is going to steal/copy your image they will no matter what you do. At least inform yourself what you can do to protect yourself.

If you want some more reading on this subject, go read this article. It was shared with the student of Photography & Social Media and I think it’s a great read for all who are interested in photography