Online Theft of Images





         Every now and then I get a question about watermarks, disabling right click, and "keeping your images safe" on-line. These are all legitimate questions, but happily "theft" of images off a website is far
 
more rare than most people think. When it happens, because it does happen now and then, it's often quite innocent. All that is usually needed to deal with the problem is a polite request by e-mail. More serious cases, though, are very few and far between.

         I've had images misused (I prefer to use that word rather than "stolen") perhaps a dozen times since my images have been available on-line (since 2000). All of these cases have been due to lack of knowledge on the "offenders" part. All were taken care of with no problems at all. In all cases images were used on someone's private website, or very small and very local newsletters. Not one of these were usages were ones where I could have sold usage rights for, so I didn't miss any sales.

MISUSE

         It's just about nonexistent that a professional photobuyer at a magazine, newspaper, or book publisher, knowingly would misuse an image. The odd occurrence is usually due to an inadvertent mistake on the photobuyer's part. No serious photobuyer would purposely misuse an image. The risks (lawsuit as well as a destroyed reputation in the industry) far outweigh the small financial gain.

         I always advise against putting huge watermarks in the center of your images, or placing warning signs all over your website. PR people call this "negative purchasing impulses." Too many warnings and threats tend to make people unwilling to buy. Imagine if you would walk into a local store and see warning signs everywhere about shoplifting, obvious camera surveillance, and security people walking the aisles to control and supervise. Would you find that shopping-environment inviting?

EDUCATE

         Yes, be clear about the fact that your images are copyrighted and that nobody has the right to use
them for anything without your permission. Write a short note about what copyright is and put that on your site. But leave it at that. For every means there is to prevent someone from stealing your image from your website, someone will invent another means to get around the hurdle. As the saying goes, "Build a bigger lock and they'll build a bigger hammer."

         If you feel a need to protect your web image, here's what most photographers do: 1) Keep your images small in size and resolution. That way they can't be used professionally, even if downloaded by someone. 2) Refresh your website visitors about copyright. A copyright notice on your site goes a long way to accomplish that.

Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 14 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 11 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike@photosource.com.


           


           

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