First off, thanks to Rick for the opportunity to contribute to his blog. I've followed Rick's work for years and have always respected his sage advice about all things photography, so being able to contribute to the blog is quite the honor!
As a copyright lawyer and photographer, I spend a lot of time thinking about not only how to create compelling images, but also how to help photographers maintain control of their work and to protect it from people looking to steal or profit from it without permission.
Copyright law is an area of great confusion and anxiety for many photographers, but it doesn't need to be. Fundamentally, copyright is about the right to control your work and how it's ultimately used. Like any law, there are some exceptions, but generally, if you make an image, you own the copyright and you get to control how it's used.
That means that you might still want to think about how copyright affects your images even if you don't plan to sell them. Of course, if you want to make your images freely available and just not worry about it all, that's fine too. My goal is to give you the tools necessary to evaluate your options when it comes to protecting your images legally and effectively online so you can decide for yourself what approach to take.
My new book, Copyright Workflow: Protecting, Managing, and Sharing Digital Images, walks through the nuts and bolts of copyright law, how to register your works with the U.S. Copyright Office -- something that's highly recommended, especially if you're a U.S. based photographer.
But in today's post, though, I want to give you four simple techniques you can apply today to protect your images online.
