In the beginning of the year I wrote, “Have You Created Your 2015 Metadata Copyright Preset?” reminding us to update our copyright information for the New Year. This quick tip made sure we added our copyright information to every photo we imported into Lightroom. Our next step to protect our images is to register them with the Library of Congress. Lightroom makes this final process just as fast and easy.
I thought my images were already protected?
The moment you capture an image, you automatically own the copyright of the image. If someone violates that right by using your image without your consent, you can take legal action. However, you need to register your image before a judge will hear the case. Let me stop for a moment and say I’m not a Lawyer, I am a photographer. I received this information over the years from reliable sources, Jack Reznicki and Ed Greenburg. Ed is a Intellectual Property Lawyer and Jack is commercial photographer and one of the most sought after educators. You can find more information on their blog, The Copyright Zone. For years they have been educating photographers, including myself on copyright issues.
When should I register my images?
There is a small fee of $55.00 to register up to a 500 MB per ZIP file of images. Depending on the types of images you take and how many will determines how often you should batch register your images. If you are part of the media and the images are time sensitive, you should register them immediately. Its best to register your work before you publish it.
Published images, especially a collection are a little harder to register, but shouldn’t make a difference or deter anyone.
While there is a 500mb limit, you shouldn’t send large files. A small JPEG, 600-800px on the longest side, 72ppi, a JPEG compression of 5 or 6, and then in a zipped folder. So you can get 10,000 images that way.
Lightroom export preset
Once installed follow these simple steps:
- Select your images from inside Lightroom.
- Right click on a selected image.
- Click export and select Library of Congress.
- Choose a folder to save the images. I created a folder called 2015Q1-Prepare for-Registration
The selected images are exported to our Prepare for Registration folder with the proper requirements we need. Use your favorite zip program to compress your images. I use WinZip.
3 Steps to Registration
The United States Copyright Office is part of the Library of Congress. You need to complete 3 simple steps to register your photos.
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Payment
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Image deposit
Open a new Case
Login to your account and create a new case. You’ll have 12 sections to complete. Each section only takes a few minutes. Below is an example of my recent submission. As I mentioned earlier, Im not a lawyer. This example works for me; a photographer living in Florida. Its best to consult a lawyer in your state and follow The Copyright Zone with Jack and Ed.
Type of Work: Work of Visual Art
Titles:
- Type: Title of work being registered.
- Title of this work: 2015 Q1 The Assassin
Publication/Completion: No
Authors: Add me
Claimants: Add me
Limitation of Claim: Click continue
Rights & Permissions: Add me
Correspondent: Add me
Mail Certificate: Add me
Special Handling: Skip
Review Submission: Make sure everything is correct
Payment and Upload your Zip file
After you review your submission, the final step is to enter your payment information and upload your zip file. Your images are now in the final stage of being registered.
Extra Resources
- The Copyright Zone: A Legal Guide For Photographers and Artists In The Digital Age
- Its Fast and Easy to Install Lightroom Presets
- Have You Created Your 2015 Metadata Copyright Preset?
- The Copyright Zone
- United States Copyright Office
*Feature image tashatuvango / Dollar Photo Club
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Thank you Vanelli :-)
Thank you for the detailed steps to getting images registered! Now I do not have an excuse not to do it… The one issue I ran into was the difference between published and unpublished work. At first I thought if an image was posted any place on the Internet then it was published. Then I thought I saw on the USPTO website that was not true. Does it really matter? As you mentioned, a judge only cares the image was registered… Or could they dig deeper?