To Watermark Or Not To Watermark....

A lot of creative persons wonder if they should watermark the work they upload on Web Sites and pages.

This is what the Copyright office says:

Its up to the person to watermark or copyright notice their work. If they choose not to watermark or copy protect their work and someone infringes on it, then the person who infringed can claim what is called, "accidental infringement".

Where does that leave the person whose work has been infringed upon?

Nowhere.

As far as copyright law goes your work should always be watermarked or copyrighted.

A lot of sites don't inhibit right click capability, this means that anyone who comes to the site can right click their mouse and save your image into their computer file.

A lot of sites don't bother to post that your images are copyrighted and that its a no no to copy them for use in any way what so ever.

It doesn't matter if what you have created is new or old.

Its best to always watermark your work or post your copyright and date upon it.

The best way to do this is to keep your watermark small so it doesn't take away from your work by becoming obtrusive.

A good watermark will look like the following:

Ayesart 07 Or John Ayes 07, (Use your own name, not mine).

The watermark should contain your surname, first and last name and the year that the work was created or posted to the Web page or Site.

When saving your work you should create two file folders. One folder will hold your watermarked work and the other folder will hold the work that you will upload to your favorite stock photography outfit, sans, (without), the watermark.

Its simple and uncomplicated and will work for you in the end as far as the law goes.

One last piece of advice. Save the watermarking of your work until after you have finished dithering it to your satisfaction.

If any Web Site master makes a demand that you not watermark your work...Get as far as you can from that Web Site.

I hope this helped to answer your questions.

John Ayes