Happy Saturday to all! There is excitement in the air for the Gasparilla festivities in downtown Tampa and though the weather is rainy and gloomy, I know everyone will make the best of it and have a phenomenal time! For me, I am enjoying watching the rain from my window and catching up on blogging, editing, and homework! :-)
I ran across this post from Jen O’Sullivan a few weeks ago and have been meaning to share it with my clients, fellow photog friends and anyone else who could benefit from it. It addresses the issue of copyright infringement. I recommend anyone that has questions to please read it. I will also add some links and resources at the end of this post for further clarification and information. I haven’t had much trouble with this topic but I do see it more of an issue on social media sites (such as facebook, myspace, etc..) blogs, and other areas online.
Let me share with you an example:
I really like a photo from someone’s facebook account, I right-click, download, and crop to my liking. Meanwhile, throughout the process, I just deleted the photographer’s watermark/logo. That is a big mistake for many reasons. The most important being that now when infinite amount of people do that to the same image, no one will ever know where or from whom the photo originally came from. As Jen O’Sullivan calls it in her article, it will be an “orphan image“.
Online presence should be respected and not abused and the more educated we are on this topic the better. Sometimes people might not even know that what they are doing is illegal or even know what copyright infringement means. Here is the article: http://jenosullivan.com/2010/01/photo-copyright-who-owns-what/

This is my notice to all clients, fans, and virtual world: ( I have this on my facebook page as well)
The images posted are the property of Kismis Ink Photography and may not be reprinted or used without expressed permission from Kismis Ink Photography. However, you are welcome to use them for personal sites such as Facebook, Myspace, etc… with a link back to our website www.kismisink.com as long as the logo/copyright stays on the photo.

It is an infringement of copyright to edit, change in any way, or use these images in any media without permission from Kismis Ink Photography. If you would like to use the images for any other purpose please contact mariana@kismisink.com. Thanks!

CLIENTS/FANS: Just a reminder, feel free to copy and save any photos you want from our page, we only ask that you leave our logo/name on them and DO NOT alter the images in any way!

Additionally, please SUGGEST our page to your friends and family by clicking on SUGGEST under our photo.♥
I always try to add a watermark/logo to areas in the image. I try to get a little creative with that too as you can see in the image below! :-)

Extra resources:
U.S. Copyright Office FAQs
10 Big Myths about Copyright
Helping People understand Copyright by Scott Bourne
Where to report copyright infringement on facebook

Please share your experiences, advice, and any resources that you may have below in the comments. Thanks!