How do you protect your copyright?

Monday 29 January 2018, 15:51 by Liesbeth van Asselt | 25,474 views | 36 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

There are several methods to prevent photo theft. One method works better than another. I will describe the most commonly used methods below.

Janoux Cremer is currently doing an internship at Stapfoto. I asked her to write a blog about copyright. Below you will find her tips on how to protect your photos from being used without your permission, or, if you prefer, from misuse.

Copyright stamp/watermark

A copyright stamp or watermark is a logo or text that photographers place on their photos to show who took the photo.

A copyright stamp is usually placed on a part of the photo that is not very interesting, for example in the bottom left or right corner. The disadvantage is that people with bad intentions can easily crop this off the photo.

To prevent this, you can also place the watermark in the middle of the photo. This is often where the most important part of your photo is shown. Of course, this does not make your photo look any better.

You therefore have to choose between taking a risk or placing a photo with a clearly visible, unattractive watermark on Facebook, for example.

Adding a watermark is simple. You can do it in Photoshop, but there are also other programmes for this, such as www.watermark.ws. In Photoshop, you do it as follows:

1. Open an image and create a new empty transparent layer;


2. Go to the toolbar and choose Custom Shapes;


3. In the options bar, choose Fill with Pixels. ↑


4. If you move to the right in the options bar, you will find the copyright symbol under Shape. Make sure your foreground colour is black;


5. Now move your mouse to your image and you can add the symbol. Hold down the Shift key to keep the proportions;


6. Select the Horizontal Type tool. Now type the remaining copyright information, such as your name or your company name;


7. Merge the two layers you have just created. In the Layers palette, select the top layer and choose Layer, Merge; Down;


8. Now turn off your background layer so that it becomes invisible. Do this by clicking the eye in front of it;


9. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a selection around the copyright stamp;


10. Then go to Edit -> Define Brush Preset, give your watermark a name and save it;


11. Your watermark is now saved in the Brushes palette, at the very bottom.

You can now place it on any photo. It is useful to create a new layer first. You can then adjust the opacity. You can also give the copyright stamp a different colour and adjust its size. Below you can see the stamp in two different ways.

Invisible watermark

If the idea above does not really appeal to you, you can also choose an invisible watermark. With a free programme called IIC Publisher, you can hide your details in your photos. Entering your details works as follows:

1. Open an image: File -> Open image
2. Choose Cards -> Copyright card
3. You can now enter the copyright information, your details, your website and email address, if applicable.
4. Then tick 'include this card'.
5. Click OK and save the photo with File -> Save image with cards as

Photo thieves cannot see that copyright information has been added to the photo. But if you, as the photographer, open the photo in the programme, you can show that the photo was taken by you and not by the photo thief.

File information

If you want to leave your photo as it is, without adding anything, you can add your own details in Photoshop and Bridge, among others. These are also known as IPTC or metadata.

In Photoshop, go to File -> File Info. You can then enter your details in various tabs, Standard and IPTC, for example. The most important ones are copyright status, copyright notice and the URL of copyright information. Enter the following:

1. Copyright status: protected by copyright
2. Copyright notice: your name and email address
3. URL of copyright information: your website (optional)

By adding your email address under "notice", people can contact you to ask permission to use your photo.

In Bridge, you can create a template of this information, so that you can add it to your photos each time. Go to Tools -> Create Metadata Template. You can now add the details here. The most important ones are, of course, the copyright details.


To add this to your other photos, you have to save the template. You can give it a name, so that you can easily find out which one to use.

To add it to your photos, go to Tools -> Append Metadata. Your created template is now listed and can be added to your photos.

When a user opens your photo in an image-editing programme, a © appears before the title. They can find your name in the metadata.


It is not the most effective method to use. A photo thief with bad intentions can easily change your details…..

Low resolution

Another way to protect your photos is to use a low resolution. If you only want to use your photo as a preview on a website, you do not need a high resolution.

A size of 1200x800 with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch (ppi) is usually enough for a photo on the internet. At a resolution of 72 ppi, you cannot print or enlarge the photo, because it will then become grainy and unusable.

Of course, the photo can still be distributed on the internet this way. The photo thief can share the photo on their own website and say that they took it.

Right-click protection

Another way to prevent people from taking your photos is to block the right mouse button. Photo thieves can then not download the photo. If they right-click on the photo, they get a notification (see image)


You do need some knowledge of HTML to add this kind of code. But you can of course also ask your web developer to do it.

Splitting photos

Splitting a photo can also prevent theft. With this method, you split your photo into several pieces. You can put the pieces back together later.

If someone then tries to download the photo, they only download a small part of it. You can split a photo into pieces in Photoshop, but there are also other programmes for this, such as TileMage Image Splitter.

With this programme, you can choose how many pieces you want to split your photo into. Of course, I tried the programme myself. I recommend that everyone reads the manual first, otherwise you will not see the wood for the trees.

Once I had done that, I had quickly chopped a photo into 64 pieces. Nobody can be bothered to piece 64 parts of a photo back together....


The photo thief will then quickly look for another image. Of course, they can still take a screenshot. That is a disadvantage of this method. But this applies to all methods where you do not put the copyright on the photo itself.

Transparent GIF

With a transparent GIF placed over your photo, the photo thief does not download the real image, but an empty file. To do this, first create a small transparent file of, for example, 8 by 8 pixels.

Save this in GIF format. Then use HTML code to indicate that the GIF file should be placed over every photo. You can also ask your web developer to do this.

A thief is then unable to save the real image. But, just as with right-click protection and splitting, a photo thief can still take a screenshot.

Protecting with a password

If you want your photos to be visible only to certain groups, such as your family and friends, you can protect a web page with a password.

There are websites where you can upload photos and choose between public or private. One example is the Zoom Gallery.

Here you can upload your photos and indicate who is allowed to see them. If you choose private, you get a link to the photo you uploaded. You can then forward this link to family and friends.

The Zoom Gallery does show your uploaded photos as thumbnails on the website. But when someone clicks on the photo, it says that it is a protected image. This prevents unknown people from taking your photo, while still allowing you to show the photos to an audience of your choice.

Flash galleries

Instead of displaying your photos on your website in the usual way, you can also use Flash galleries. This is an animation saved as an SWF file, in which the images can be viewed.

It is then difficult for a photo thief to extract individual photos from such an animation.
You can create Flash galleries with Lightroom or Photoshop (Elements), for example. They are secure and run smoothly.

There are disadvantages to using Flash galleries, though. It takes longer to load a Flash gallery, which means that people are more likely to stop browsing your website. Because of the long loading time, your website will also rank lower on Google and therefore be less easy to find.

A plug-in is also needed to view Flash. Not everyone has one, and not everyone wants to download one. Mobile phones also often cannot display a Flash gallery, even though an enormous number of people browse the internet on their mobiles.

How do you know as a photographer that your photo has been stolen?

To find out whether your photos are being used by others, you can search for your own photo on the internet. You can do this in several ways.

The first option is simple and quick, using Google.
1. Go to Google Images.
2. There is a camera icon in the search bar. Click on it.
3. You will then get two options: paste image URL or upload an image.


4. Then choose upload an image -> choose file.


5. Now look for the photo you want to know whether it is being used somewhere.
6. Google will now search for similar images.


At the top, you will see the photo you searched for. Below that are the similar images and links where the photo was found.

You can now see whether the image appears on another site without permission. If not, there is nothing to worry about. If it does, you have to consider whether you want to take action, and if so, how.

Besides Google, there are also other websites where you can search for your photos, such as TinEye. On this website, you can also choose to open an image or add a URL.

When I did this with the photo of the splashing tomatoes that I also used in Google Images, I got no results. Not even the website www.stapfoto.nl belonging to Liesbeth, where the photo really is displayed.

Of course, I tried it with many more photos. Some photos on the Stapfoto website were found, while others were not. Conclusion: searching in Google works better!

What should you do in case of misuse?

If you have discovered that your photo is being used without permission, you must collect evidence. Without evidence, you have no case. So take a screenshot of the web page where you see your photo, including the date.

Once you have found evidence, it is useful to consider what you want to achieve. Do you only want to make sure that the photo is removed, do you want the photo thief to pay you the usual fee for the photo, or do you want to impose a fine so that the person does not make the same mistake again?

If you choose to send an invoice including a fine, the total amount is usually three times the usual fee. An informative video about this is the one featuring the rijdende rechter.

Contact the photo thief. Preferably by telephone first. This often works better than email. Do confirm the telephone conversation by email afterwards. If it leads to a conflict, you will at least have written evidence. Include a response deadline in the email.

No response? Then send a reminder. Still no response? Then, for example, send a warning that you are going to hand the matter over.

Do you get a response? Then you can try to reach a solution that is acceptable to both parties. But ultimately, the photographer is the one with the right to speak and can therefore decide what should happen.

When do you have copyright on your photo as a photographer?

A short while ago, a judge issued a ruling about copyright on a photo. The person who took a photo does not always have the copyright!

The photo that was taken must have an "own, original character and the personal stamp of the maker". This means that the work may not be a copy of someone else's work. As a photographer, you must make creative choices. For example, you can play with the lighting, sharpness and compositing.

Copyright expires 70 years after your death. Heirs can no longer invoke it after that.

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