I have some family photos of a semi-famous inlaw and I wondering how I could protect these images.

How is it done??

First, I'll assume that you do, in fact, hold the copyright to the photos of your "semi-famous inlaw." Then, to digitally protect it, it all depends upon what software you have.

As a photographer, I use Photoshop. I use a Digimarc ([url]www.digimarc.com[/url]) plug-in that lets me easily embed my copyright information. The nice thing about Digimarc is that it's a suite of products and services -- including a spider that searches the web for violations.

I'm not sure but I believe Digimarc's plug-ins are compatible with other imaging software. Best bet is to check directly with them.

Good luck.

I second ronin47. I use Digimark on my photos. It works great.

Av.

Yes, I do hold the copyrights to the photos.

I was considering posing a better [url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11206]picture[/url] to a web site which has some info about him.

The problem is that my mother-in-law is very, very sensitive about "her dirty laundry" getting out, as the family member is her father. He was not known for doing [i]humanitarian work[/i].

I have some really good, clear photos but she doesn't want them all over the internet. Maybe one or two at the most.

The reality is that once an image is available on the Internet, [b]anybody[/b] can download it, keep it, print it, whatever. Such is the nature of the beast. Even if you try some clever things in coding a webpage (e.g. through Javascript), a smart enough person can defeat those measures and download your images. Now, this isn't really all that new -- anybody could clip a copyrighted photograph out of a magazine or book, etc.

What digital watermarking will do for you is help you prosecute infringements of your copyright. First by helping to establish that you are the copyright holder and second by actively finding instances of infringement -- where somebody posts your photo on their website. You can then see if they're using it with your permission or if they're in violation of federal copyright laws.

Unfortunately, you can't do anything about somebody who downloads your photographs to their own computer or uses them in a way that doesn't republish them somewhere (even though that's still illegal).

Thanks,

I'm aware that someone could get the image I just don't want it redistributed and to have some recourse for now....


Maybe sometime in the future it won't be such as issue.


During my research I have run into many people, some honest and some not so. I have only allowed one other source to have any of the photos because of his help and because he was an expert on the subject.