This story is about a family from St. Luis, MO and their Christmas greeting portrait that was illegally used in Prague, Czech Republic for a Food Store Advertisement.
Click here to see and hear their story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5507113/Beware-photos-online-US-familys-Christmas-card-photo-used-as-advertisement-in-Prague.html
I would like to share this story with everyone, because I can relate to both of the sides in this story
1) As a professional photographer
2) I was born and grew up in Czech Republic
I contacted the owner of this story and asked for permission to share it on my blog. I feel it could be very helpful for you to know WHY it is important to watermark our work and use only LOW RESOLUTION IMAGES.
Mainly, of course, it is to protect our work with Copyrights. But the next MOST IMPORTANT thing is to PROTECT Ourselves and OUR CLIENTS, so no one else can use our abuse these photos!
I also wanted to mention, coming from Czech Republic, that I know, the Copyrights Laws are not as strict over there, if any. No one ever asked for a letter or permission. I have asked around while my last visit in 2010 and no one even knew what COPYRIGHTS mean. And this is what I am talking about. Protect yourself with WATERMARKING your images and posting only LOW RESOLUTION files, because there are very difficult to be used for other purposes besides previewing online.
Please, read this story and I hope this will help you reevaluate the way you have been posting your work online.
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Používání vodoznaku, když dokážeš vytvořit takové úžasné umělecké díla je zcela normální. Je to ochrana před zneužitím duševního vlastnictví. Bohužel k tomu dochází ve veliké míře. A protože ty jsi uznávaná nejen v US a Kanade..ale tvoje práce jsou velmi známe i na Evropském kontinentě...je potřeba toto dílo opravdu chránit.
K tomu si myslím není co dodat.