You may have noticed the term “Creative Commons” applied to online photographs a lot lately. What is it? And why does it matter?

Protecting your copyright online is a tough thing to do. It’s easy to take a picture off the internet, no matter what you do to try and protect it. Disabling right clicks, setting as a background image, displaying it in Flash, it’s all been tried. Anyone who wants it bad enough however, can get it. Fighting it only makes it worse, so here’s what you do.

If you’re going to share your pictures online, you run the risk of people taking them. End of story. If you size them appropriately however, thiefs will only be able to do so much with those pictures. As a rule of thumb, I like to keep online photos below 800×600. These will print at 4×6 at a stretch – but even at that print size they’ll be pixelated.

Now that you’ve resigned yourself to sharing them, you can advise people as to how exactly you want them shared through a Creative Commons license. Don’t be fooled into thinking that CC is a way of protecting yourself. It’s not. Not really. But it does explain in very clear terms how you permit your work to be used. It’s an extension of regular copyright, and falls into the “open source” method of thinking.

If you license your work under Creative Commons, you tell people that it can be taken and used, but only under certain conditions (sometimes very specific). The best idea is to ensure that it is licensed non-commercially to avoid being taken advantage of by businesses or corporations looking to use your image free of charge. All licenses require attribution (they need to credit you) and you can also specify if you allow modification, or require the image to be shared-alike.

If you don’t want any reproduction of your work whatsoever without your express permission, indicate that it is All Rights Reserved instead of using a Creative Commons license. Creative Commons is for sharing, not blanket protection.

You can find out more about how to license your own work and what the licenses mean at the Creative Commons website.

From their website:

From the inside of the Kremlin to Kensington palace, from art galleries to war zones. Here you can see everything you’ve ever wanted to see that you’re not supposed to. There are pictures that range from the ordinary to the profound. Whatever the content or the quality though we think that each one stands as a little piece of art in itself, as a little expression of personal liberty.

Check it out – and start your forbidden journey into photographic liberation!

Which begs the question – what are my rights as a photographer? The answer will vary from country to country (and perhaps even from region to region within your country) but in many democratic societies (such as the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, etc) will have similar laws.

It would be redundant for me to reprint or rehash the laws here, but since there are several good discussions already online, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t point you in the right direction. Here are some excellent resources and some topical discussion regarding your rights as a photographer.

Canada

Photography Laws in Canada (ambientlight.ca)
Photographers Rights @ Photojunkie

USA

The Photographer’s Right PDF (krages.com)
The Law, In Plain English, For Photographers

UK

Photographer’s Rights in the UK

Regardless of where you’re located, the most important points to stress are:

A) You have the right to take a photograph where ever you are, though you must remain aware if you are on private property (like in stores or malls) as this will require special permission.

B) Nobody has the right to confiscate your camera or ask you to delete a photograph. Once you’ve taken a picture, it is yours.

C) You can take pictures of anybody in public. Be aware of common courtesy however, and don’t hound people (that’s harrassment).