I was just wondering what my Gather friends here think of this.
I've been thinking about image protection here on Gather. I do feel confident that Gather is working hard for us to figure something out.
In the meantime though, I've been thinking about what we can do. To be honest, I don't think I'm high risk for having my photos stolen as my stuff isn't anything impressive, but I know there are a lot of my Gather friends who are at high risk for this.
My temporary solution? Video.
I don't think the average internet user is going to be able to figure out how to steal an image from a video. You can't right-click on a Gather video and save it. Granted, there are ways to do it, just as there are ways to steal any photo despite anti-theft measures. Typically the average internet user isn't going to know the methods to steal video images.
I realize that taking your image and making it into a video is a little more time consuming, but if you feel you could possibly be a high risk for image theft, then it might be worth the extra few minutes.
If you're using Windows XP, you've already go the video editing program on your computer. It's called Window's Movie Maker. Typically you can find it by clicking on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories.
Although Window's Movie Maker can sometimes be glitchy, it is pretty simple to use.
What do you think, my Gather friends?
Would you like a photo tutorial on how to make a small video for a photo?
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Comments: 32
My video that I posted about clubfoot is all done with photos, no actual video.
Not knowing what the original looked like, the image of your husband was not too bad. I'm not sure how well this would work for some of the high-quality, high-detail macros of birds, flowers, etc. that are so popular on Gather, though.
Nina R. (another photographer) posted an article yesterday that seemed a more permanent solution about a company that offers to embed a "tracking pixel", a code piece in your graphic that is uniquely identifiable as yours. They then use a web crawler to locate and report all instances of their pixels. Here's her article http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977284682&nav=Namespace
Act as long as it is an original work of art. It does not have to be registered with the US Copyright Office. However, if you do register it then you can request punitive damages if you file a lawsuit. My point is that you are legally covered by law already and I dont think you all have to go through all of this as you are protected. If someone steals a picture they have violated copyright laws and are subject to all kinds of civil penalties and depending upon the state may have committed a criminal theft crime as well. So relax.
Although, I think a lot of people are getting upset because while it is true we are already protected, it is not true that finding out someone stole your work would be an easy thing to do.
There is no way for us to know that someone stole something from us unless we, or someone that knows us and our work, happens upon the stolen content.
The video idea does work, although you are going to lose some image quality... The degradation though is not as bad as publishing an image that is too small, or too low dpi to draw interest to it.
At this point, I feel video or watermarking is the best idea.
The information you're providing Jane is wonderful though just in case someone does happen to find a stolen piece of work. Maybe you could publish an article on what we can do if we discover this to be a real situation? I know I'd greatly appreciate such an article!
I also didn't think you could convert a Flash file to a different media file easily...
I think in the long run, anyone that can steal your content through a Gather video, is going to be able to steal an image even with copy-protection. I know I can. There isn't an image out there that I couldn't get if I wanted to... Not that I would LOL, but I COULD if I wanted to... Even with the video I could do it... Problem with the video is that huge Gather watermark.. That wouldn't be easy to get rid of.
But you're right, it wouldn't be hard... Gather slaps that big watermark in the corner of all videos though, so if someone did take a screen shot, they'd have that there to contend with.
I agree- Watermarking your work is probably the best solution.
I'm still not sure what I am going to do.
Thanks for sharing it!