It's the Digital Age. Do You Know Where Your Photos Are?

Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir recently found out that some of her photographs were earning money for another person. According to CNet news, several of her images had been copied from Flikr and uploaded to iStockphoto without her permission. Once Getty Images (who owns iStockphoto) was informed they removed the stolen images and are working with Ms. Guðleifsdóttir to make appropriate remedies.

Theft of digital images has reached epic proportions across the globe. Between random individuals stealing images for personal use, others reselling images (like Ms. Guðleifsdóttir was a victim of), and companies using images they haven't paid for, its hard for a photographer to not loose money. It has even reached the point where "news" agencies run by photographers have snatched images for their pages to illustrate stories under the guise of "sending traffic to the originating site."

What makes this theft so rampant is the difficulty photographers have in tracking their work. Often the photographer doesn't know his/her work has been stolen. There are a few new services, like PicScout ImageTracker that will search the web on behalf of photographers but most photographers still rely on many hours of manual image searches through popular search engines.

For now, the best solution seems to be prevention. Photographers should always watermark their images and upload low resolution/small size images to lessen their attractiveness to thieves. Images under 800 pixels on the long side at 72pixels per inch is the current preferred maximum image size of many photographers seeking to prevent image theft.

Have you ever been a victim of image theft?

Credits: Liz Masoner,
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