Watermarks and people who help themselves to my images. I’ve never been a fan of either, but the former is required (in my opinion) to help fight against the latter.

I use watermarks on images I post online in order to:

• Deter people from using my images without my permission.
• Ensure viewers know who the images belong to, should they be used despite the watermarks.

I also only make lower resolution images publicly available to help prevent them being usable for anything other than online viewing.

As with any visible method of protection, there are downsides to some watermarks:

• They can be cropped out of an image.
• They can be cloned out of an image.
• They detract from the viewing experience intended by the photographer.

The last point is why I’ve tried to use subtle watermarks because I personally find most to be too distracting and end up competing with the actual image itself for the viewer’s attention.

Recently, a speaker at a not-for-profit conference took it upon themselves to download a number of my images (which were all flagged as all rights reserved) from Flickr and incorporate them into their presentation without asking me beforehand.  I only found out through another source and took exception.

Had the speaker contacted me before their presentation and sought permission or if they’d used them via Flickr then there wouldn’t have been a problem.  One of the reasons why I took the photographs was to share them with others and Flickr is my chosen vehicle to do this.  I don’t rule out other mediums, but I want to have the option of deciding which.  They are my images, after all.  What right does anybody else have in saying how they’re used?

From my perspective, they took my images, used them without my permission and expected I’d never find out.  They were wrong, in every way, and apologised profusely when I contacted them, but still gave no explanation as to why they didn’t seek my permission first.  It’s plain and simple theft.

What the speaker didn’t appreciate was the consequence of being caught out.  Sure, they get to carry on as they please and hopefully their conscience will prevent them from stealing other people’s work in the future, but what happened affected me and caused me to reconsider how I share my work.  It had to.

So, maybe I watermark more heavily and reduce the resolution of the images I publish.  Will this prevent any more instances of theft?  I hope so.  Will it detract from the viewing experience?  I can’t see how it can’t, but what choice do I have?