Registering Copyrights

Well, I just registered a user name and password with eCO, the electronic Copyright Office. I've given some thought to the pro's and con's of registering my photograph copyrights and decided to give it a try. Here are some of my thoughts, understandings and reasoning behind this decision. Forgive me if I tend to ramble a little.

First, I don't intend to actively pursue photography as a means to making a living; however, I do "publish" my images on Flickr and the options I choose in that site do make it possible for anyone to download full sized images. I like that aspect of Flickr and I don't want to ruin it just because someone may decide to infringe my rights. Many hobbyists on Flickr post smaller, low quality images, or place gigantic watermark signatures all over their photographs. But, what's the fun of that? When I want to view an image, I want to see what it's really about. Unadulterated. I understand why professionals do this; they want to ensure they can make a living. Anyway, I'm interested in the hobby/passion of it, and other than placing a few prints for sale in an art show or submitting an image to a photo contest, I'm really not interested in worrying about getting paid for my hobby.

So why try and go through this hassle? Because I want to ensure nobody else makes their retirement using my images either. Some things I've learned in this class helped sway my decision. You can place up to 750 images in one "collection" that fall under one copyright registration. So, that sounds a lot better than $35 a photo. Another important factor was the additional protection that registration provides (statutory claims and attorney fees in successful litigation). Also, because you must submit a deposit copy that becomes stored in the Library of Congress, there will be a public record of my work for as long as this country stands, I recon. This also means that after my copyright privileges expire (70 years following my death under current legislation), because these works are held within the Library of Congress, my images will officially be registered as public domain. People of that time will, in theory, be able to access and use images I created.

Now, my struggle is to use my slight computer knowledge to successfully fill out the application and submit my deposit copies. This may be more difficult for me than it sounds. To submit this many potential images (I will be submitting jpg format at 1-20mb a piece), there are certain things I need to do. It looks like the best way, if I want to electronically submit, is to bunch several images into zip files. Other than knowing the basic concept of a zip file and knowing that the words "zip file" exist together in nature, I know nothing else. If I successfully submit an application and copy submission, it apparently takes about nine months before I'll receive a certificate of registration.

It looks like I have some research to do. I'll keep the blog informed to my progress, if there is any.