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June 25th, 2019
Don’t let image theft take away from your online presence or income. Find out how to protect yourself and catch image criminals in the act!
What is Image Theft?
Image theft is a simple, fast crime for the perpetrator, but the ramifications for those whose images are stolen can be far-reaching. Imagine your company losing profits/clients; your brand’s reputation is tarnished or finding out that you weren’t hired for a job.
This is what can happen when clients or employers discover your images are associated with an account that isn’t yours or that your photography was used by a stranger. These crimes can seem to violate exclusive contracts. This is the reality for many photographers, models, actors, agencies, and more.
How to Protect Your Images Online
Keep It Simple
Many online users worry about image theft but fail to protect themselves out of concern that it might be time-consuming or complicated. Make a decision to opt-in to privacy controls and regularly scan images. You can do this easily through reverse image search engines, such as Social Catfish:
Disable Right Click
Using the ‘right click’ is an easy way for online thieves to save and use your image as their own, without your consent. You can install various plugins on sites like WordPress. Also, opt for the ‘none’ selection (from the drop-down box), so you don’t link to the image.
Google tries to protect users from image theft, but there are still ways for image thieves to circumvent these safety techniques through Firefox and other browsers, or turning off JavaScript. Luckily, many internet image theft users won’t bother to do these extra steps.
Social Media Lockdown
The best way to protect your accounts is to make sure you have set up maximum privacy controls. This will help keep access to your accounts limited to those you let follow you or are online friends with.
While that won’t eliminate the risk, it can better protect you from online scammers and thieves. To remind users of your copyright, you can include a copyright notice in the written details about your photograph or image.
Business Savvy
Private accounts can work personally, but for business ventures, public accounts are preferred. Consider adding copyright notices to everything you post or incorporating your company name and website into the corner of photographs (see ‘Watermark Image’, below). While images can still be altered and misused, these steps can discourage theft.
How to Add a Copyright Image, DMCA Badge, or Watermark Image
Use this format for copyrights:
- Full Name, Blog Name, Current Year, or Range of Years
You will also need to determine what you want your copyright to apply to. For instance, you can prohibit all use, unauthorized use, or specify how the image can be used. You can request that credit be given to you and that users include links to your website, the original image, and your name. You can also place a watermark in your picture or a DMCA Badge (free legal protection that can request photos be taken down on your behalf or act as a deterrent).
Making Contact
If you skipped performing a reverse image search in step 1, then consider tracking any images already used without permission. Once you find a stolen picture, message the person or company who used the image or photograph.
You can find templates of what to say, for free, online. These are usually in the form of cease and desist letters. Or, if you want them to give you credit, tell them so and send them the link or information to include.
Look for your images now through Social Catfish:
