Using images from Share email

AgandAu

I recently sent an email to someone through the share feature as a courtesy so they could view one of my galleries. They were not for sale. The response was, Thanks, I am going to make it my profile picture on facebook, and they did! I assume they saved the photo from the email off a mobile phone? I am totally annoyed and a bit surprised. I guess watermarking is my only other option. I had no idea this could be done. I loved to send those emails with the picture on it but now I am afraid to use it. Anyone else have experience with this. I appologize if this has already been discussed, I searched and didn't find mention of it.

denisegoldberg

You can't prevent someone from saving an image from an email. And in fact you can't prevent someone from grabbing an image from your smugmug page, even with right-click protection enabled.

See http://www.smugmug.com/help/image-protection and http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2008/07/04/right-click-protection-and-image-security/.

--- Denise

AgandAu

I am aware of all of that. I think it was a combination of how bold people can be and how naive I was, that I felt the need to share and see if anyone else had the same experience. It wasn't too bad this time and I guess I have learned my watermarking lesson.

WinsomeWorks

AgandAu wrote:

I am aware of all of that. I think it was a combination of how bold people can be and how naive I was, that I felt the need to share and see if anyone else had the same experience. It wasn't too bad this time and I guess I have learned my watermarking lesson.

Even watermarking means nothing to some folks. There are many examples here in the forums where people have had others (not Smuggers) use even their watermarked image with the watermark still showing. Yes, some people just have no clue about art, and the problem is that we have multiple means of freely sharing everything these days: music, videos, photocopies of printed material, vector art from websites... you name it. I sorta think that when there's a copyright symbol included in the watermark it may make some people take notice, but I'm probably deluding myself! (& I don't have that yet, but am planning to)

SamirD

Remember, if it's on the Internet, it's free mmmkay....

That's the attitude of most people these days. Intellectual Property Rights are simply a topic that almost all Internet users know nothing about. It's only us creators that have to learn about it and the tricks to enforcing it.

For a business, Facebook is a marketing medium, and their audience are your potential customers. A watermarked image on Facebook can bring in more links than a Google AdWords ad. So the lesson here? Watermark and be sure it is watermarked. Let people link to your images, but draw the line when they alter them or remove the watermark. At that point, you contact Facebook about the violation and they will help you.

I'm waiting for SM to develop the system for us to know what is linked where. This is a good way to us to learn where are images are going, and where to police for possible infringement.

pilotdave

SamirD wrote:

I'm waiting for SM to develop the system for us to know what is linked where. This is a good way to us to learn where are images are going, and where to police for possible infringement.

I pretty much agree with what you said except for what I quoted above. Most people that take images do not link back to where they came from. They just post them on facebook or wherever. A watermark may get people to go to your site to find more pictures, but there's nothing smugmug could do to tell you where your pictures ended up.

We'd be better off with a feature that makes it easier and quicker to get the pics on facebook, with more options as far as where they end up... But I doubt many pros are ready to start giving their pics away.

I'd like to see a facebook size digital download (that we can sell) that remains watermarked. For that, we'd probably need a special watermark just for those that's not intrusive, but rather just gives contact info for the photographer or whatever he wants. And a social-networking-only license agreement.

Dave

SamirD

I agree that a lot of them are just saved and then uploaded, but if the emphasis is on using the share button and those features, the number of non-linked images shouldn't be the majority. And then at least you'd have a clue as to where to look for unauthorized users of your images.

I've always wondered about the business model for myspace/facebook profile pics. Is it really that strong? Do pros really cater to this market?

pilotdave

SamirD wrote:

if the emphasis is on using the share button and those features, the number of non-linked images shouldn't be the majority. And then at least you'd have a clue as to where to look for unauthorized users of your images.

Ummm... people that use the share button are unauthorized users of your images? If you feel that way, disable the share button. Maybe I'm not understanding...

But in general, I agree that it will be nice when smugmug stats allow us to see where our images are linked. But I just don't expect to find any. I see my pictures on facebook and myspace all the time, but I've never come across a linked image that I can remember.

Dave

SamirD

pilotdave wrote:

Ummm... people that use the share button are unauthorized users of your images? If you feel that way, disable the share button. Maybe I'm not understanding...

People are concerned about not getting anything out of images that are saved. Linked images allow you to retain control, especially through the use of watermarks. Even with the share button disabled and right-click disabled, you will have images taken. I think that's the real issue--unauthorized use as opposed to how they got the image.

pilotdave wrote:

But in general, I agree that it will be nice when smugmug stats allow us to see where our images are linked. But I just don't expect to find any. I see my pictures on facebook and myspace all the time, but I've never come across a linked image that I can remember.

Do you have right-click disabled? I'd be curious to get an idea of how saavy the facebook/myspace crowd are with thwarting protection schemes.

pilotdave

SamirD wrote:

Do you have right-click disabled? I'd be curious to get an idea of how saavy the facebook/myspace crowd are with thwarting protection schemes.

No... tried it for a while and it annoyed me as much as anyone else. I'm sure there's code to disable it when logged in, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I did start using an intrusive watermark for a very short time. I got a request to remove it because it was covering someone's face and he wanted to post the picture to facebook. My price for small digital downloads was 25 cents. I decided I'd rather let people post nicely watermarked pics (non-intrusive) than beg for 25 cents each time this comes up. I've pretty much stopped even mentioning that people can buy digital downloads really really cheap when they ask if they can download their pictures.

Then again, I'm actually making a profit on smugmug for the first time this year. It's mainly due to one repeat customer that buys lots of 25 cent smalls and a few $1 larges.

Dave

SamirD

pilotdave wrote:

No... tried it for a while and it annoyed me as much as anyone else. I'm sure there's code to disable it when logged in, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I did start using an intrusive watermark for a very short time. I got a request to remove it because it was covering someone's face and he wanted to post the picture to facebook. My price for small digital downloads was 25 cents. I decided I'd rather let people post nicely watermarked pics (non-intrusive) than beg for 25 cents each time this comes up. I've pretty much stopped even mentioning that people can buy digital downloads really really cheap when they ask if they can download their pictures.

Then again, I'm actually making a profit on smugmug for the first time this year. It's mainly due to one repeat customer that buys lots of 25 cent smalls and a few $1 larges.

Thank you for the feedback. You've actually given me an idea for my right-click protection message. I'm going to change it to tell people to use the share button instead of trying to save the images.

It's great that you've got repeat customers. I'd find out from them what you're doing that brings them back each time. It's the start of building a client base.

pilotdave

SamirD wrote:

It's great that you've got repeat customers. I'd find out from them what you're doing that brings them back each time. It's the start of building a client base.

Oh, I know the answer to that... I keep taking pictures of him and his friends. I definitely don't know anything about getting sales from "random" people...



Dave

SamirD

pilotdave wrote:

Oh, I know the answer to that... I keep taking pictures of him and his friends. I definitely don't know anything about getting sales from "random" people...



Dave

Well, the rule of thumb in business is one satisfied customer will tell 3 more.