sos sos sos stealing pictures

Bountyphotographer

Hello,

People are stealing my pictures from my website and using a software to remove my watermark and posting the pictures on facebook. It was actually a friend of mine but still I was shocked that it is possible to do so.

What should I do to protect my pictures which are for sale on my site?
If I resize them people who want to buy them will have a low quality picture.
I enlarged the watermark using default but now there is that huge PROOF in the middle of my pictures (oddly enough the default watermark doesnt go on all the pictures ?? )


http://www.bountyphotographie.com/Sport/Baseball-Vista/2015-DBack-RedWings#!/i-BMnLF2w

Help please

Thank you


bountyphotographer

denisegoldberg

Bountyphotographer wrote: »

People are stealing my pictures from my website and using a software to remove my watermark and posting the pictures on facebook. It was actually a friend of mine but still I was shocked that it is possible to do so.

What should I do to protect my pictures which are for sale on my site?

Grabbing photos is unfortunately a fact of life when it comes to sharing them on the web.

I think you're now aware that right click protection is not protection; it pops up a message and disallows a right click save - but it does not, and cannot, prevent the viewer from saving the image from the browser cache. It's very easy to do, and it's also easy to find web pages showing how to save files shown in different browsers.

You can limit the size photos you allow viewers to access.

You can watermark your photos - but if the watermark is obtrusive your viewers may go elsewhere instead of looking at or purchasing photos from your site.

See help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1230107-how-can-i-protect-my-images-

--- Denise

Ferguson

Denise + 1

Also, you do have access in the US to take down requests, since you own copyright (google DCMA takedown), but frankly for something casual on facebook it's more trouble than it is worth, unless you want to pursue them for emotional satisfaction.

If it is a "friend", I think I'd have a nice friendly chat with that friend (or, pun intended, un-friend them).

Or... hand them a bill for use of your copyrighted material, and don't put a smiley face on it. They will probably throw it away, but it might be worth the look on their face as they open the envelop.

Honestly, you need new friends if someone would really remove the watermark purposely. Just taking shots, you can assume they are clueless. Removing the watermarks shows they definitely have a clue and did it on purpose.

lkbart

On the watermark settings, which I believe you cannot change once you have set up the watermark, there is a setting for to choose which sizes you want the watermark to show on - it defaults to the largest size, and if you only have it set to show on largest, the "friend" could have captured a screen shot with a smaller size that didn't show the watermark. I believe you have to make a new watermark and choose the right settings for the watermark to show on all sizes of the photos.