Protecting Your Website Content & Images From Theft

I get asked frequently about this. It's an epidemic.  People are having their website content and images stolen and used on other websites and on other products and services.

It's not a question of if your work or images will be stolen, it's a question of when. With technology today it's possible to grab anything you see on your computer screen.  Taking legal action can be time-consuming and expensive, but a few precations can go a long way towards slowing down the thieves:

1. Copyright your work and images, individually or as a group. It's not expensive or difficult. You will need to gather info about each image to document it. 
   
   Yes, your copyright exists from the moment the work is created.  Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation. 
   


2. Make sure the images you use on your website are the smallest file size possible that still look good. Why? Besides loading more quickly and making for a smoother browsing experience for your visitors, a small file size means that the theives won't be able to use the image for much of anything. By "small" I mean in the 30-100 kb range for a large image with a lot of detail. Small images (an inch or two across on the screen) can be 5-20 kb. Using large high resolution files doesn't always make the image look better, they just slow down your website and makes it easier for thieves to use them for print (reproductions, postcards or notecards).
   
   Last month I noticed that a client had given an image to an arts organization to use on their website.  The file size was huge for website use (like, 4 MB), and the image was big and crisp enough to make a poster! I alerted my client and we replaced the image with a low-resolution one and it looked just as good.


3. Another way to protect your images is to watermark them with copyright info or a logo, large enough to see and over an area of the image that would pretty much make the image unusable if the copyright info was cropped out.  Also, it's difficult to airbrush out copyright info that's part of the image. Most thieves are lazy, otherwise they'd work for it like the rest of us. Slow them down by making it difficult for them to use your images.


4. Use your name (or company name) in the file name, along with the name of the image, like "JohnDoe-Springtime." If someone uses an image at least the file name will ID you and you can use Google to search for images by putting in your name. That will help you FIND the thieves.


5. If you find an image that is being used without your permission, the first step is to contact the user with a "cease and desist" letter. That usually works. If not, you can pursue other avenues if you want. If you don't, at least the image is identifiable as yours and think of it as free advertising.


6. Use Copyscape or a similar service to search the web for your content.


7. To take legal action, get some advice from a good copyright attorney first. I've had clients work with Rebecca Prein, and there are many others who help put you on the right path.

Here are some resources to help you copyright your work, know what to do in case of theft, and use Creative Commons licenses. I don't know everything, so please let me know if you have resources to share by leaving a comment on the blog or emailing me at robin@sagaradevelopment.com.

US Library of Congress - United States Copyright office for copyright registration. 
http://www.copyright.gov/

Stolen Content - Content protection and what to do in case of theft. 
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/

Creative Commons - Non-profit organization providing creative licenses for image works.  http://creativecommons.org/

All my best to you and yours,