Making copies of images is sometimes a concern for artists or photographers wanting to display their work online. If you are one of these people, protecting your intellectual property rights is very important but do not let this fear prevent you from promoting your work on the Internet. The simple fact is the only way for you to get the exposure you want, is to be willing to show your work. I say this because there are literally artists and photographers that are so protective of their work they only reluctantly display their work.

 

People should not be afraid to do this. The images displayed on most web sites are too small and low a resolution to yield a decent print. Based upon this premise, most of the artists or photographers using our Members Gallery at FinerWorks dismiss the fear of people trying to make “bootleg” copies.

 

Sure, people can copy your work if they are determined to, resize in a program like Photoshop, and send it to a printer. The end results is a print will be very grainy or pixilated. If the intent is to sell the bootleg copy then to that person, I cynically say “good luck”. If their intent is too savea pixelated image for just themselves, it just shows they do not have good taste.

 

As a web site consultant and someone that has helped photo studios build online proofing and ordering systems for their client’s prints, I have researched a handful of technical safeguards that can be put in place. Some of them work okay for a person with little technical skills but none are totally without fault or are without a work around. Many times photographers are not as concerned because they know the images are not going to be good quality anyway if printed from the web page displaying them. If someone is determines to get the image then my previous comments of “good luck” and “they do not have good taste” still applies.

 

The bottom line is anyone can download any image off the internet, resize it and then order. The key is just make sure that if you have a web site and display your work, do not provide access to your high resolution copies.