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Can you Truly Protect Your Artwork Online?

The number one question that we get from MosaicGlobe Members is "How can I prevent my images from being stolen off my website?"

The answer is - you can't.

Any type of theft protection can be circumvented by a determined and knowledgeable thief. Once an image is posted online there is no sure-fire way to prevent them from being copied and redistributed.

The only way to insure your images are safe is to hide them away - and what's the point in that? Like spam email - the risk of image theft is an unfortunate part of doing business online. However, you can take some precautions.

First, do not be overly alarmed by the risk. The chances of someone deciding to copy your image - and potentially claiming it as there own is pretty slim - and the chance that someone will try to reproduce your image for profit is highly unlikely.

Why? Image Quality.

A standard reproduction (magazine quality) is 300 DPI (dots per inch). The standard internet image is at 72 DPI (sometimes 96). So lets say you have an image on your webpage that is about 400 pixels (see 'A' in the example at right) at 72 dpi.

As anyone with printing experience will attest, you can decrease the size of an image - but increasing the size leads to a loss of image quality.

Our 400 pixel image will be about 1 1/2 inches in a 300 dpi document. That's not even close to being big enough for a postcard (example B). Scale that tiny image to 6" and you have a fuzzy image resembling the original. Re-size it for a magazine cover? Forget it (example C).

That is the number one deterrent against theft by a professional. With art, poor image quality doesn't sell. So your best solution is to limit the size of your uploads. When you upload your work to MosaicGlobe, we do that for you.

The next concern an artist may have is someone snagging an image just to have it. I have to be honest. I do this a lot. I have a directory of images I have yanked from artists websites. I do it because I admire their work and like to have them as a reference (I used to cut images out of magazines). I have occasionally even posted them to my personal blog - with a credit and link to their own website of course - and in return, I have come across images yanked from my website with a credit and link to my own.

I'm sure there are some folks out there who would repost an image and claim it as their own masterpiece. But to what end? A more pressing concern is that the image would move from person to person and site to site where it eventually loses it's attributions. That is, the originator is unknown and cannot be found. The work may then be considered orphaned and free to be used.

Copyright law is always a step behind technology but that's a different article. Needless to say, if you do come across your image being misused, copyright law is on your side, even if the cost of litigation is not.

So how do you discourage swiping and contested ownership? At  minimum, post an ownership notice on your site. Something like "Unless otherwise noted, all artwork on this site copyright YOUR NAME".

If you still can't sleep at night the form of protection most commonly recommended may be watermarking, but even that has some drawbacks.

Following are some techniques that are used to deter your run-of-the-mill file swipers:

1. Disable Right-Click scripts. A 'right click, save as' disabling script is pretty easy to get around by disabling the script or temporarily disabling javascript in the browser. Even easier - save the entire page with the File, Save As command in most browsers. Even easier - take a screen shot of the page.

2. Shrink-Wrapping uses javascript to place a clear image over the actual image so a right click download only gets the clear image. This can be circumvented in the same manner as number 1.

3. Watermarking is a semi-transparent text over the image and it's a good way to declare ownership - but let's face it: it's ugly. To add a watermark to your images you will need an image editing tool such as photoshop. Add your name and perhaps your website. By putting a watermark on your image you are making it unappealing to would be swipers - however the drawback is that you are making it unappealing; and unless it's covers most of your image, a skilled designer can remove it.

4. Flash Slide shows are probably the best way to prevent direct copying because a screen capture is the only way to snag an image. Be aware that search engines cannot read flash files, so in terms of search engine optimizations - it comes up short. Your image filenames, titles and descriptions are how search engines like Google index the content on your site.

5. Limit image sizes - Probably the best way to insure against widespread misuse for profit is to post lower resolution files that are good enough for web viewing  but unusable for printing. The images are still easily copied but their usefulness to a thief is limited to reposting elsewhere without proper attribution.

6. EXIF Data - All digital images can include metadata such as time and date created, camera settings, title, description and copyright information embedded in the file. 'Right click, properties' on a photo to see the data. You can add your file information into an image with an EXIF editor. If you use photoshop or a similar image editor it should include some ability to edit the metadata. Mac users can edit data in iPhoto and XP user can try Microsoft's Pro Photo Tools. This is good way to be sure your image carries the ownership details without effecting the aesthetics  of the image - but once again, a crafty swiper can edit the metadata as well.

Ultimately, the web is a public forum so any image you put online is up for grabs. If your image is too important to risk - don't put it online. But I would encourage everyone to understand that risk is inherent in any business and weighed against the benefits of self promotion (and worldwide exposure) the risks are manageable.

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