What You Should Know About Social Media & Protecting Your Copyrights

[caption id="attachment_11291" align="alignright"]© designsoliman - Fotolia.com[/caption]With social media being so prominent in today's world, photographers may be at risk for their photos being put out without the proper copyright. These helpful tips can help prevent that from happening.

These days, social media is too often regarded as a sure win, when the truth is there’s a lot to take into consideration before accepting the risks of participating.

We interviewed Chris Reese (along with others in The Photographer’s Guide to Copyright) to learn more about what photographers should know bout social media and protecting their copyrights. Chris served as General Counsel and Executive Vice President of SightSound Technologies, a tech company that developed technologies to sell audio and video files online. Over the years, he’s watched how technology has both expanded the way artists can distribute their work and made monetizing it (and maintaining value) incredibly difficult.

Chris took the time to talk us through what a photographer needs to know before sharing images online and using social media as a marketing tool.

What should a photographer consider before posting photos online?

The thing to realize is that anything that you can see or hear on the web, you can copy. At the absolute minimum you can take out your iPhone and take a picture of the monitor. You really need to read the Terms of Service before you give a website access to your creative work. If you can imagine something being done that would make you angry after the fact, you need to understand whether you’re actually giving them the right to do that very thing.

Read entire article What You Should Know About Social Media & Protecting Your Copyrights on Photoshelter

Biz Tip provided by Tony Bynum, owner Tony Bynum Photography