A few weeks back we had quite a discussion about using photos from the internet as well as from fellow bloggers.

I’ll be the first one to tell you that I don’t make the extra effort to protect my photos with a copyright mark.  I have a copyright caveat at the bottom of the blog and that’s as far as it goes.

This isn’t a hugely popular blog with tens of thousands of readers so I don’t worry too much about someone stealing my work.

Besides, how easy is it to take a photo and cut a copyright out?

No, this isn’t Delilah, this is Freighter from the 2 Brown Dawgs blog. The blog information was in the grass just below Freighter’s feet.  I cut it out.  (This photo was used with permission from 2 Brown Dawgs.)

The whole copyright issue dawned on me this past Follow-Up Friday when Beth said, “So if I understand, what you did was just add the copyright line in text on the photo? I get that…in fact, I’ve figured out how to do it with Pixlr, which i think is similar to PicMonkey…So I should just add text to any photos I post on the blog and that will deter unauthorized borrowing.”

Except that I’ve just shown you how easy that is to get around, right?

I think what you need to do to protect your photos, is to add a watermark to it.

Dictionary.com defines watermark as “A figure or design impressed in some paper during manufacture, visible when the paper is held to the light.”

The obvious solution is to add your text to your photo in a place where it can’t be cropped out.

Nobody would want to gank this photo, would they?  But it does take the cuteness factor down.

If we manipulate the text, we can add it, but make it so faint, it’s hardly discernible.  Can you see the mark? Hint: it’s right across the top of Sampson’s head, between his ears.  (I could probably have gone a bit darker.)

Now the question becomes, is it really necessary to take this type of precaution with our photos?

And to go a step farther, what about our words?

During that discussion many weeks back the term “Creative Commons” was mentioned by Lexy from Gone For a Walk and Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes.

If you don’t know what Creative Commons is, quite simply it’s your permission for how others can use your work.  I took some time yesterday and added a Creative Commons button to my side-bar.

My Creative Commons says any of my photos or words can be used Non-Commercially as long as you give me credit.

Is it too easy?  Or am I too trusting?  What types of precautions do you take with your precious work?