Please Watermark Your Work!

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I've been in the broadcast TV industry for 25+ years and I continue to be amazed at how many people post their videos and still images on the web without any sort of copyright protection. Here's my plea from a professional in the business to other pros, amateurs and hobbyists. Please watermark your work!

When you post your still images or video online you are giving it away to the world without any compensation and if you don't provide a watermark or copyright info others won't be able to trace your work back to you. Being in the business I can tell you that if someone says "Give me this for free this time and I'll hire you next time" is a bold faced lie. Why should they pay you when you are already doing the work for free and posting it on the web? When you upload your video or stills without watermarking you are giving your work away and I promise it is highly unlikely that someone will then want to pay you when it's already free for them to use. I know of at least one production company that does work for Discovery & History Channel that will, without hesitation, grab video off the web to fill in missing video in their productions.

Have you ever read YouTube's Terms of Service, item 6C? Here it is;
"For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service. The above licenses granted by you in User Videos terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your User Videos from the YouTube Website. You understand and agree, however, that YouTube may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of User Submissions that have been removed or deleted. The above licenses granted by you in User Comments are perpetual and irrevocable."

Simply put this means that anyone, anywhere can do anything with your video that they want and you won't be compensated one penny while they make money off of your hard work. These terms of service are basically the same for Vimeo, Veoh, Metacafe, etc. and the for the still photography sites where you upload pictures. All of them make money from advertisers and from your work. Most of you will never see a dime of the profit they make off your intellectual property.

I'm also amused when someone says to me; "They can't download my work. My settings don't allow downloads." Not only is this funny it's completely untrue. Simple rule - if you can see it or play it from the web there is a way to download or capture the image or video. There are tons of programs, add-ons and utilities for capturing web video, screen grabs, etc. Also, most of the online video sites poach each others videos while stripping the info from them. This means that while your video may have contact info with it on YouTube it won't on Metacafe after it's poached and there is no way to then find you as the copyright owner.

So what can you do? The easiest thing when posting your video or picture is to superimpose your website, name or email within the 4:3 title safe area (center of the screen about 1/3 of the way from the bottom or top of the frame). Do not put your watermark at the corners or at the very top or bottom of the frame. All you have to do to defeat this is blow up the image just a little and the watermark is gone. Will this stop all theft or misuse of your images or video? No, but it does provide you some protection and someone may actually see your image and want to pay you for it. The only credit that counts is your name on a check and 99.99% of us will not get famous posting things on the web. You've spent time and money on your equipment, software and skills and should get compensated for this but when you post on the web without a watermark you give your work away.

So please, watermark your intellectual property!