MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Whiz on August 05, 2010, 11:03
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For those of you who have registered your images with the Copyright office, is there any point to doing this if your images have been online for years? From what I have read, it seem that if your images have been available or "published" for more than a month then you are basically wasting your money with the copyright. Unpublished images, or those that have been published within a month or maybe it was three months, allow you to receive statuary damages as well as other types of damages. Thanks.
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About.com has a good set of reasons to register:
http://inventors.about.com/od/copyrights/a/copyright_2.htm (http://inventors.about.com/od/copyrights/a/copyright_2.htm)
Looks like if you are registered prior to the actual infringement you are entitled to additional damages and attorneys fees. Won't do you much good if the infringement occurred before you registered, but since our images are always being bought and used, your odds are better if you register.
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Just register, will you?
In Microstock you cannot register every single image prior to uploading unless you created such a massive backlog (6 months) which would make it worthwhile.
You can register thousands of image for one flat fee (still $35 ?). At least get those out of the way - after that just keep registering every 6 months or so. It's still worth it. Any attorney will ask if you registered copyright first time you call them if you inquire about infringement...
At least you can say "yes" to that question!