I have done some goggling on copyrighting your photos, but not have had any luck finding finding the following information: I had someone say with the new copyright laws you do not need to send to Washington pictures and have them copyrighted they are still protected. Another says that the pictures are yours, but  your are unable to sue for someone using your photo withour your permission. Can anyone direct me to a site or sites that can tell me if you have to copyright your photos and what happens legally if you don't. Thanks

The short story is you have the copyright when you click the shutter.  If you are infringed, you will need to register within 90 days to get more damages, if you do not register you will get less damages. 

It's the difference between getting actual damages (which would most likely be low) and statutory damages (which is where the real money is).

Bottom line, it is $35 bucks every 3 months to register the copyrights of everything you could possibly publish in the quarter. $35 and a few minutes filling out a simple online forum and then burn a disc of thumbnails and mail them off and you are fully protected. The way I see it is there is absolutely no reason not to register your copyrights. You can even do it all online now but it seems the US Gov has not yet caught on to FTP or Java based uploading and is using an HTML up-loader which is a pain if you are registering a large collection. So I simply do the forms and payment on line and then mail the hard copy DVD. Easy, Breezy, Copyright!

Bottom line, it is $35 bucks every 3 months to register the copyrights of everything you could possibly publish in the quarter. $35 and a few minutes filling out a simple online forum and then burn a disc of thumbnails and mail them off and you are fully protected. The way I see it is there is absolutely no reason not to register your copyrights. You can even do it all online now but it seems the US Gov has not yet caught on to FTP or Java based uploading and is using an HTML up-loader which is a pain if you are registering a large collection. So I simply do the forms and payment on line and then mail the hard copy DVD. Easy, Breezy, Copyright!

You could pack the thumbnails into a zip file and upload them perhaps?!  That way there is only one file to upload.

good subject. i may be wrong, but the problem with indemnity is the ability of the infringer to pay. like music, it really isn't worth the time and money unless you are talking about some big corporation or person(s) you can sue. and as such, it's highly unlikely that a large corporation (usually having legal advisors) will be committing such offense.

Just do what Photoshow says.

You will thank him one day! Trust me.

I know a guy in USA who register his images and he won a sue of a few thousand dollars.  Not a microstock thing though, as he isn't in this market.  That's when I lernt about this sending-a-CD thing, although there are images that he register differently (I don't remember why).

I don't know if we have something similar in Brazil - would I be able to register in USA?  When one registers his images in a country, does this automatically give him protection everywhere? 

I believe you can register in the US from anywhere in the world.

Use a Voip software to call the copyright office in the US (or straight from your phone if you can afford it). They are very helpful and they can tell you for sure.

Once you have them registered in the US it will help a lot!

Can someone take a photo of a poster or a painting if it is in a public place and put it up for sale?