I am a passionate believer in users owning their own content.  Shozam!, and Web Gallery Wizard before it, were a direct result of this belief. Because of it, sometimes people are surprised that I am also an advocate of making it easy – and free – to share the Web version of images. Some believe this equates to giving up control of your images and worse, letting others steal your creativity and hard work.

Owning your content also means you control how it is used. So, we’ve put protections in place to prevent unauthorized copying of a Shozam! user’s images including watermarking, right-click disable and the ability to hide certain gallery pages (like the “Enlarge” page, for example). However, we still get comments from people who are concerned that it’s not enough (a recent exchange in one of the Forums prompted this blog post).

I believe that the best (fail-safe) image protection is watermarking (at the expense of marring the user’s images). Watermarking is the “best practice” method used by stock image agencies like Getty Images and Corbis. All other protections have workarounds which allow persistent infringers to circumvent them. The obstacles may make it harder, but not insurmountable, for users to grab images, one way or another.

However, for all practical purposes, I personally consider the trade-offs of protection on the Web not worthwhile. Web images are too low resolution to present much value since the print quality is not usable. I advocate this approach to music files as well; music label companies would be better off selling MP3s without DRM (digital rights management) and align their interests with their users, rather than criminalize their customer base.

Here is how I “protect” my own images:

1.  I do not use right-click disable since, like many DRM technologies, it can be circumvented by a savvy user, and it provides annoyances to legitimate users. I do not use watermarks that detract from viewing the image. At the most, I add a signature text or logo in the lower right, specifying name/copyright.
2.  I add a Creative Commons (CC) license notification in the footer of the gallery.

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that is building a new system of enabling users to share their creations with others, while continuing to provide certain protections. Creative Commons has released several copyright licenses, known as Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Users mark their content with the (CC) license to make Web versions of their content “free” and available to download as long as the recipient attributes that content to the rightful owner. That fact that other viewers are exposed to the image owner through a (CC) copyright notice can be more valuable than a few dollars from someone who has purchased the rights to use the Web version of that image.

The idea is to make it easy to share – and promote – the Web version of images, and charge only if the recipient wants to upgrade to print resolution images. It is a win-win for everyone: the content owner gets exposure and the recipient can use the image on the Web at no charge. And higher visibility will likely lead to a higher monetary return in the long run.

In my experience, the promotional benefits of making the Web version of the image freely available under the (CC) license, which requires users to give you attribution, more than offset any drawbacks.

Razvan Neagu
CEO/Founder
KOMOTION, Inc.