Photo ID or Registration

[cleamon]

Just watched a video on licensing photos today and that got me wondering, especially regarding (time) limited licenses. How do you uniquely identify a photograph (assuming a digital one)? You can't rely on filename, or "young woman standing by new car". You can't rely on file size, dimensions, checksums, crc/md5, etc., because all of that can change. Imbedding a globally unique identifier in the meta-data won't work either necessarily. Also, the digital file may have been incorporated into another image, or printed onto a billboard, or printed onto thousands of postcards, etc.

How do you do it? Inquiring minds want to know.
Thanks

[wulf]

Do you mean so that you can track who has stolen your pictures? Take a look at Tin Eye, an image search system. I've not used it myself and it won't do for products that don't make it onto the Internet but it gets pretty good reviews.

Wulf

[cleamon]

Originally Posted by wulf

Do you mean so that you can track who has stolen your pictures? Take a look at Tin Eye, an image search system. I've not used it myself and it won't do for products that don't make it onto the Internet but it gets pretty good reviews.

Wulf

Not necessarily. For example, I license a photo to a company for a 2 year period. After that time, they are required to delete it, remove it from their website, billboards, etc., etc.
Now, after that 2 year period, I see it in use somewhere (by the original licensee). An infringement of the license. My question goes to "how do I identify that photo" in legal terms. Is there a copyright registration id or equivalent?

Chuck

[BuddhaPi]

Register all works with the US copyright Office, then you'l at least have a leg to stand on as far as damages are concerned..

[OsmosisStudios]

Add a copy of the photo as a print in the contract as an annexed document. Ta-daa

[cleamon]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Add a copy of the photo as a print in the contract as an annexed document. Ta-daa

simple and to the point. Thanks.