Why post low-res, copyright-protected images?

Most photographers who post their images on the web take extra measures to ensure their images are difficult to copy and reproduce. However, the average blogger does not consider this when posting family snapshots to their blog or website. If you have a blog or website and do not have it set to private, invitation-only settings, then anyone, anywhere in the world can view your personal photos and copy the images directly from your site. You assume this risk when you open a public blogger site. While you know this is a possibility, I bet you doubt anything will ever really happen. Well, so did this family...



US Family's Photo Turns Up in Czech AdBy BETSY TAYLOR, AP

LOUIS (June 11) — It's an international mystery: How did a Missouri family's Christmas card photo end up in the Czech Republic, splashed across a huge storefront advertisement?

Danielle Smith said Wednesday that the photo taken of her family last year got sent to family and friends, and was posted on her blog and a few social networking sites. The photo showed her and her husband, Jeff, holding their two young children.
About 10 days ago, one of Smith's college friends was driving through Prague when he spotted their huge smiling faces in the window of a store specializing in European food. He snapped a few pictures and sent them to a flabbergasted Smith.
"It's a life-size picture in a grocery store window in Prague — my Christmas card photo!" said Smith, 36, who lives in the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon.
Mario Bertuccio, who owns the Grazie store in Prague, said the photo was from the Internet. Details were sparse, but he said he thought it was computer-generated. When told it was a real photo — of a real family — he said he started taking steps to remove it.

"We'll be happy to write an e-mail with our apology," said Bertuccio, who said he would send the Smiths a bottle of good wine if they lived in his eastern European country.
The Smiths and photographer Gina Kelly hadn't authorized anyone to use the pictures. Kelly said she has asked a professional photographers' organization to help figure out how her image wound up in Prague.
Smith has gotten 180,000 hits to her Web site since she recently posted the story about the well-traveled snapshot. She said the photo wasn't used in an unseemly manner, it was just used to tell potential shoppers about the store's delivery service.
Smith said next time she posts a photo on the Internet, she's going to lower the resolution or add an electronic watermark to make it hard to reproduce.
"This story doesn't frighten me, but the potential frightens me," Smith said.

Just a word to the wise: Do at least one of the following four things if you post images to your blog site.
1) post only low-res images (640x480 is fine for the average snapshot)
2) copyright or watermark your images
3) right-click disable your blog
4) make your blog private, invitation-only