This is all based on my experience. I can't guarantee that it is 100% legally accurate, but it has worked for me over the years.
I have chosen to register my images quarterly. I split my images between published and unpublished so I send in two sets every three months. It ends up costing $280 per year but I feel it is a small price to pay for a little peace of mind. The three month window pretty much takes care of the 90 day issue with published images.
I prepare my images using Lightroom. I export them as 600x600 72 dpi jpegs at about 50% quality. There is no standard but the court needs enough information when looking at the image to be able to tell it is yours if it comes up in a legal dispute.
I keep track of each image that I 'publish' along with the date of publication. I have a smart filter set up for published and unpublished images so all I have to do is change the date range, select all the images, and export using my Copyright preset.
You can register unpublished images on the Copyright Office website. You are limited by time only for each upload. I think they time you out at one hour. If you have a reasonable number of images this shouldn't be a problem. If you are like me and let time get away once in a while you may end up with more images that you wish you had. It is up to you to split up the images into different 'zip' files that will upload within the time window. If it is too large then the upload will not work and you will have to split it up to even smaller zip files. When I get too many images I take the option to file online and then burn the images to a disk and mail them in. The effective date of your registration is the date you complete the upload or the date that they sign for you CD's with images. Best case scenario is to upload more regularly and not have to deal with zip files that are too big. I have registered well over 20,000 images at once. It costs $35 to register your images online, even if you file online but mail in the disk. If you use the old paper way it is $45 per registration.
Published images are more confusing for a number of reasons. First - the Copyright Office will not tell you if your images will be considered published or not. As the artist that is up to you. From what I have been told and read an image is published if it has been offered for sale. For example - if you upload to Flickr just to show your images, the it probably would not be considered published. If you have the option clicked on Flickr to license your images through Getty, then they are being offered for sale and they would probably be considered published. If you show the in an art show - probably not published. If you sell them at an art show - probably would be considered published.
If at all possible - register your images as unpublished before you 'publish' them. You do not have to re-register the images as published if they have already been registered as unpublished.
You can register any number of published images if 1.) they were taken by the same photographer, 2) they were PUBLISHED in the same year, and 3) all the photographs have the same copyright claimant. If you register them using the old paperwork process you are limited to 750 images. That is because each image has to be listed along with the date of first publication and the nation of publication. Using the copyright office paperwork they limit the number of pages that they will accept which in effect limits it to 750 images. You can start the registration for published images online and then mail in a CD or DVD with the files. They are working on the ability to upload published images, but they have only gone through the Beta process as far as I know.
The files for published images are prepared the same way as for unpublished. The only difference is that you need to list each file that you are submitting along with its first date of publication and country of publication. This can just be a simple text file or Word file. They may accept Excel files but I am not sure. This is why I keep track of the publish date for each published image. It allows me to quickly make a text file with the required information. If you use the online process with mail in disk them you are not limited by the number fo files as long as they fit the three criteria above.
After all that - you still haven't begun the registration process. I am not going to go through the process here since it is covered at length at a couple of websites. They pretty much go through the process of the actual registration step by step. Here are the two links: http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/index.php/articles/341 http://asmp.org/tutorials/online-registration-eco.html
ASMP has a ton of great information on copyright as a whole: http://asmp.org/tutorials/frequently-asked-questions-about-registration.html
Over the years I have looked at a lot of information on copyright registration. or the most part I was very confused. It came to the point that I finally contacted someone at the copyright office and after a couple of months of back and forth emails I had all of my questions answered. Although it is a relatively easy process it is in fact confusing. The most important point is to register your images. Even if it doesn't bother you if someone uses your images without permission something may come up in the near or distant future. If you registered them back in the past then you have more options at that point.
Also - try to register your images as unpublished since it is less work to do so. At least at this point I am not the kind of person that can wait. If I get a good image I want to post it on Flickr or my website as soon as I can. Of course I could go out and shoot tomorrow, register the images online that night and then upload them to Flickr the next day and I would be fine, but it would cost me $35 each time to do that.
I hope this helps. If you have any other questions I am happy to answer them.
Scott
Scott Sharick Photography
www.scottsharickphotography.com
www.scottsharickblog.com
www.flickr.com/photos/scottsharick/
On Mar 11, 2011, at 2:06 PM, forbillbarber wrote:
> So Scott -- what are the steps involved in doing this? Where do you go, what do you do? how does it work?
>
> Thanks
>
>
> --- In artshow_photo@yahoogroups.com, Scott Sharick <ssharick@...> wrote:
>>
>> My images are regularly registered because I want to protect my intellectual property.
>
>
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