Coin website building/style question

Stork · May 23, 2016 12:45PM

Now I'm done moving, scaled back at work etc., I'm trying to focus on my rather, ahem, 'diverse conglomeration' of numismatic stuff.

I know NOTHING about website building/design/artwork/photoediting etc., but I may give it a try. Well, I've started the bare bones, but this may be a llooonnnggg process.

My photos are not enviable, but are becoming serviceable--perhaps good enough to try and put together something even a little educational when it comes to the Japanese stuff.

Anyway, I was playing with an online, simple photo-editor (Picmonkey) and started making the combination shots. I even figured out how to add overlays, arrows etc.

Playing around I made up a copyright overlay (after seeing a lot of places using these), so I happily set about adding one to a bunch of photos. Putting a new skill to use!

But, is it a necessary skill? I started thinking this may be a bit silly and a lot pretentious given the only-adequate quality of the shots. On the other hand, some of the shots will be showing some varieties etc. Sooo....opinions please:

Add a copyright to the photos? Don't add a copyright? Only add to the specialized photo shots? Just use the basic copyright statement in the footer of each page (like the FuseTalk below)?

Here are two examples with/without the overlay--any preference? Does it matter to anyone looking at the pictures?

edited to add: Well either photobucket is down or my account is messed up. Hopefully the photos will show at some point. Oh well.

lordmarcovan · May 23, 2016 4:27PM

Pix look fine. Add the copyright if you think it's important to you, but I personally don't see the need unless you've really had a problem with image thieves or account hijackers. In the example above, the watermark is unobtrusive enough. Note, however, that it would be child's play to edit that out if somebody really wanted to steal your pictures. It just prevents the lazier image thieves from using it as-is, that's all. This is why some people make their watermark overlap the coin a little bit, but I do NOT recommend that and hate it when people do that.

mnemtsas2 · May 23, 2016 4:39PM

We put a copyright on the bottom left of all our images, people still use them without permissions all the time. That being said, I'd still put one on there and yours is as good as any.

JCMhouston · May 23, 2016 9:44PM

People are going to steal pics no matter what. I just put the standard copyright notice on my web page and let it go. I have actually been asked twice about using images from my site in print publications and sent them the high res images to use.

TwoKopeiki · May 23, 2016 10:02PM

I agree with JCM - if someone is set on using your images, a copyright is not going to stop them. Especially since its pretty easy to remove it. I would use a generic copyright notice at the bottom of the page.

Stork · May 24, 2016 12:10AM

Well, that was kind of what I was figuring, and really the pictures just aren't that exciting. The copyright and the website name also started looking a bit pretentious to my own eye.

It will be a minor pain to go back and remove them, but I suppose that won't be too hard. Maybe a good job for when I'm in the mood for a brainless activity. As long as they aren't too annoying I can move on to other things to play around with.

YQQ · May 24, 2016 12:52AM

great pictures.
Since you are not a commercial entity, I would tone down anything indicating the source, or blend it so that it is "just" visible.(perhaps just an email set up for that purpose)

Your images are automatically (on a legal level ) protected by the copyright laws. the problem usually is to enforce your rights if a violation took place.

adding the word will only serve as a reminder to the honest people. Same as a locked door will only keep an honest person out.

I had a case against a well known Canadian Numismatic publication (for profit) where they lifted images I had uploaded to this forum and used these images in one of their publications. My email was placed clearly on the bottom of each image, although small.
They credited that the photos were from this forum. However, when I inquired, Forum management confirmed that they have no right to give permission to anyone about using uploaded images as the images are the property of the maker.

mnemtsas2 · May 24, 2016 10:06AM

I had a case against a well known Canadian Numismatic publication (for profit) where they lifted images I had uploaded to this forum and used these images in one of their publications. My email was placed clearly on the bottom of each image, although small.
They credited that the photos were from this forum. However, when I inquired, Forum management confirmed that they have no right to give permission to anyone about using uploaded images as the images are the property of the maker.

A major publication down here lifted a number of our images to use in their book (without our permission) and did a poor job of cropping out the copyright on a number of them and then tried to suggest they were doing US a favour by using our images. Since that I've been firm about putting the copyright on all our images. However, we get asked several times a year by magazines and online publications to use our images. We ALWAYS say yes and invariably supply them with higher resolution images without a watermark.

I understand that copyright is implied and there's some conjecture of whether copyright on coin images is valid anyway (Bridgeman Art Library finding) but I like to remind people that you can't just go around using other people's images willy nilly. All you need to do is ask and most people will be quite happy (and flattered) if you want to use their images.

The OP's images are quite good and I'd leave the copyright on them. It's unobtrusive and helps remind your readers that you spent time and money learning how to take good images.

WillieBoyd2 · May 25, 2016 1:14AM

I have had my own website for almost ten years now, hosted by various companies. I wrote the HTML and CSS (programming languages used in website design).

People sometimes copy pictures for their own use.

This guy copied my entire Egyptian Magic Coin article including the images, removed the image logos, and put it on his website.

http://128.192.145.172/emc.html

It appears that he copied it between October and December 2013.

Coin website building/style question

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