How To Protect Your Photos From Grabbers

9/26/17


How many of you have become victims of photo grabbing? I am. I don't know how many times but I've caught two big brands already. If big brands who are supposed to be knowledgeable of the copyright law carelessly right click your photos and then upload them on their social media account without your consent, what else do we expect from ordinary people? 



This was a photo grabbed from my instagram account. The reason why I found out they used my photo was because they mentioned my IG account to give credit. There are two things wrong in this photo. First, there was no prior consent from me. Second, they put their watermark on my photo.

I attended the 13th Philippine Blogging Summit held at the UP College of Law - Diliman and I asked Atty. JJ Disini about copyright. He said that mentioning the owner of the photo is not sufficient to exempt the person or brand from copyright infringement. The owner of the photo should AGREE first before the photo can be published.

Somehow I made the wrong move with Ayala Malls. I immediately reported this photo to Instagram and Instagram immediately removed the photo. There's no way for me to call the attention of Ayala Malls. Although I was able to screen capture, I decided to let this pass.

Recently, I am once again a victim of photo grabbing. This time, I discovered because my sister brought it to my attention. The brand (which I will not mention yet because they are in the process of investigating) has grabbed two photos from me. I browsed their social media accounts and only my photos were not given credit.

Do you watermark your photos?



I don't usually watermark my photos because I feel like the presence of it might ruin the image.  But when I do use watermark, it is located on the lower right side. If people have the intention of stealing they can easily crop it out. I am seriously contemplating on putting watermark on my photos to save myself from future heartaches. 

The photos and text on my blog cannot be right clicked. Somehow it gives me protection from digital thieves. They can screen capture if they want to. No matter what we do, if someone wants your photos they can definitely find a way. 

What are your thoughts on watermarking the photos you share on your social media accounts? Also, can you suggest an app or software I could use in creating watermark?