Stealing intellectual property. Quite the oxymoron.

As we roam around the expansive world known as the internet, we find articles, music, and photographs. The human race clicks through the seemingly infinite expanse, most times not stoping to think, “where did this come from?” Or, “how long did it take," and, "to what ends did the author/composer/photographer reach so I might sit here, in front of this glowing computer screen, and read/hear/view?”

Let’s get specific. Let’s focus [pun completely intended] on photography. You see, what most folks don’t realize is simply the price tag of a photographer’s equipment. Camera bodies, lenses, filters, tripods, monopods [there are a lot of pods], flashes, batteries … it’s enough to need a seat. It’s okay though because you’re likely in one already, reading this on that glowing screen in front of you.

Fact of the matter is, it costs a lot of money to be in photography, if only the price of the equipment. It also utilizes our most precious resource, time. Time spent learning, setting things up, getting shots wrong, and trying again. Time spent researching equipment and how much to save, or sell, to get it. Time spent driving to a shoot and time spent post-processing all the images. These images, they are our children. Each one is unique. Each one is a special memory.

Watermarks aren’t advertisement for a photographer, they serve a the security tag that sounds the alarm at the door when something is taken without payment. When photographers see a big, fat watermark on an image, their work or not, we have a sinking feeling ... and so should you. Someone’s child was stolen and made to do a job it didn’t know about. Nor did its parent approve. AND it didn’t get paid for the work either. You wouldn’t work for free and we just bet you wouldn’t be happy if someone stole your car. What if those things happened at the same time? That is what stealing an image does. It steals someone’s effort. It steals their knowledge. It steals their time. It steals their equipment. It steals their income.

So, next time you see a beautiful photograph, know someone, somewhere invested a lot of themselves in that image.

- WCI