As we’ve done every year for quite a while, we’re encouraging our readers to create a 2020 copyright preset for Lightroom. It’s easy! Get Your Free Direct PDF Download – How to Create a 2021 Lightroom Classic Preset It’s a clear, easy to follow set of step-by-step instructions for creating a 2020 copyright preset for Lightroom that you can use every year to update your settings.
Why Should You Create a 2020 Copyright Preset for Lightroom?
Before I tell you why, let’s look at what copyright is. Simply, copyright law gives the creator or owner of a creative work (photo, painting, text, even this blog post) the right to say how others can use it. Using that creative work without express permission, usually in writing, is infringement on your rights as the creator or owner.
Copyright laws have changed over the centuries, often to reflect changes in technology – like the invention of movable type and up to and including the internet.
A Little Copyright Background for Your Next Trivia Night
The first tested case of copyright infringement happened around 550 AD, in ancient Ireland. There was a dispute over the ownership of a psalms manuscript between a priest and a missionary. The priest accused the missionary of copying his manuscript, “at night in haste.” (At that time hand copying artwork could take months. So the concept of “in haste” is all relative to our current sense of time.)
The priest’s hard work had been copied without his permission! The king decided to resolve this conflict and determined, “To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy.” This ruling didn’t sit well with the missionary and the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne (also known as the Battle of the Book) ensued. The missionary lost and three thousand people died, so he sailed off to Britain to be a pilgrim.
We Have Copyright Laws to Protect Us
No longer do we need kings or have to fight wars to protect our work. We have laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (yes, that Sonny Bono from Sonny and Cher) to help protect us.
Law Brochure
Whether it’s friends and family or submitted images to contests and publishers, you don’t need to be a professional to consider embedding a copyright. Take advantage of these protections to their fullest. Use a copyright preset in Lightroom on import to identify you as the creator/owner of your digital images to outside third parties. This embedded copyright information does not appear on your images, it’s hidden inside a metadata “container.”
Get Your Free Direct PDF Download – How to Create a 2021 Lightroom Classic Preset