Promotion of listings protected by watermarks

[BeverlyBride]

Hello community.

Question regarding listings with a watermark. We often have photos stolen and I try to protect my listings with a watermark. Now I’ve seen that Etsy seems to be against it for some reason, and such listings are promoted worse both on Etsy and through Google. Does anyone have more accurate information on this issue?

[BagmakerSupply]

@BeverlyBride: According to Etsy, "Using watermarks makes photos unsuitable for features within Etsy (like Etsy Finds emails), and ineligible for off-site advertising programs like Google Shopping."  https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000338427-How-to-Protect-Listing-Images?segment=selling

[BeverlyBride]

Thank you very much.

[BeverlyBride]

Yes, of course, we know about this mechanism.

But the whole problem is that when transferring copyright to us, photographers must not only sign a transfer document, but, most importantly, transfer the original files to us. Files in which metadata is stored are considered originals. Metadata typically includes information about the camera, lens, shooting parameters, as well as additional information about the photographer, location, etc. One photo in RAW format weighs 50 MB or more, and many thousands of them are taken per photo session. Therefore, after submitting the finished work, the sources are usually deleted.

At the beginning of our activities, being inexperienced, we, unfortunately, did not bother with this. And now photographers are not against giving us the originals, but many simply did not save them.

In the future, if a copyright dispute arises, an official certificate of state copyright registration is required. In Ukraine, this is done by the Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property. For registration you must provide originals, i.e. files containing metadata. And, as I already said, we don’t have these files.

[PristinityJewelry]

You should be aware, many of your photos (handmade dresses) are available on AliExpress for a fraction of the price?

[BeverlyBride]

Yes, thank you, and of course we know.

Of course, Ali sells not the same dresses that we sew. We make each order individually, according to the customer's size, and we know each of our brides by name. On Ali they sell unknown fakes of disgusting quality - their prices are much lower than even the cost of the materials we use, not to mention the work, technology, marketing, etc.

But the photos are definitely ours. We started using watermarks precisely because of these thefts. I understand, of course, that removing a watermark is a matter of minutes, but we cannot yet protect our photos with official registration, since our photographers do not have the original RAW files.

Maybe someone can tell me if it’s possible to somehow fight thieves without officially registering photos and demand the removal of your photos from other people’s stores.

I have another question about the watermark. Does Etsy differentiate between branded photos and just watermarked photos? In the photo we only have a small logo; it is located at the bottom and does not take up any noticeable space.

[BagmakerSupply]

@BeverlyBride: The person who took the photograph automatically owns the copyright to that photograph - registered or not. In situations like yours, the photographer usually assigns the copyright to the client so that the latter is the owner.

[tackyuglychristmas]

I use QTI.AI, they have helped me for years-  They monitor the web for my photos showing up on bogus websites and then file the take down notices for me.  They also helped me get actual copyrights.  You can find them on FB and on the web.  Cost is low for us small sellers.  Has saved me tons of hours of hunting my photos and filing take downs.  

[BeverlyBride]

Please tell me how exactly these guys achieve the removal of your photos? We know who's stealing our photos—we don't even have to look for them—but we don't know how to get thieves to delete them.
Have you registered the rights to your images in any way?