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How to change copyright info to 2017 in your camera, blog and website! 

 December 31, 2016

By  Pascal Depuhl

How to change copyright info

Remember to change copyright info to include the new year in your copyright notices today. A legal copyright notice requires 3 elements:

  1. The © symbol and the year the image of creation

    The correct copyright symbol is © and that’s not (C). On a Mac you can insert it by pressing <OPT> + <g>. The HTML for the symbol is <&copy;> and in ASCCI it’s <ALT>+<0169>.

    Just in case you haven’t noticed it’s 2017. Happy New Year.

  2. Your credit line

    In my case that reads: Photography by Depuhl

  3. All rights reserved.

This is information I learned at an ASMP symposium on copyright. Your copyright notice should read:

© 2017 Photography by Depuhl. All rights reserved.

 

Change it today.

Take a few minutes to change your © notices today. Start with your website and blog, if you’re using footers – as many of us do – make sure they get changed. Also, don’t forget to change the metadata settings in Bridge or any software you’re using to tag images. If you’re using a watermark on the images you post online (read here why you should), don’t forget to change the notice in your watermarking app as well. Most importantly you need to change the metadata inside your camera to show the new year in your change copyright info.

How to change copyright info on your website

I use PhotoShelter for my website and have a copyright notice in the footer code. Log into your personal account and go to …

Website -> general settings -> footer code

change copyright info in Photoshelter

Add this script to your copyright notice:

© 2008-
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> 
var today = new Date() 
var year = today.getFullYear() 
document.write(year) 
</script>

Now you never have to change the date manually again :)

How to change copyright info on your blog

In WordPress, check your theme, if you’re running one. In my theme, the code in the footer can be changed in …

Appearances -> ‘Theme’ Options -> Other Graphical Elements -> Footer 

Handy script idea to change copyright info HT @BrendanShick for pointing out that you don’t have to hard code the year when you change copyright info anymore (like I did until 2015) – this is even better – instead of having to change the date into your blog and website every year by hand,  Brendan suggests the following PHP snippet:

&copy; <?php echo date(“Y”) ?> [YOUR ATTRIBUTION HERE]

Where YOUR ATTRIBUTION HERE would be the name of the copyright holder. Although this did not work on my sites, it made me do a little digging and this script works like a charm:

<script language=”javascript” type=”text/javascript”>
var today = new Date()
var year = today.getFullYear()
document.write(year)
</script>

Thanks for pointing this out Brendan!

How to change copyright info in Image tagging software

In Adobe Bridge, you’ll need to change the copyright notice in your Metadata templates. Go to …

Tools -> edit metadata template -> scroll to the template you need to change -> scroll to ‘copyright notice’

How to change copyright info in your image processing software

Capture One (the best RAW processing software on the planet #EndOfAd :) will pull the copyright info from your camera into their metadata field, however if for some reason you need to add it by hand just go to the INFO tab in the software – so if you change copyright info in your camera, you don’t need to do this, but it’s always nice to know where the copyright notice lives.
Change copyright info in the info section of Capture One

Scroll down to the IPTC section in the tools column and change your copyright notice there.

This is what a change copyright info looks like
Copyright notice looks like this in Capture One

If you are importing from a Card, then Capture One will remember your last copyright notice in the import window. Change the date here as well.

Change copyright info in Capture One import as well.

How to change copyright info in your Camera:

Last but certainly not least, you want to change copyright info in your camera, which sometimes is a little tricky.[nextpage title=”See how easy it is to change copyright notice – read more here”]

Thankfully it’s a lot easier than it was on past models, which involved connecting your camera to the computer, figuring out a not so friendly software, ect. Today’s cameras make it a lot easier – especially the touch screen on the Canon 5D Mk IV:

change copyright info: select Copyright Information
To change copyright info in my Canon, I go to Copyright information in the yellow wrench menu and tap on screen 5. The touchscreen on the Mk IV makes that a breeze, however the thumb wheel scrolls through the menus, the top wheel scrolls through their screens.

 

Name of the copyright holder as part of change copyright info
Start by entering the author’s name. This is step 1. If you already did this last year, you can skip this step, since the information will not have changed. I do this with every camera I rent as well.

 

change copyright info including copyright holders name
In my case, the name is still here from 2016. If you already had it, you don’t need to change it, but it’ nice to know where to go to add the name of the copyright holder. Both parts are important if you change copyright info, this one just does not have to be changed every year.

 

change copyright info step 2: Copyright Details
Step 2: Enter Copyright details. That’s everything else in your copyright notice – that’s not your name. It should read “Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.”

 

change copyright info here's where 2016 changes to 2017
All you need to do here is to erase the 6 (touch the space behind the number and touch the trash icon). Now add a 7. Voila, you’ve changed your copyright info 2016 to 2017.

 

check change copyright info
Tap display copyright info to check what the changed copyright info will look like. (And don’t give me grief about the sand on my camera, I just got back from shooting on the beach – I’m gonna blow it out in a minute :)

 

Ta da! You managed to change copyright info successfully!
And there you have it! That wasn’t as bad as on the Mk II. Check your  camera manufacturers documentation for how to do this on your camera.

“According to the US Copyright Office Circular 3, that [ a ‘c’ between brackets or (c)] is not an acceptable form. The only designations of ‘copyright‘ which are acceptable to the US Copyright Office are: the symbol © (letter C in a circle), the word ‘Copyright‘, or the abbreviation ‘Copr.‘” HT @NSL_Photography for pointing out that …

I change copyright info in my camera to read Copyright, instead of (c), you just need to be careful, since you may get the limit of the IPTC fiyour cameraith this – this was true on my 5D Mk II.

I’ve based this post on how to change copyright info on the equipment, services and software that I use. If you use other cameras and software please take a moment to tell us how to change the © info in the comments below.

Are there any other places that you change your copyright notice in your workflow?

  • If like me you’re forgetful then the following code may save you having to change the date on your website and blog each year. Most blogs, and majority of sites, are written in PHP, you can easily spot whether yours is by the ‘?’ and ‘$’ signs in the page code. So to write the current year in PHP cut and paste where you want the year to appear on your page. Here’s the code:

  • {"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

    Pascal Depuhl


    Miami product photographer, video producer, cinematographer and chief mindchanger at Photography by Depuhl

    I love to share the knowledge I've gained over the past two decades. Catching light in motion.

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