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:
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 <©> and in ASCCI it’s <ALT>+<0169>.
Just in case you haven’t noticed it’s 2017. Happy New Year.
Your credit line
In my case that reads: Photography by Depuhl
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
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
“© <?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.
Scroll down to the IPTC section in the tools column and change your copyright notice there.
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.
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:
“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?
Happy to help. Enjoy the 2 minutes that you’re gonna be saving every year from now on :)
Super helpful! Thank you so much for this script. Just applied it to my new site!
[…] filename make sure to add your copyright information in camera as well (If you don’t know how to change your copyright info in camera read this blog post)- however Canon limits you to a 4 alphanumeric characters plus 4 numbers in […]
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:
Here’s how in LR.
http://laurashoe.com/2014/12/31/create-your-2015-copyright-and-contact-information-preset/
I did this last year. This year it took about 30 sec to update.