Registration insures that you have independently verified ownership and authorship of your work. Copyright alone does not insure clear proof of ownership and can often be litigated. Should litigation occur, all things being equal registration entitles you to damages inclusive of any associated losses including court and legal fees.
Understanding your rights is critical in days where information flows digitally with near instantaneous speeds from server to server. Knowing how to protect your authorship is key to understanding and protecting your privacy. Yes, Privacy!!
Consider this. This scenario was posed a few years ago by me in an ethics course. The main subject was privacy and authorship of published works in the digital age. An unsettling scenario was proposed where a child's online photos were downloaded and re-published by a large corporation that featured the child's image in a very aggressive advertising campaign. The child's in immediate shock recognized her child instantly despite having the image surface several years after her immediate posting. A mother always knows her child right?
What are the mother's rights? Because the picture is clearly of her child and the image was used without permission is the company incontestably liable for damages? Are you sure? What is public domain and was the mother even aware of what that means? Are you sure about what images you're floating about in cyberspace and how they may be violated later on?
While I understand this is a frightening and worse case scenario, the likelihood is not only possible but highly plausible; a greedy corporation getting wealthy without consent of use or a model released image found online.
It's very scary stuff but the real underlying story is knowing your rights and being aware of what information, images, works of art, or casual picture you published, particularly online. Be aware of what your privacy rights are and what course of protection you have should your images or works of art be essentially hacked and violated without your consent.
Remember this subject is not limited to photography; it pertains to music, multimedia works, web design, logos, etc.
Visit US Copyright Title 17 for more information on copyright law. Other subject to look into if you have anything published online or wish to protect a work of art or creation is Trademarking.
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