[thelist] Staving Off Photo Thieves

deke web at master.gen.in.us
Sat Apr 28 13:20:48 CDT 2001


On 27 Apr 2001, at 23:28, viveka posted a message which said:

> So what's up? Why the sudden paranoia, just
> because an image is online?

It's not sudden paranoia. It's been around at least since
the depression.

Back when photography was mostly black and white,
proofs were on POP.  These proofs were not processed
through developer and fixer; they were simply light-sensitive
paper. You'd contact-print the negatives, and give them to
the consumer, but the more light they received, the more
washed-out the image was. If you tried to copy they right
away with ambient light, you got a pretty muddy picture.
If you stuck them under the bright lights of a copy camera, 
the proofing-out-paper reacted to the light so quickly that 
the image disappeared completely.

I believe that Kodak still makes proofing-out-paper in 70
and 90 mm sizes.

When color photos came out, there was no color POP
product, so I worked full-time for a while, spraying photos
with clear matte lacquer (color photos are sensitive to 
moisture, so this protects the image, and it also is supposed
to keep the photos from adhering to glass in a frame) and
hot-stamping the name of the photographer in the corner
in gold foil.

If you stick the photo under a copy camera, the gold foil
does not reproduce properly. You *can* easily remove the
gold foil by removing the lacquer underneath it - lacquer
thinner works just fine, thank you - but unless you have the
right type slug, there's no way you can put the name back
on the picture.

They also make a special stamp pad which you can use
to stamp PROOF on a photo. Lacquer thinner will remove
the word, but then, if you do that, you have to buy the proofs,
and most studios charge as much for a proof as for an 8x10,
assuming that you're buying the proof to get a copy negative
and more copies from a cheapo photolab.

A photographer that sells to magazines is only concerned
sales to other printed products - perhaps calendars.  You can
steal line art from other printed products without much problem
but halftones and color printing are technical challenges. The
printing-out-paper and the use of gold foil were primarily used
by portrait photographers. Most photolabs have one or more
people working full-time making copy negatives and copies of
photographs.  Unless there is a (c) mark on the back of the
photo, the labs don't hesitate. Some labs don't hesitate even 
if there *is* a copyright marked.

deke


------------------------
 "The church is near but the road is icy; 
  the bar is far away but I will walk carefully." 
                            -- Russian Proverb




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