I had a busy day today. I did manage to sleep in until about 10am which is a record for me. Usually I can get past 8am before I’m up and wide awake. I had a busy week at work though so I know I was tired. Anyhow, the coffee was on and I needed to get out of the house for a while. I started my day by heading out to Best Buy. This town frustrates me sometimes. It’s not a good town for a tech geek like me to live in because technology is just not that important to people around these parts. Tractors and Monster Trucks are. Anyhow, I’m trying to get a good idea on price for upgrading the stereo system in my car. It works great right now but I can’t listen to my iPod while driving and since I did away with physical CD’s nearly 2 years ago now, I don’t have any CD’s that I can stick in the dash. I had a stereo that supported my iPod in my last car and I loved it and it didn’t cost much either. I went into Best Buy today prepared to spend a small amount of money to upgrade my car but, as is typical up here, the parts needed to install a new system were not available and it would be another week before they got them back in stock. So, it didn’t happen. I’ll put it off another week and have to waste more of my time waiting.
After that, I decided to get my hair cut. Always a trip to go into Supercuts. One thing I don’t do is high end salons. If I ever have to pay more than $20 with tip for a hair cut, that will be the day I start cutting my own hair. I don’t need it styled, I just need it cut. Anyhow, got that done and then it was home to play with the dog and maybe clean the house.
I played with the dog but the house is still a shit hole. I decided that I was going to visit Meijer to get a few new pictures printed for my dining room wall. I’ve got 3 nice framed pictures that I’ve taken up on the wall and it’s time for a change of scenery so I spent a few hours going through my recent pictures looking for replacements. I settled on 3 new pictures and loaded up the SD card and headed off to Meijer land to have them developed. You all know I hate Meijer. Once again, it’s the only grocery store of any quality in this little town so EVERYONE goes there. It’s always crowded, the parking lot is a disaster, and I can never get out of there without having to wait at least 30 minutes in line and spending $100! I went to the kiosk to pick out my pictures and options and submitted them for processing. It was going to take about 30 minutes so I decided to grocery shop. I went back to pick them up after 30 minutes and was accosted by the Meijer Photo Lab people. They wanted me to prove that I was the photographer, that my pictures looked too professional and that they would only release them to me if I signed an affidavit claiming that I was in fact the photographer. Normally I get my photography printed through my hosting web site and I’ve never had this issue before. I didn’t know whether I should be flattered that they thought my work was that good, or offended that they thought I was a thief. I decided to sign their release (which absolved them from legal issues if someone were to challenge my copyright), they put it in a little file along with maybe a dozen others then informed me that it might be a good idea for me to make sure my copyright is obvious, like a logo or something on my pictures. So off I went. Somewhat flustered that I had to prove something that was mine, was actually mine!
Tonight I’ve been sitting on my computer investigating copyright laws and how they apply to digital photography. I’ve always been pretty careful with my photography. I don’t sell it but I have left open too many loop holes that might allow someone else to try and sell it and claim it as their own. Tonight I decided to turn off the print option for my web site. This won’t eliminate the problem but it will prevent people from trying to order prints of my work without my permission. I’m also going to work up a small copyright notice that I can attach to my photos that will enforce the digital data already stored in the picture file. It seems that the more people see my work, the more people tell me I ought to be doing something with it. I’m not sure I’m there yet. Maybe soon.
Anyhow, here is one of the pictures that drew the attention of the Meijer Photo Lab.
