I have recently received many emails regarding the large copyright notice I place across my gallery and web site images. The complaint is that the copyright notice interferes with viewing and appreciating my images. Unfortunately, I have been forced to do this by a large number of unscrupulous web surfers who assume that everything posted on the Internet is free for the taking. This is clearly not so. Images and text posted in web pages on the Internet are just as protected by copyright laws as if the images and text were published by more traditional means, i.e. books, magazines, etc.

In the past I had posted images with just a small copyright notice in a corner of the image. I continued this practice until I discovered that items bearing my images were sold through gift shops on the Internet, hot linked in other web pages and passed off as another photographer's images (which, by the way, is also theft of my bandwidth!), and I even found some of my images appearing on items sold on eBay! Unscrupulous web surfers were simply deleting the copyright notice from my images. The amount of time and energy I was spending tracking down illegal use of my images was becoming insurmountable. It is impossible to stop all of the intellectual property theft that occurs on the Internet but I can do my part to make it more difficult. Hence, the large copyright notices across the important images I display.

What is the harm done? In all fairness...quite a bit! I freely post my images for my visitor's viewing pleasure and I post essays describing the photography techniques I utilize so as to help other beginning bird photographers acquire early success. However, the expense behind all of this is considerable. Consider, first, the expense of the equipment used. It is very easy to tie up $10,000.00US, or more, on sound, professional photographic equipment. No, that is not an inflated figure. Birds are small and require extremely long focal length telephoto lenses of large apertures. These lenses can cost anywhere from $3,500.00US to over $7,000.00US per lens. Professional grade camera bodies cost $2,800.00US to $3,500.00US each. Even tripod/head systems can easily cost over $1,000.00US. From an equipment standpoint, bird photography is probably one of the most expensive hobbies a photographer can pursue.

Second, there is the cost for time in the field. These costs include gas, lodging, food, etc. The least daily expense I incur is approximately $30.00US per day if I am photographing birds close to home within Metropolitan Phoenix. This covers gasoline, food, and any entrance fees that may need to be paid. If I travel out-of-town then expenses can easily escalate to as much as $75.00US to $100.00US per day. These expenses do not take into account wear and tear on my truck, etc.

Finally, there needs to be some accounting of the time spent digitally processing the images, preparing the images for presentation on the web site, and for administering the web site itself as well as paying the ISP to host the web site. Also, there is the expense of making proofs of images to be sold as fine prints. Typically, I will delete approximately 20 to 30 images for every image posted on the web site and that's on a very good day's photography. As you can now see, there is a high cost for each image posted on this web site.

I have not pursued bird photography with the intent to make my fortune through photography. Should you decide to purchase a fine art print, or decide to purchase an item from my gift store, these purchases help to defray the costs of my photography. I certainly have not pursued bird photography to make someone else's fortune, either! I fairly price my items for sale and I am always open to negotiating publication and use rights for any of my images. To use my images for personal profit without fairly compensating me is not only unethical and immoral but it is also illegal.

Perhaps now you can understand my use of a large, integrated copyright notice on my images. There was a bill before Congress that would have, ultimately, usurped the rights of copyright holders. Originally known as the "Orphan Works Bill" (now currently known as "the Copyright Modernization Act of 2006, HR 6052") as submitted by the US Copyright Office, the Orphan Works Bill would allow anyone use of copyrighted images or text whose copyright owners could not be determined after a "good faith, reasonably diligent search". Furthermore, no provision is made to provide fair and reasonable compensation to the copyright owners when their "orphaned work" is unfairly used, even if the copyright has been legally filed with the US Copyright Office! This is a bad bill which, fortunately, was never voted on during this session of Congress. However, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), has vowed to return the bill for vote during the 2007 session of Congress.

For the reasons stated above my images will continue to carry the large copyright notice as it appears today. My apologies to my visitors. I do value each and every one of you who visit my web site but I also highly value the effort I put into creating my images and must do all that I can to protect my images from copyright infringements.