Today I want to review the copyright  policy here on Newsvine as it pertains to Newsvine Photographers. As far as NVP  is concerned, we are all about presenting our own work. If you feel it's necessary (for illustration purposes) that  you use someone else's image as well,   then you need to give credit. Per the User Agreement and Newsvine Code of Honor, you retain all copyright to content you submit to the site, but you also agree to allow Newsvine to use that image. If you haven’t read them I suggest you do!
 
The Newsvine Code of Honor Section 4a states this:
 
 

“Plagiarism and copyright infringement will not be tolerated. If you did not write something, do not portray it as your own (use the "blockquote" tag and cite your source by linking to the original content). If you do not have the right to republish the content in question, do not post it to Newsvine.”

 
The User Agreement states this under the Prohibited Conduct section:
 

The following non-exhaustive list describes the kinds of illegal or harmful conduct that are prohibited on our Site. You agree not to:....potentially infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any person or entity;….

   
Now that seems pretty clear when it comes to the written word, but for our images you should  interpret  that as meaning any image you post to Newsvine should be one of your own, if it’s not you should give credit to whoever owns it.
 
As for marking your work as being copyrighted, it’s not actually necessary but if you do, you can say something like: “All rights reserved” or use the symbol, the year  and (your name). IE:

© 2012 by Rottlady

I found the following on the internet and think it pretty much covers it all.
 Things to remember about copyright:

• Copyright is a property right.
• Just because you buy a print does not mean you have purchased the copyright.
• Professional photographers are the smallest of small copyright holders.
• Under the Federal Copyright Act of 1976, photographs are protected by copyright from the moment of creation.
• Photographers have the exclusive right to reproduce their photographs (right to control the making of copies).
• Unless you have permission from the photographer, you can’t copy, distribute (no scanning and sending them to others), publicly display (no putting them online), or create derivative works from photographs.
• A photographer can easily create over 20,000 separate pieces of intellectual property annually.
• Professional photographers are dependent on their ability to control the reproduction of the photographs they create.It affects their income and the livelihood of their families.
• Even small levels of infringement—copying a photo without permission—can have a devastating impact on a photographer’s ability to make a living.
• Copyright infringements—reproducing photos without permission—can result in civil and criminal penalties.

After writing all of the previous stuff, now I want to discuss how you can protect your images on the internet. One thing is of course posting a watermark copyright statement on the image. However most don’t know how to do this or find it too much trouble. So one way, is to never post an image in it’s full  size. I generally re-size my images to fit the area on the article. 660 pixels wide and whatever length is appropriate and proportional  for the image to appear in full on the screen. You  don’t want one  so large that someone has to scroll down to see the entire image.
 
If you need help on the resizing of an image I would be glad to help guide you through it, or you can attend one of our Virtual Vinemeets and get help.