You are most likely using Digimarc for Images to communicate your ownership and thereby copyright of your images. I’ll be the first to admit my naïveté on all the rules governing Copyright law.

Part of the confusion to me is that human nature, fair usage and copyrights don’t always provide black and white rules. If someone is using your image for commercial (an ad campaign) or personal gains (a blog), should the former matter more than the latter? You decide not to authorize the use of one of your images for a product; the agency then decides to reproduce an image almost exactly like yours, but not quite.  At what point are they infringing on your copyright?  You upload images of yourself seated near a celebrity onto your Facebook page and then see those images used in a publication or commercial website, do you have any recourse?

I could ramble on about all the possibilities, and believe me I just cut out three paragraphs, but since I’m not an expert I thought you may be interested in the following links.

The US government website is pretty good.  I like the FAQ section as a quick reference resource.

Creative Commons offers an alternative to traditional copyright rules with some flexibility for generating copyrighted materials. While these new standards have been held up in some courts there are still legal issues being resolved. You should research this license carefully before using it.

If you have a NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) membership, check out the copyright series by Ed Greenberg and Jack Reznicki starting in the April/May 2009 Photoshop User magazine.  For those of you who wish to know such things, I am a NAPP member.

Digimarc is currently partnered with the PLUS Coalition to help simplify and facilitate the communication and management of image rights.

A fascinating website/blog I enjoy is Plagiarism Today which discusses current copyright issues.