How do you copyright a picture ?

I'd suggest, for the easiest route, that you just go and register an account and post your pictures there. Deviant Art registers art under your name when you post it. Actually, though, because the photography is something you yourself took, all you have to do is put: "(Copyright Sign) Your Name *Year Created*" That's all that you *actually* have to do, and because it's your creation, that's all that's required. It means that the creation is yours and that no one else SHOULD have the rights to it. Will that stop someone? No.

I don't know what to do about a work already stolen. But for future works, some form of date registering would be useful. If you need to prove to a third party about an image is of your own, i suggest to publish such image on a blog, so it gets referenced to a date. Or maybe posting it at flickr.com, sets authory not date. Adobe Photoshop has a copyright edition feature, see File|obtain info... This way i marked my portrait at: http://www.freewebs.com/rodrigomercado

Copyright Secured Automatically upon Creation The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. (See following Note.) There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration. See "Copyright Registration." Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. "Copies" are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm. "Phonorecords" are material objects embodying fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture soundtracks), such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for example, a song (the "work") can be fixed in sheet music (" copies") or in phonograph disks (" phonorecords"), or both. If a work is prepared over a period of time, the part of the work that is fixed on a particular date constitutes the created work as of that date.

I have a homepage, I had my webmaster put my copyright on it, people have stolen from my webpage anyhow. I confronted them, I did prove it, they kept using the designs but changed my name to theirs. How about that? I do not think you will be very lucky this way. These days I think my ideas were so great that they were of interest for others. I am honored.

i stamp it! i stamp a word with copyright reserved and my name.. when u already stamp it, it's diffult to remove the words.. so they can't used for their own purpose