I used to post first and worry later. Then a hotel chain ran one of my market photographs across three countries' Facebook pages and the only "proof" I had was a lower-resolution copy in my camera roll.
The reviewer is a machine
What I learned the hard way: when a platform decides whether your claim is valid, a person is rarely in the loop. A system reads the file. If the file is silent about who made it, you're starting from zero.
What changed
Now every frame goes through the registry first. The copyright, my name, my handles and a link back to the record are written into the file. When I post, the proof travels with the picture.
The work was always mine. Now the machine can tell.
It takes thirty seconds and it has already saved me one very awkward email thread.
