Use Permissions & Copyright Notices
DigiMarc Tracking

Any person is welcome to print out anything on the 2Cooleys Sylamore Area Recreation web site as long as such print-outs are used only for enjoying the tours without commercial intent. Please DO NOT add any of the photos, maps, or text to your own web site. This is because the content changes on a regular basis as roads, trails, and other features are closed, altered, or otherwise changed in a significant manner. Further, any unauthorized use of any part of this web site violates Federal copyright laws. To ensure accuracy for all, and to avoid copyright violations for you, please just link to our maps, photos, or pages you wish to share.

For use fees and use permission please contact 2Cooleys directly.

Copyright Notice - Except for print-outs made by private parties for non-commercial personal use on the tours depicted in this web site, no part of this 2Cooleys web site may be reproduced, in any media for any reason, by any party, without first obtaining written permission from Ozark Mountains Website, Inc., DBA 2Cooleys.Com. This includes photographs, parts of photographs, maps, or parts of maps, and all text, in whole or in part, as covered under Federal Copyright laws.

The act of using any part of this Web site in any media for any reason other than actual personal non-commercial use on the tours depicted in this web site, by any party who has not first received specific written use permission from Ozark Mountains Website, Inc., shall be construed to be that party's automatic agreement to pay upon demand to Ozark Mountains Website, Inc. or it's legal assigns, a use fee of $1,000 per each unauthorized use occurrence in any media.

For use fees and use permission please contact 2Cooleys directly.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 & DMCA Actions
When we discover unauthorized use of our maps, photos, or text, or any part of the former as derivative works, we contact the offending party once by phone and request that the infringement be removed. Many times it is an innocent mistake. IN cases where people do not willingly cooperate we contact their web site hosting company and inform that hosting company of the copyright infringement. Upon this notice from us, under Federal Law that came into effect in 1998, the hosting company is required to remove the files from their servers once we prove we are the copyright owners. That is very easy to do, and we have done this many times. Stolen images simply disappear from the offender's web site. This act is called a "DMCA Complaint". This is Federal law that all hosting companies strictly enforce. They do not waste time trying to explain copyright law to people who violate copyright law, they just remove it.

How DigiMarc Photograph & Image Tracking Works

The Copyright notice on each photograph is not the digital watermark.

How Computers "See" Images & Photographs
In this image you see computer code which does not appear to make sense. However, to a computer, it makes perfectly good sense. This strange-looking code contains the instructions telling a computer how to render a picture on a monitor. To computers this is how all photographs and images "look". It is technically very easy to add tracking numbers to this code.

Invisible Digital Tracking Number
Notice that the numbers in red are not like the rest of the code around them. This is the special DigiMarc digital watermark which can be found by the DigiMarc search engine. The watermark is actually an ID number that is unique for each photograph.

Visit the DigiMarc Corporation Website

Locating Stolen Images
To locate where a photograph or other image is being used without permission we simply enter photo ID numbers in the DigiMarc search engine. This special search engine automatically searches the entire World Wide Web continuously looking for these ID numbers. When it finds our ID numbers it sends us an email indicating where the image was found.

It Stands Up In Court
The DigicMarc technology has been around for well over ten years. Since many people do steal images from web sites, many have been sued for copyright infringement. In several well-known copyright infringement law suits, DigiMarc technology has been upheld as valid proof of theft and other copyright infringements. Under Federal Law, the minimum fine for copyright infringements is $20,000.

DigicMarc Can't Be Removed
Some people think they are being clever when stealing images because they crop or otherwise alter the image. That does not remove the digital watermark. Cropping, re-sizing, re-naming the file, or any other "trick" does not remove the watermark. This is because the digital watermark is embedded in the image or photograph many times, not just once or twice. This is so that derivative works can also be traced to illegal use.

Derivative Works Illegal Too
Some people think using only half of an image is legal because it is not the entire image or photograph. This is not true. Under Federal Law using any part of an image or photograph is called a "derivative work" because the new image or photograph was created from the original, that is, the new image or photograph was derived from the original.

Why?
Some ask why we are so "nasty" about not letting others use our photographs and maps. Quite simply the answer is because we worked our asses off to make all those photos and maps, and because we sell these photographs, and they are a big part of our annual income. The fact that someone wants to use one of our photographs does not give them the automatic right to use them.

Yes They ARE Copyrighted!
We do file for Copyright protection with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Since commercial photography has been around since before 1860, the United States Supreme Court has set precedent many times on what is, and what is not, copyright protection. For over 100 years the highest court in America has ruled that as soon as the photographer takes the photograph a copyright for that photograph has been established. The process of filing for the copyright is needed only helps to prove ownership of the photograph. A photograph which has not been filed with the USPTO by the photographer is still protected under copyright law.