We had great turnouts for our three classes at Photoshop World in Orlando last week. The word is finally out that it is critical that professionals, amateurs and those who fall some where in between must register their work.

Of the many people who attended our lectures and were obviously motivated to learn more about the benefits of copyright protection, less than 4%  (by a show of hands) regularly register their works. The thieves, infringers and “appropriators” know these stats and that the odds are overwhelmingly in their favor a/k/a “crime pays”. (See “Head Fakes…)

So the great news is that the importance of registration is sinking in. We guess that the Copyright Office gets an influx of registrations after we lecture to a group. At least we hope that’s the result.

The bad news and reality is that the percentage of photographers actually protecting themselves appears to be still well less than 5% (allowing for those who know how to register and do register and thus don’t attend a class on basic registration). Our class on Model Releases yielded similar results when we polled the audience about their copyright registration. So anecdotally it’s clear to us that too few of you register.

But we’re working on it, one photographer at a time. So 4% at our lectures, means we have teach only 96% more. But hey, we’re up for the task. Help us. Find a friend and spread the word.

We spent lots of time after the classes and were subjected to great questions from some very astute photographers. One of the great benefits for us teaching at Photoshop World is the high level of professionalism of the attendees.  Over the next few weeks we will post some of those very clever inquiries along with – we hope – helpful answers.