Who owns a photo? Copyright and permission
When you take a photo, you own it. The same is true for a drawing you draw or a story you write. This right is called copyright. It means other people must ask for your permission before they use your work. Taking a picture that another person made and using it without asking is unfair, and the law in Egypt protects creators from it. Creators protect their work in several ways. They add a watermark, a faint mark across the picture. They keep metadata inside the file: hidden details that say who made it. They share only low-quality copies, so nobody can use the best version. And they check whether other people are using their pictures. Do not feel bad if you did not know this: now you do.
| Way to protect | What it does |
|---|---|
| watermark | shows the owner on the picture |
| metadata | hidden details say who made the file |
| low-quality copy | keeps the best picture safe |
| checking | finds who uses the picture without asking |
Owner or not? Draw a picture you made. On paper, write ‘by’ and your first name faintly in one corner as a watermark. Write two sentences you could ask a friend before you use their picture in a project. Then act it out with a partner: one asks for permission and one answers politely.