Shooting Raw as Insurance against CopyRight infringement

There is an absolutely astonisihing amount of people that shoot only jpg's and then they are asking on various forums how to stop theft of their images from their websites and the other forums they love to post on....and the answer is........YOU CAN"T........if you can see it on your computer screen it can be stolen.....It is just a fact of in the age of the internet and the WWW................

Question pop up all the time like: Can i sue so and so for copyright infrinment or for using without permission???? the answer is yes...but is most like going to be a huge waste of your money, as the theif will lie and say they did not know it it was stealing they had been told anything on the net is fair game...fair use and anyone can use anything they want anythingme they want and I'll have the web guy remove it and promise never to do it again.......and the thief willnot even cross his fingers as we were taught to do if you did not intend to keep your word........
The judge will rule in your favor but only require the thief to remove your images...no cash award ...not even to pay for your lawyer........if you can prove the image(s) is yours........
Since all camera can produce a jpg image it could be hard..especially if the thief has a piece of software that allows him to change the data in the exif portion of the jpg image.......all he needs to change is the date the image was taken........now prove it is yours.............

Did you register your image with the US Copyright Office (or the copyright office in your country), if not then the battle could bode ill for you..........

SO....................................................................................

shoot raw.......do not want to process your images, you're perfectly happy with them as camera generated jpgs....that is cool then shoot raw + jpg and use the camera generated jpg for what ever you do with your images.................

I shoot  raw+jpg (small) for quick sorting of images, especially from weddings.....I sort using windows photo viewer.........but I do process the raw files and then delete the jpgs that the camera made........I can afford to shoot raw+jpg becasue I have more than 1 memory card...they go on sale and I buy 2 or 3 or more....right now I won 12 - 8gb Transcend cards....they have been as good for me as Lexar and SanDisk, both of which I have owned and used.....Transcend is quite a bit less expensive and just a reliable..........

Anyway the bottom line is the raw file can be insurance against image theft as it cannot be uploaded or viewed on online forums or galleries...it can be attached to emails or transferred by ftp.....I use FTP to transfer my raw files to my image processor in Phoenix Az........HappyFish.com.......then they transfer my finished files back to me..........
I never let anyone have my orignal files I transfer copies.........................

RAW files can be PROOF of OWNERSHIP in court as to who really owns and image.........