Alfred Stieglitz, who owned Gallery 291 in New York City and was influential in introducing photographers and artists to the American public, offering Ansel Adams his first show in New York City, said “My ideal is to achieve the ability to produce numberless prints from each negative, prints all significantly alive, yet indistinguishably alike, and to be able to circulate them at a price not higher than that of a popular magazine, or even a daily paper. To gain that ability there has been no choice but to follow the road I have chosen.”

Modern digital photography and print techniques reflect that idea so greatly that many photographers want to return to the era of dark-room prints and limited editions. I stand behind Stieglitz in the argument. Photographs are made for enjoyment and should be limited in reproduction only to the number of people that want to enjoy photograph. It’s essentially useless to put time and effort into a creative work and not share that work with the world simply because you are afraid of copyright infringement.

Copyright already allows copyrighted photographs to be used without permission from the maker, primarily in satire. You might as well ensure that the work is shared and displayed the way you intended. It’s not throwing in the towel. The recognition received will far out weigh any loss.