Batch Set Copyright on Images

Walk a directory and stamp copyright, artist, and rights metadata on every image using exiftool. Common real-world use: archiving a photo library with a consistent copyright statement.

When to use

• Preparing a personal photo library for distribution or archival with consistent copyright metadata.
• Quickly tagging all images from an event or shoot with the same artist and copyright info.
• Ensuring your photo library has baseline legal metadata before sharing or licensing.

Inputs to gather

• Target directory — folder containing images to tag. Default: current directory.
• Recursive? Ask whether to process subdirectories. Default: no (flat, current folder only).
• Artist name — required. Ask for the photographer or creator name (e.g., "Daniel Rosehill").
• Copyright string — optional. If not provided, auto-generate from current year and artist: © 2026 <Artist>. Allow the user to override.
• Rights/Usage statement (optional) — additional rights text (e.g., "All rights reserved", "Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0"). If omitted, skip this field.
• Backup before write? Default: yes. Automatic via exiftool _original sidecars.

Procedure

1. Check tooling

command -v exiftool || echo "exiftool not installed — install with: sudo apt install libimage-exiftool-perl"

Abort if missing.

2. Build metadata strings

• Artist: Use the user-provided value.
• Copyright: Use provided, or auto-generate: © <YYYY> <Artist> where <YYYY> is the current year.
• Rights/Usage: Use if provided; otherwise omit.

Print a summary for user confirmation before proceeding.

3. Count and preview

# Count images that will be tagged
find <target> -maxdepth <1|999> -type f \
  \( -iname '*.jpg' -o -iname '*.jpeg' -o -iname '*.png' \
     -o -iname '*.heic' -o -iname '*.webp' -o -iname '*.tif' -o -iname '*.tiff' \) | wc -l

Print:

• Number of images found.
• Metadata to be applied.
• Request confirmation before applying.

4. Apply metadata

Non-recursive:

find <target> -maxdepth 1 -type f \
  \( -iname '*.jpg' -o -iname '*.jpeg' -o -iname '*.png' \
     -o -iname '*.heic' -o -iname '*.webp' -o -iname '*.tif' -o -iname '*.tiff' \) \
  -exec exiftool -Artist="<artist>" -Copyright="<copyright>" \
    <-Rights="<rights>"> {} \;

(Include -Rights= only if the user provided a rights string.)

Recursive:

find <target> -maxdepth 999 -type f \
  \( -iname '*.jpg' -o -iname '*.jpeg' -o -iname '*.png' \
     -o -iname '*.heic' -o -iname '*.webp' -o -iname '*.tif' -o -iname '*.tiff' \) \
  -exec exiftool -Artist="<artist>" -Copyright="<copyright>" \
    <-Rights="<rights>"> {} \;

Show progress as files are processed (especially for large batches).

5. Verify

Sample 3–5 images across the directory and confirm metadata was applied:

exiftool -Artist -Copyright -Rights "<sample1.jpg>"
exiftool -Artist -Copyright -Rights "<sample2.jpg>"

6. Report

After completion:

• Count of images successfully tagged.
• Count of failures (if any).
• Reminder: _original sidecars have been created (location noted).
• Option: offer to remove _original sidecars if the user is confident the write succeeded.

Output / side effects

• Copyright, Artist, and optional Rights metadata written to all images in scope.
• _original sidecars created in the same directories (can be removed post-verification).
• Original images modified; create a backup directory first if preservation is critical.

Notes

• Auto-generated copyright: The script uses the system date (date +%Y) to build the year. If images are from a prior year, the user should provide a custom copyright string (e.g., "© 2024 Daniel Rosehill").
• Metadata format: exiftool writes to EXIF IFD0 / IPTC / XMP as appropriate. Different image readers may check different formats; this skill writes comprehensively so compatibility is high.
• Batch verification: For large directories, consider sampling rather than checking every file. Spot-check 5–10% of the batch.
• Rights field variations: Some tools recognize Rights, others use UsageRights or custom XMP fields. The Rights tag is most portable; if compatibility issues arise, document alternatives in the report.
• Preserve prior metadata: By default, this skill adds/updates copyright metadata without touching other tags. If the user wants a fresh start (nuke all, then add new), use the scrub-metadata skill first.
• Depends: apt install libimage-exiftool-perl.