Legal Notice & Disclaimer

OptiPic is operated at opti.pictures. For legal enquiries, contact us via the GitHub repository.

Removing or modifying EXIF metadata from an image file is, in general, a lawful act. You own or have the right to process the files on your device, and metadata is part of those files. Tools that strip EXIF — including camera apps, photo editors, and OptiPic — are widely used and legally recognised in most jurisdictions.

OptiPic removes EXIF data by default as a privacy measure. You can choose to preserve metadata when exporting. Either way, the decision and its consequences are yours.

EXIF data in professionally produced images often contains copyright management information: the photographer's name, agency, licence terms, and rights statements. This data has specific legal protections:

• United States: Section 1202 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prohibits knowingly removing or altering CMI, or distributing a work while knowing its CMI has been removed, if done to enable or conceal infringement. Violations carry significant civil and criminal penalties.
• European Union: Article 7 of Directive 2001/29/EC (the EU Copyright Directive, implemented through national law) provides equivalent protections for rights management information.
• Turkey: Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works, as amended, prohibits the removal or alteration of rights management information on protected works without authorisation.

Using OptiPic to strip CMI from an image you do not own and then presenting or distributing it as if it were unencumbered — or as your own — may constitute a violation of these laws. OptiPic cannot detect, prevent, or take responsibility for such misuse.

Major photographic wire services (such as AP, Reuters, and Getty Images) require that IPTC and EXIF metadata be preserved in distributed images. These requirements exist for rights tracking, caption information, and licensing workflows. Violation can result in contractual penalties, loss of syndication rights, or disputes over image ownership.

OptiPic is not designed for editorial wire photography workflows. If you need to process news images while preserving specific metadata fields, use the dedicated Metadata Viewer to inspect what is present before deciding to strip or preserve it.

In criminal, civil, and administrative proceedings, courts may rely on image metadata to establish authenticity, provenance, chain of custody, and timestamp accuracy. Removing or altering this metadata — even unintentionally — can:

• Render the image inadmissible as evidence.
• Create questions about tampering or spoliation of evidence.
• Expose the party who altered the file to sanctions or liability.

If you are uncertain whether an image has legal significance, preserve the original file untouched and seek legal advice before processing it.

OptiPic is an infrastructure provider, not a content platform. We provide a tool that runs in your browser; we do not receive, review, moderate, or take responsibility for the content you process.

All processing occurs client-side on your device. OptiPic has no technical capacity to monitor or intercept the images or metadata you work with. Responsibility for lawful and appropriate use rests entirely with the user.

OptiPic disclaims all liability arising from use of the service in violation of applicable law, third-party rights, or contractual obligations. See our Terms of Service for the full limitation of liability.

These legal notices and your use of OptiPic are governed by the laws of the Republic of Turkey, without regard to its conflict-of-law provisions. Any disputes arising from use of OptiPic shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Istanbul, Turkey.

Note: regardless of governing law, users remain subject to the laws of their own jurisdiction. The choice of governing law clause does not exempt users from local legal obligations.

OptiPic is provided “as is” without any warranty of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that the service will be error-free, uninterrupted, or fit for any particular purpose. Output quality, file fidelity, and metadata handling may vary depending on input file format and browser environment.