To download all pictures and videos on the camera to the current directory, I simply use the gphoto software like this:

gphoto2 -P

For copying only some images, consult the manual.

This gives you a number of files, with their names in upper case. So I use a shell-script to convert them to lower case;

tolower *

The contents of this script are:

#!/bin/sh
# Renames files to lower-case.
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Usage: tolower <files>"
fi
for f in $*; do
    n=`echo $f|tr [:upper:] [:lower:]`
    #echo "moving $f to $n"
    mv $f $n
done

Next, I add my copyright notice, using the mogrify program from the ImageMagick;

mogrify -comment "Copyright © 2010, R.F. Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl>" *.jpg

You can also use this program to add a visible copyright notice (e.g. using a mask image).

After that, I use the jhead program to set the file time to the time the picture was taken:

jhead -ft *.jpg

The files are made read-only, so they cannot be accidentally deleted;

chmod 444 *.jpg