Not that I'm anywhere near the level of copyrighting my stuff yet...haha...but I thought of this question today while I was at work. How many of you copyright your work? And if so, what is the process involving that? I figured this would be an interesting topic to bring up for everyone to check out, since we're all in the same boat here: creating awesome images! hehe :) Looking forward to hearing your answers! Also, I'm also looking forward to getting my RWB4 book...that thread got me pumped...hopefully it'll take my stuff to the next level where it's worth copyrighting...haha! Warm Regards (and I DO mean warm...it's currently 17 degrees here in Toledo, OH...can't wait til I'm living in Wilmington, NC.), Ian 'MadDog31'

There is a simple solution, the easiest way to copyright your work is to print it then post it to yourself but dont open the envelope. Should the occasion arise when you may need to prove it, you whip out the envelope which will be stamped and dated etc and prove it! Thats one way I was told. :)

Anyhting you post anywhere is automatically under your copyright, meaning you own the image and people can't do stuff with it unless you say ok. To mark images, many of us post a small signature of some kinds in a corner of the image.

The problem though as they found out in the news forum recently. Theres little you can do to stop anyone that wants it, the ones in that case from some yahoo tube forum couldnt even comprehend that they were stealing. I suppose you could make a ugly oversized signature for here locally. What one said some time ago was to never post up really large resolutions, at 1024 the best one could do is 10x7 inches or so. No one could easily use that resolution for poster size.

Attached Link: http://www.patents.com/copyrigh.htm

As was said, your stuff is automatically copyrighted when you affix your copyright notice to it. But as was also mentioned, that does not effectively stop anyone else from grabbing it. You could pursue the issue through the courts and you may even win your case using this copyright procedure and they will even stop the other person from using it in the future, but chances are you will not be entitled to any financial settlements on your work that may have been gotten from the use of it. And you couldn't sue for legal expenses as a result. In order for you to be compensated for monetary gains on your work and to be able to counter sue for legal expenses you would need to copyright your work through the U.S. Copyright Office by filling out the required forms and a small fee (use to be like $25 U.S.D. but may now be more)and registering your work with them. They require something like two perfect copies of your work.

You will need to send your stuff to the Library of Congress Copyright Office for registration. There are fees for single works and also you can batch them. After they receive your stuff within 120 days you should receive a certificate of registration. You will need to use form VA (Visual Arts)to register. The circulars are what you will need to start the process and you will need to write the Copyright Office in DC to have them send them to you. I used to work for the government, so I have all the forms, and register my stuff on a regular basis. This would be the only way to win a court case, should copyright infringement occur....

I think that there's a misunderstanding here. Everybody has copyright on their work immediately. No need to put anything on it. And practically no need to register it at Copyright Office, except in case of coming to court, and even then you can register it after the case starts. Search on Google for "Brad Templeton" and "copyright myths". Put both phrases with quotation marks into the search box. BTW, LoC Copyright Office works only in the States. And I think that only in the States something like what happened to Walter Jon Williams with Wired magazine.

Erlik is right. This is internationally the case. You only have to do something if you wish to relinquish copyright.

You do need a copyright notice on the work...

BTW we do have a Copyright forum...

Attached Link: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wwp

FYI...:)

"The use of a copyright notice is no longer required under U. S. law, although it is often beneficial. Because prior law did contain such a requirement, however, the use of notice is still relevant to the copyright status of older works. [...] Notice was required under the 1976 Copyright Act. This requirement was eliminated when the United States adhered to the Berne Convention, effective March 1, 1989." So, we don't have to put a copyright notice. Especially those of us who are not from the US. :-) Thanks for the link.

Does anyone know how copyright law works in the UK in regards to digital art?

Attached Link: http://www.cla.co.uk/

Same as any other art or work, Catlin. Anything you create is automatically under your copyright. There is no need to sign or register it, and the stuff about posting a copy to yourself is a myth. The difficulty, as mentioned above, is policing your copyright, especially on the web where everything is easily stolen and hard to find when reused without permission. If you need to pursue your copyright at some point in the future, it'll be easier if you take some precautions now. Common sense dictates that any argument over ownership is likely to come down to who 'made' the work first. In that sort of case, if you can produce, for instance, an archived copy on CD (which will have date of file creation), you have evidence of when you made it. Link is to the UK Copyright Licensing Agency site: very useful site from a very helpful bunch of folks :-)

Attached Link: http://www.digimarc.com/

If you are worried about online theft, you can digitally watermark images. PSP7 has an option to embed a Digimarc watermark which can be traced back to you by virtue of the ID embedded.

Thanks cambert and raven. I think I'll go put watermarks on my work. Catlin

All this talk of copywriting images reminds me of a time when I was at one of those events where you have booths of people selling stuff - a home show or some such. One booth was selling Bev Doolittle full size prints and then some framed smaller versions of the full-size prints. Turns out they had bought a bunch of books with her art in it, sliced out the pictures and framed them. I suspect that is illegal (not to mention bad for the books). They were easily making a huge profit on this while the artist was only getting the book sale royalties. I hate theft, but the hard reality is that you can't count on catching everyone. I strongly encourage any of you who are getting very serious about selling your art to also check with a copywright attorney. I have some friends who have done this and they say it has helped them out tremendously. Lin

Just echoing what's already been said... Any image of your that you post is automatically (c). Wording to that effect just emphasises the point. Tips to prevent casual theft and deep-link theft (the worst of the worst!!!) if you have images on your own site. Put images in a p/w protected folder (all hosting packages have one or more) so your site can access them, but nobody else, and use the following in the SRC tag for each image... galleryimg="no" ... this prevents the auto-toolbar from appearing in IE6 onMouseDown="noSteal()" ... where noSteal() is a JavaScript function that returns a false value and prints a message saying "Thieving B*stard!".

"of your" = "of your own"

Tuttle, there is nothing you can do to stop casual theft of images on your site. It does not matter where you place the images. If somebody can see an image on their browser then that image is already downloaded and on their computer. They can steal it by right clicking on it (you can't stop right clicking if they simply disable javascript). They can also search their cache (temporary internet files) since all images they can see on their browser are in there. Worst case, they can simply do a screen capture and trim the result.

Lawyers are way too expensive. When I first looked into copyrighting several pieces of my work for a private company I contacted several lawyers and they were asking something in the neighborhood of between $600 - $1,500 U.S.D. where all I needed to do was file and register with the copyright office for a nominal fee of $25 bucks (at the time) and that was for several pieces (batch filing). It's that registration number that will win your case for you if it should come to litigation. If it should then come to litigation it is then that I would suggest that you hire a lawyer since you can then counter sue for legal expenses and it wont have to come out of your pocket.

daverj - that's why I said "casual" theft. The majority of users - especially those who steal artwork, who seem mostly retarded - would have no idea about disabling javascript or searching their cache, although I reckon it's possible to code for both these issues if you're really determined (I'm 95% sure you could prevent screen-grabbing, too, if you had time on your hands and didn't mind a very annoying and convoluted display process!) But that aside, in most cases, if they can't right-click or click save on the auto-toolbar they'll go elsewhere.

I once saw images d/l from the web which had the transparent image of a camera viewfinder on them when viewed offline. Is that what's called watermarking?