Copyright: advice needed pls!

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Right, my mate is getting a portfolio of all his art work set up so he can put it on a website to attract sale or future employees. It wont be that much to start with but he is still very wary about his work being stolen.

My question is this, I already know the in's and out's of the copyright laws in the UK, do they change when you put them online? If so, what would you need to do? just put the little © in the corner? Have you ever put work online and had it stolen? Is there a smart way to prevent this without ruining the quailty of the work?

 

Basically, you can do nothing to prevent people from downloading the pictures, not even if you disable right-clicking (stupid, stupid move). There are places on the internet where you can register poems before publishing (under the US jurisdiction), so maybe there's something for pictures, as well.

Personally, I would go for a big freaking "all rights reserved" kind of message, maybe with some legalese like "works displayed on this site are protected by the law of the UK and international treaties" or similar meaningless but intimidating babble. Maybe add something about hotlinking or hosting on other sites or making them part of a foreign gallery being strictly prohibited and your friends' site being the only place on the internet where legally to view his works.

[ July 27, 2005, 14:44: Message edited by: chevalier ]

 

As a graphic artist myself, the best thing to do is have a footer on every page of this new website that says "All Artwork & Content © 2005 Joe Schmoe" or whatever his name is that he goes by professionally, even if it's a business name (like "Joe Schmoe Designs," etc.). I would also have him place a little "© 2005 Joe Schmoe" on the bottom right-hand corner of every image of his artwork he puts on his site. Nothing fancy - it can be mouse type, just as long as it's there. That way if anyone copies the image straight out, it'll be obvious it was stolen and he'll have some recourse.

Another thing he can do - if he's really paranoid about things being stolen - is to put a ghosted image of his logo (probably using photoshop) over every large-size image of his work on the site. For an example of what I'm talking about, visit this website:

www.picturequest.com

This is one of the biggest stock photography websites in the world. They allow you to see a smaller version of the image - not really large enough to do anything with - but when you click the links to see the larger version of the image, there's a series of several subtle "picturequest.com" logos scattered across the image, making it unusable unless there's some serious restorative photoshop work done on the image. Again, it isn't foolproof, but it's enough of a deterrent (because editing out those logos is a pain in the ass) that people generally don't bother. What I would suggest is that he initially show the images as what are called "thumbnails," smaller images that just give the viewer a general idea of what the piece looks like, and they'll have to click on the image to see a larger size. Have the larger-size versions contain the ghosted logo.

Of course in the end, there's really nothing stopping someone from seeing his work online and copying it as best they can and passing it off as their own work. It's one of the downfalls of having internet portfolios. The only way he'd ever know somebody ripped off his idea is if he actually caught them doing it by going to their website, and tracking people down who do that is damn near impossible unless someone tips you off. If he follows my advice above he should be as well protected as one can be these days.

One last thing - tell him he needs to register his name. Whether he works under his given name, or the name of his business, all the little "©" "™" and "®" icons in the world won't mean much if his business name isn't registered. While putting a "©" is certainly a deterrent, you don't technically have a legal right to place it on there unless your working name is registered as an official business. This is how it's done in the States, anyway - but I'm sure the UK, with such a thriving art and graphics community, has similar laws and protections. Hence, they should apply internationally. Some countries - like China - have no respect for international copyright laws, so there'll always be a chance someone will steal something. But that's the rub.

Hope this helps.

 

Just accept it: the moment you put something online it is shared with the rest of the world and this is especially true in the case of images. Whatever you do to protect them only hurts you, in the end. The only thing you can do, that should be done in any case, is to add your signature and source to the lower right corner of the image.

If you really want to keep that image all to yourself, don't use Internet. Simple as that. Paint it, print it, draw it, and put it to display in regular galleries. That's why they exist.

 

Well, if you put a signature on it, maybe it isn't really a great deterrent, but morons who want to claim authorship (I've seen some such guys selling posters from flipped images by foreign artists as their own stuff on auction servers) will move on to the greener pastures. There will always be pictures without signatures. Perhaps a nice idea would be to register a business and claim that signature as a trade mark.

 

Under US law, the work is copyrighted whether he applies or not, meaning he can legally put the &copy symbol and be within his rights. It's still his property whether he puts it there or not.

I've had work stolen and then the thief actually sold it under his own name. Needless to say, I stopped putting anything up anymore that I don't want to be stolen.

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but using MHT files instead of HTML might make the work tougher to steal. It's certainly not foolproof though.