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Nerys B

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Just throwing this out there, should we be copyrighting our images and how do we copyright them to protect them?
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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This has been addressed before, but finding old threads can be a bit wearisome.  However, we do have a lawyer on the strength, one Michael, who might reply.  In general, you don't need to copyright your work, so far as I remember.  So long as it's plainly yours, signed or marked in some way, the copyright is yours without your having to do anything.   To see old posts on the subject, just type "copyright" into the Search engine on this page.  

Edited
by Robert Jones, NAPA

Moi 17

Linda Wilson

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You hold the copyright to your images automatically.  Do you mean, how can you stop them from being copied?  That is a different story.
michael

Michael Edwards

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      In simple terms, here in the Uk copyright is automatically, ipso juri, vested in the artist/author. Strictly there is no need to take any further action. By placing something like 'Michael Edwards (c) December 2020'  against anything produced serves to warn any potential plagiarist that the artist is aware of the law so beware but it is no more than good practice. I use this when writing poetry.   But we are talking here about works of art and I guess the concern is if someone copies your work. If you want to take action against a copyist it will rest with you to demonstrate that your work predates the copy. If you've posted it here on POL it's easy:  simply point to this site. Publication is one the best tools available.     Photos of the work accompanying an email will help. Being imaginative, if you are really concerned, take a photo and send it by email to a third party- your Solicitor for example - and make sure they keep a record.    Copies of documents etc (properly dated of course) lodged with a lawyer is a well recognised method of protecting copyright.   
michael

Michael Edwards

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Another thought has just come to me - when you sell a work of art the copyright remains with the originator -  you the artist - unless you have expressly granted copyright to the purchaser.  When I designed the album cover which I recently posted (and seems somehow to have got deleted from the gallery)  I stipulated that part of the deal was that they send me copies of anything they produced that included the images - I have in the last few days received a package of vinyls, cards, and CDs which I'm really chuffed with.  Anyway the point is I gave them free copyright to use my paintings for the album and all promotional work in connection with the album but not further or otherwise. This is an important issue to remember when working for anyone other than a private individual where no free copyright is bestowed on the purchaser.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Michael thank you for clarifying this , it seems a minefield when not knowing how it works.

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by Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Nerys B

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Thankyou Michael for your expert advice.  Linda, i should have made myself clearer, yes i did mean how can we stop our images from being used elsewhere.  'Paint' used to have a feature whereby i could add a discreet copyright message over the painting , but windows 10 hasn't anything like that. 
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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There are other programmes which can do this for you - I believe The Gimp has this feature.  Snag is,  I understand it can also be removed if you know what you're doing (which - of course - I don't).  

Alan Bickley

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Well of course it’s fairly easy to remove, depending on the actual complexity of the overprint. Photoshop has an airbrush tool as most of us know and is relatively easy to master. However, web photos are 72 DPI, magazine quality is printed at 300 DPI so it’s not that beneficial for someone to use one of our web images for quality reproduction such as cards etc. Personally, I don’t worry about it! There’s little we can do to prevent it happening.
michael

Michael Edwards

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And of course if anyone deliberately sets out to copy your work an overlaid watermark  declaring copyright won't be a deterrent. 

Denise Cat

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It's something I've not thought about. A friend said, don't forget to sign what you do, so that's what I do now, when I remember that is. Mind you, don't think I have much to worry about.

Sylvia Evans

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When is copyright invoked ? .  My initial understanding was a like for like copy full stop.  But I posted a painting on here some years ago ,not too long afterwards a painting appeared with exactly the same concept.  The colours were different and it wasn’t like for like.  It was figurative in a particular setting and it was reproduced in this way .  I know we can all paint a daffodil a famous view a well known personality and I understand how that cannot become “ copied” .  But in this case it was the actual concept.  Hopefully This makes sense. 

Edited
by Sylvia Evans

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