Tip: Copyright Protection

Your art (graphics, photos, music, and so forth) becomes protected by copyright when you take it from an idea or concept and make it into something fixed and tangible. The basic requirements that a work of art must meet to qualify for copyright protection are:

• It must be original. The artwork must be original, not copied from anything else.
• It must be creative. The artwork must show at least a minimum amount of creativity.
• It must be fixed in a tangible medium. The artwork must be fixed in one of these tangible mediums—in its digital state as 1s and 0s; paintings and drawings; original music; your original artworks scanned into your computer; artwork you have created using bit-mapped or vector drawing, painting, or photo-manipulation programs or any combination of these digital media; buttons and graphics, cartoons, illustrations, and original writing that you have created for your Web site and that reside on your Web site.

The list is extensive, though not complete. If you can see or touch your artwork, with or without the aid of a machine or device, no matter what its medium, it qualifies as being fixed in a tangible medium of expression. And you own it and the copyrights to it. Unless it's been pre-empted by exceptions such as "fair use" or "right for hire".

First off, the moment you create ANYTHING visual—paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, etc—the only person who is allowed to copy that art is you. If you decide to sell prints of one of your paintings, you can. If anyone else does, without your written permission, you have the right to take them to court and sue for damages.

In fact, copyright laws are so strong that your family or legal heirs will still own the copyright to your artwork until 50 years after your death.

Artists that display their work online or allow their art to be published in books or magazines often put a copyright symbol (along with their name and the year the artwork was created) next to the reproduced image. This practice isn’t actually necessary—you still own the copyright, even without using the symbol—but at least this will remind people not to copy your work.

Additionally, if you find out that someone HAS “infringed” on your copyright, and you can prove that the copyright symbol was next to the image of your artwork that they copied, you’ll have a very strong case against them if the issue ever goes to court—which is exactly why so many artists choose to put up that copyright notice.

You should also be aware that even after selling an original work of art to a collector, you still hold the copyright to it. The buyer cannot make prints or sell copies of your art unless you’ve given them that express permission in writing.

Now, even though you own the copyright to your art immediately after creating it, there are still ways to officially register your copyright claim with the US government and most other governments (if you live outside the US) as well.

Some of the reasons to officially register your artwork are:

1. Registration creates a public record of your copyright (more proof in court)
2. Registration is the first step required before you can sue someone for infringement
3. Registration often increases the amount you can sue for

If you don’t plan on suing someone, here are a few other reasons to register:

1. You’ve created something especially valuable (ie, the next Mickey Mouse).
2. You plan on selling the copyright of your art to someone else

Your use of copyrighted material may be considered fair use. This will depend in addition upon on how much of a copyrighted work you use, how important that part of the work is to the whole, and the effect of your use upon the value or potential value of the copyrighted work.It is best to get a legal opinion. (See 17 U.S.C.A. § 107).

In the US you can register your copyright with the US Library of Congress Copyright Office by filling out an application and paying a fee for each piece or for a group of pieces. For further information about the application form and costs, make sure to visit www.copyright.gov/register/visual.

Fair Use

Use of copyrighted work for:

• Teaching, scholarship or research
• Criticism or comment on a copyrighted work
• New reporting

Right for Hire

When you are hired and paid by a company to create work for them, the copyright ownership belongs to them and not the artist creating the work.

Works created after Oct 31, 1988 don't need to have the (C) symbol on them to be covered by the copyright law. However, it is a good idea to remind people that you are covered and to remember that other peoples work is also covered.