Protecting Your Work Online

I couldn't post this as a How-To so I'm posting as a Topic on here, as you all ought to be made aware of the ways you can protect any work you publish online.

1) WATERMARK:

One of the biggest ways to put off artwork thieves is to put up a watermark. When you are placing a watermark onto your artwork, try putting it in the middle of your artwork (if possible). Putting it at the edges of your work makes it that much easier for thieves to crop out.

Having a watermark over your work makes your work looks less attractive to art poachers, this is because watermarks can be difficult to remove and it is fairly likely put most people off having to spend hours in Microsoft Paint or a Photoshop type programme just to remove it.

MAKING A WATERMARK:

However you post your work online, some mediums offer to put a watermark on your work.

For example, if you post your work onto deviantART, you can select the option of placing a watermark over your artwork. Just remember in dA the artwork has to be of a certain size. You can add a watermark in dA when you first submit a piece of artwork.

It is possible to make your own watermarks in:
★Paint - Creativemind's tutorial here > http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/how-to-watermark-your-work
★Photoshop
★MS Word >(http://www.ehow.com/how_2086231_make-watermarks.html)
★Free Watermark Websites > http://www.watermarktool.com/ > http://picmarkr.com/
★There are also various pieces of free watermark software which you can download, though I can't recommend anyone as I've never used any myself. I typically use dA's free watermark.

2) COPYRIGHTING:

Technically laws in the US and UK claim that when you create a piece and publish it that you own the rights to it.

★Baring in mind that the piece you submitted is something YOU have GENUINLY created and it is actually an origional made by you. You should be protected if someone poaches your work.
★Do not think that if you post SOMEONE ELSE'S work into your account that you own it's rights. Only it's origional owner has those rights.

One way to remind others that you own the copyright of the artwork is to place the (c) copyright symbol in their artwork description.

© (year) by (your name)

...AND underneath that

All Rights Reserved

Also, if you are making your OWN watermark, place the above in your watermark (obviously fill it out with the real year and your name, don't copy that exactly!!).

Those that are offered from an artistic website (like dA) or a website that puts free watermarks onto your art for you should automatically incluce © (year) by (your name) for you.

The (C) should remind people that you have legal ownership of the artwork. The "All Rights Reserved" shows people that only you have the rights to distribute/copy/sell the artwork.

Apparently, having...

© (year) by (your name)
All Right Reserved

...gives you an even bigger advantage and a stronger case should you take a copyright infringement case into court/legal proceedings.

3) OFFICIAL COPYRITING/PATENT:

There is always the option of paying to protect your artwork. Legally the above should still be enough to protect you should you need to take a copyright infringement case into court.

However paying to copyright/patent your work gives you an extra layer of protection.

★The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) is one place you could do this: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/copy.htm
★For the USA there's the US Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/
★In Australia there is the Australian Copyright Council: http://www.copyright.org.au/

The only problem here is that sometimes they can be costly.
BUT I believe it is possible to copyright/patent all or bulks of your work for a single price - so you won't have to be paying out everytime you create a new piece.

4) ORPHAN WORKS:

Such a thing as Orphan Works exist, but this shouldn't be a problem for most of us. This is an extreme circumstance where the author of the work cannot be found or contacted and the work can be adopted by someone else.

So long as you keep your contact information updated there should be nothing to worry about on this score!!

5) DISABLE RIGHT-CLICKING:

If you own your own website you can disable the right-click option so that when someone right clicks your artwork and up comes a little pop-up messege.

However there are other ways that people can take your work so it doesn't stop it compleatly but it's something.

On community sites like this though, it makes it practically impossible to disable this feature. Therefore we on CO+K and people on dA and any other group/community site cannot use this feature.


6) LOW RESOLUTION FILES:

Only upload files that are low resolution. If you want to keep artwork in high resoultion do so on your computer or hard drive etc somewhere that cannot be hacked into and don't upload it publically.

By uploading low resolution pictures, art thiefs that want to sell on artwork will find it impossible. In the enlarging process your "low-resolution" version of your piece will become pixilated, therefore making it impossible for someone else to print off and sell on to someone else.

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GOOD LUCK:

If I find any other ways in which to protect your online work, I shall add to this but good luck in keeping your online work safe.

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If anyone else comes up with any other ideas or finds another tactic to protect your work online then it would be great to see here.

Friendly debates are also welcome...