How can I copyright my artwork images so i can put them online without worries?? thanks.

Question

How can I copyright my artwork images so i can put them online without worries?? thanks.

Answer 1

In all of Europe and the US, copyright exists the moment you make something original, so you don't need to treat copyright like a patent.

The problem is when someone rips you off and then you have to prove that the copyright was yours and not someone elses. People used to mail themselves a copy of the photo and leave it unopened, but that wouldn't work now as it's too easy to forge the postmark.

Now if you have digital versions of your photos, you can upload them to a special webpage and they fingerprint them and record the time you uploaded. This means that you have an independent record showing when you made it. No one will be able to argue with that! :)

I use a service called http://www.provemycopyright.com because you get 1Gb of space to upload lots of photoes.

Watermarking them would also be a good idea, but people can take the watermark off and it doesn't INDEPENDANTLY show the time that you originally made it.

Hope it helps

Answer 2

on photoshop you can just do font across the picture

thats what i do and this means nobody can take the photo because it has your logo or name through it.  

Answer 3

Legally, your work is copyrighted the second you press the shutter release.  Practically, that doesn't mean a d**n thing.

First of all, add EXIF data into your picture including your copyright.

Secondly, as the other answerer said, watermark whatever version of your picture you're doing to put online.  You can do this in Photoshop or Elements with the text tool: create a text layer, enter your text, expand and move it to where you want, then decrease the opacity of that layer until you have the look you want.

You can actually submit your photographs to the US Copyright office, but there's a fee.  A link to the forms and instructions is below.