Artists copyright?

chrissie

chrissie

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In reference to this thread...
http://www.bluelight.ru/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=43&t=000088
I was always under the impression that an artist has an automatic copyright over their work. Am I mistaken about this? If one were to exhibit their work on bluelight, can someone steal the work and claim it as their own, even though the artist has the original work or files that are dated previously to the theifs files?
 
Yes, upon creation of a work the author automatically receives copyrights over the work. This is fairly unknown, but since a few decades there is no registration or filing necessary to gain your rights.
Furthermore the (c) symbol does not have to appear. It gives no additional rights, although it might scare some thieves off and it will certainly help a case where a thief knowingly abused a copyrighted work (should s/he throw in the counterargument that the work could have been in the public domain)
In case of a dispute, you might have to prove the work is yours. Registration helps a great deal, but a cheap and common alternative is to seal a copy, along with other proof such as concepts/blueprints/beta-versions, and send it to yourself (signed on arrival). In this way the date stamp from the post office signifies you were in possession of the materials at that particular date; if the material is truly original the other party will most likely not be.
 
the common way to do this in the US is to use registered mail to send yourself a copy, as then the post office has a record of when it was sent, as opposed to a sealed letter that may have a phoney register stamp/sticker on it.
 
I don't mean to be a downer, but in a discussion of intellectual property law with a well-paid lawyer I had the good fortune of participating in, he said that the "poor man's copyright" as the self-mailing technique is known, is not an entirely secure thing. He didn't really go into details, he just said that if you're seriously concerned for the welfare of your work you need to formally register it. Furthermore, although © may not need to appear (I am unsure about this), it is typicaly considered good form to date the work so as to add weight to the "I did it first" arguement.
Technically, it is true that from the moment of creation a work is legally copyrighted, but rememeber, you've got to be able to prove this in court.
[ 30 January 2002: Message edited by: themagicbean ]
 
A lot of people confuse copywright with trademark, corporate logos and things like that are trademarked, but any thing you create individually you have copyrights too, that means you can sue for damages if someone steals or exploits your work without your permision.
That being said, everybody who answered here is correct, you should have some means of PROVING that you created something and when you did so, or it's very hard to enforce your rights.
 
basically im asking about this in order to provide reasurance to bluelighters who might not want to post their work on bluelight for fear that it might be stolen.
would a date for a posted image on bluelight be proper proof of ownership of an image? or rather proper proof that the image belonged to that person before the stolen image?
(does this make sense?)
if not, what is a good secure (possibly free) way to show ownership of an image.
 
the common way to do this in the US is to use registered mail to send yourself a copy
This is commonly done, but the postmarked copy actually is given no more protection legally than one that was not sent (which is copyrighted from the moment of creation).
Click to expand...
 
With all due repect, i make a living as an artist and the people who are most worried about copyrights are generally the least likely to have thier work stolen. Even if you pay your $35 (i think) to register a copyrightor or if you pay your $500 or so to trademark you would still have to find the person who stole your work and then pay who knows how much to take them court, and then win, then collect. Buy a lottery ticket instead, the odds are better.
 
Originally posted by Harlequin:

This is commonly done, but the postmarked copy actually is given no more protection legally than one that was not sent (which is copyrighted from the moment of creation).
Yes, but when you go into court, and break the register seal over the flap, you can conclusively show that you mailed it on a certain date.
i am not talking about a simple postmark. it's easy to forge register stamps, hell, you can buy your own register machine. i am talking about registered mail, where you have to fill out a form, where it has to be signed for, etc.
Click to expand...
 
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