How do I copyright original artwork on my web site?

February 7, 2007 7:49 AM

My personal web site contains a lot of original photography and artwork. How do I protect it with a copyright?
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot to Law & Government (18 answers total)

You can add a copyright disclaimer to your site, though you don't actually need to. You own the copyright to your works regardless of whether it is stated on the site or not. You can go after people who use your work without your permission.

If you are asking how to stop people from downloading and using your stuff without your permission, then you'll probably want to not put your stuff online.
posted by chunking express at 8:06 AM on February 7, 2007

Anything you create is automatically copyrighted, as long as it is in a "fixed and tangible form." This applies to websites and digital content. Check out this site for more information.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:12 AM on February 7, 2007

If you'd like, you can include a Creative Commons license to your page, depending on whether or not you're okay with people using your art for personal reasons and not for profit. (Although, as chunking express said, you own the word regardless of anything being written on the page.)
posted by itchie at 8:15 AM on February 7, 2007

Copyright has been automatic for any work published in the US since March 1, 1989. Nonetheless, if you place proper notice of copyright on your works then someone who violates your copyright is extremely restricted in his or her ability to make an "innocent infringement" defense if you choose to sue them. Copyright registration is not a condition of copyright protection, although there are some advantages to registering your works.
posted by RichardP at 8:20 AM on February 7, 2007

Also you might want to think about moving your photographs into a Flash application as it makes it a little trickier for the casual surfer to grab them.
posted by gomichild at 8:21 AM on February 7, 2007

@Chunking express & @HotPatatta: Do you have a link that explains this in any detail? I was always under the impression that you had to actually file for copyright, and that otherwise an item was uncopywritten (uncopywrited??). For instance, if you file a dissertation or submit an article for publication, there is a fee involved with actually registering copywright for a work.

Licensing, as I understand it, is something a bit different than copywright. Instead of registering you as the creator, it outlines how someone may use your creation. I've always thought licensing=permission, while copywright=attribution, but hell, I'm probably wrong.
posted by sablazo at 8:22 AM on February 7, 2007

Sorry all, forgot preview, thanks RichardP!
posted by sablazo at 8:23 AM on February 7, 2007

You don't need to do anything to copyright a work, although if you want to sue someone for damages arising from their misuse of your copyrighted work, you need to register it, which costs $40 or something. But this isn't necessary just to have copyright protection, only if you want to go after someone else in court.

I don't think you need to do that, though. A simple notice on the bottom of your pages, saying something like "Layout and Images Copyright 2007 John H. Doe, All Rights Reserved," would probably be a good start.

Also, you can put your name and the copyright info into the EXIF tags on the images themselves, this might help stop them from being accidentally misused.

However, if what you're trying to stop is people downloading your images at all, you should probably reconsider whether you want them online. There are various technical measures that you can try, to discourage reuse of your images, but some are of questionable value (watermarking), and others are annoying to potential viewers (no-right-click, embossing your name across the photo).
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:24 AM on February 7, 2007

Um... why would you want to "protect" your images on the web?

Unless they're 200dpi resolution or higher they're virtually useless for print publications and anyone re-using your image on the web will generate more exposure for you and your work.

I have a lot of "artwork" on my site, which art directors visit very frequently - but I haven't had any problems with theft or abuse in over three years... just job offers.

Watermarks are abhorrent in my opinion. Just let go of your stuff and, if it's good, it will come back to you.
posted by paperfingers at 8:54 AM on February 7, 2007

An easy way to protect the work may be to make it available for purchase (limited license) via istockphoto or somesuch site. Potential thefts might be avoided if there's a convenient way to use them legitimately.
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:17 AM on February 7, 2007

I work in an art museum and often deal with artists who are concerned about people taking their images without permission. Here's an interesting fact: more people copy artworks out of books than off the internet.

If you upload a 72dpi image and not make it too large, people won't be able to do anything much with it. Too low res.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 9:27 AM on February 7, 2007

As others have said, you already own the copyright over your images. No additional work required.

If your concern is with people violating your copyright, embed a watermark in all of the images you want to protect so the 1) violations are easy to prove, and 2) you get attribution if the images do end up displayed somewhere else. And don't make them available on your site in high resolution without password protection.
posted by chundo at 10:02 AM on February 7, 2007

One thing to bear in mind: you may not own the copyright in all jurisdictions, and it would certainly be infeasible for you to defend in all places.

As someone else with a lot of photography online, I think it just needs to be accepted that it will be stolen from time to time. One of my shots was printed at about four times the proper size in the Oxford student newspaper. Another got hotlinked in a popular MySpace profile and thus generated 30,000 requests in a couple of days.

Simply the hazards of posting images on the web. Look how much of it Philip Greenspun (founder of Photo.net) has suffered: his hall of shame.
posted by sindark at 10:23 AM on February 7, 2007

like everyone else said. short of registration, though, a trick i've known some writers and songwriters to use--at least in the US--is to send copies of their work to themselves via registered mail, signing over the envelope seal. while not, strictly speaking, solid proof of authorship, the postmark will establish (roughly) the date of the work's production and associate it with you. it only helps, though, if you need to fight somebody in court. nobody i know has had occasion to do that, so, in truth, i can't vouch for its effectiveness.

and yeah, the only people who try and claim ownership of web-quality images are, like, fourteen-year-old livejournallers (it's happened to me a couple times, mostly it's just funny, and once you out them publicly, they usually slink off) or maybe some fly-by-night "web business." it's irritating, but really, these kinds of people are more or less harmless.
posted by wreckingball at 10:51 AM on February 7, 2007

In the United States, the "poor man's copyright" described by wreckingball affords no protection (see Snopes).

If it did, I'd mail myself a bunch of unsealed envelopes tomorrow. After a few years I could type up summaries of every book on the NY Times Best-Seller List, seal them in the envelopes, sign them, then head off to court to claim the rights.
posted by Partial Law at 11:32 AM on February 7, 2007

You don't need to do anything to copyright a work, although if you want to sue someone for damages arising from their misuse of your copyrighted work, you need to register it, which costs $40 or something. But this isn't necessary just to have copyright protection, only if you want to go after someone else in court.

Not entirely accurate. You need to be previously registered to go after damages beyond actual. You can still register after infringement has happened but you can't reclaim legal fees and have to prove how you were harmed.

If the infringement occurs prior to the effective date of copyright registration or after the three-month grace period then the copyright owner will not be entitled to receive statutory damages and legal costs and attorneys' fees.
posted by phearlez at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2007

Just put a big watermark on the demo images, such as a faint-but-big-lettered copyright claim so that in order to use them without it, they'd have to (at significant difficulty) photoshop it out of there unles they just decided to foolishly use it with the huge watermark. Also, the watermark could aid as a form of advertising for you, so that if a potential buyer saw the watermark stating your web address, they might want to enlist the services of the actual photographer.
posted by Quarter Pincher at 7:26 AM on February 8, 2007

Working on the theory of how they identify painting forgeries (from the missing borders that on the original are under the frame and therefor not know to the public) I rarely post full images the web. Instead I crop a bit off. Only I'm going to be able to produce the cropped section from my original there by proving creation of the image in question.
posted by Mitheral at 11:37 AM on February 8, 2007