Copyright.

[Margareth Osju]

As a artist, many of us becomes a little bit tired that people just copy and past and use our pictures/artworks. Few ask for permission. They copy and past and of course they maybe write the link to the photographer but they also just print it out. With the prints of today mostly of people can just print it., even if the photo is resized. Easy and free.

I wonder if Ning can have some kind of automatic waterpass , or some kind of copyright signature we can choice to the pictures we upload to the albums? Some kind of over typed waterpass over the picture just to be sure that people if they want to use the photos the have to buy it or ask for permission to use it. Or some way to lock the picture that nobody can use it?
I think many people, not only artists, should appreciate it.

Oh....please, sorry for my English. Fore sure my English nobody want to copy..*;)

Best wishes
Margareth

[Margareth Osju]

Thank you very much, Stephanie for taking time to give this important information.It's good to know how it works in different countries. I protecting my artwork, and I don't publish the original photos.
. Why I opened this discussion is if it's possible to make it more easy every time we want to upload some artwork on our website on Ning. As I wrote, to protect that people just don't copy and past or print the photos. And with a watermark, , well then people don't just print it.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Thank you Margareth and Stephanie for starting this discussion.

I wish to make two comments.

According to international rules applicable in most countries the art work is protected during the 70 years following the death of the author. Of course the artist and heirs must provide proof of who is the actual author of the work.
There are specialized agencies (such as ADAGP based in France) to collect copyright fees and redistribute to artists.

I recommend anybody interested with copyright issues to visit in details the most practical source of information I ever found on copyright application : Wikimedia Commons.
When you click on an image on this site you open a new page where you find all the rationale for them to believe that this image is freely usable.
Visiting various images gives a fair idea of various cases applying.
In my network, all group logos are pasted from Wikimedia Commons.

The Copyright issue is a very serious issue to be understood and controlled for going to best possible practice in publishing art.

Experience and opinion of everybody is welcomed, as usual.

Pierre

[ash]

I've just come across the following website appertaining to copyright.

It may just be what some of you are looking for, and its entirely free.

http://www.cdateit.com