by Conrad Sturdy | Cooltechzone
The issue of protecting the works of digital artists is acute all over the world, because due to their easy accessibility, images are the most susceptible to copyright infringement. Many people believe that if a “picture” is uploaded to the Internet, it is publicly available and can be used even for commercial purposes without additional permissions. This has led to a colossal number of cases of violation of intellectual property rights, and it is now impossible to punish all violators.
Copyright infringement deprives many artists of normal earnings, devaluing their work. How can you protect yourself? Let's figure it out.
Basic rights of a digital artist
If the artist has created an image, he has a copyright on it, according to which it is allowed:
- reproduce or copy the creation;
- share it on social networks, specialized services and other online / offline platforms;
- publish it in the media;
- edit and modify the work.
If unauthorized persons have a desire to do any action from the above list, they are obliged to ask permission or purchase the original creation. If these rules are not followed, the author may send a notice of infringement of his intellectual property and demand that the publication be removed or seek compensation for damages.
If the work is initially made to order under a contract, under its terms the artist may be deprived of copyright.
Copyright protection methods
Let's take a look at several working ways for an artist to secure their work. You may also be wondering which VPN is the best in 2021. This can be done using services such as Cooltechzone. Using a proxy ensures a secure connection, which prevents theft of your work.
Low image resolution
High-resolution images are in demand in advertising materials and businesses. To prevent commercial use of your work, expose it at 72dpi. It's enough to get noticed as an artist, but at the same time no one can take the image for themselves. Do not forget to leave an email address for communication so that everyone can ask you for permission to use the work or purchase it.
On the Artwork Archive site, you can reduce the size of an image so that no one can use it.
Water marks
Watermarking the corner of an image does not guarantee 100% copyright protection. It can be cut off and continued to be misused. Some artists apply it to all work to ensure safety.
Regardless, the watermark remains a useful property designation. For example, it can be installed with tiles, then a horizontal light mark is formed and distributed in different parts of the work, which makes it difficult to remove the mark.
Metadata
By using notifications with metadata in works, you can protect copyrights in controversial moments.
Shrink wrap
Shrink wrap is a clean layer applied over the image. If the intruder tries to download the work, only the blank layer will be loaded. The method can be used everywhere without changing the quality of creation. It guarantees 100% protection against intellectual property infringement.
Conclusion
Even knowing their copyrights, digital artists often face copyright infringement. We have analyzed a few simple protection methods that will help keep your work safe.
Finally, you can also place a © with your name next to your image, or disable right-clicking.