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[slyvia k]

Hi guys!
so, I have this sort of epic dilemma right now...
a friend of mine studies law and is super excited about art, so she constantly warns me about publishing all my art online,
and it's starting to sink in actually.
I publish all my drawings on my personal Fb page (open to my friends only), on my facebook fan page (open to everyone), & on my flickr page (open to everyone).
I would really hate it if someone else stole my twisted ideas, but then again I love sharing my art, and I think it's the only way I'll find ''connections'',
and actually I have found some through sharing my art like this...
and so I don't know what to do...
It's not like my pages have lots of views, either, but one person is enough to ''steal'' so yeah...
I don't think watermarking would help, either...
What do you do with your art, if you draw/paint etc...?
I'm really torn about this  
also, she suggested copyrighting my drawings, even if I'm not sure how it works, and how much it would cost, since they're digital...

[Indja]

If I remember rightly from when I did copyright in music technology, I think you have an automatic copyright on the work as your intellectual property - like if you can prove that it's your work, then that's enough. But I might be WAY wrong xD Otherwise, I'm not sure if there's really anything you can do about people, for example, showing your work to others and not crediting you, apart from watermarks which then again can be cropped out. I dunno, sorry, this was a totally useless comment!

[Savannah]

When i was in the uni i was quite keen on photography, i used to take lots of pictures, most of them were b&w portraits, historical places etc. Two of my self portraits won little awards. Well, i decided the concept, i made the b&w and lighting editions and i made the adjustments of the camera. Anyway i wasn't the one who clicked. So this friend of mine sent it to the competitions, and it was only after the awards that i realized that she has sent them in her name and i wasn't even credited.

Well i didn't give a damn, anyway i have never let her do it again. But then again, i happened to realize another friend of mine has opened an introduction page on a local photography website, and he hasn't told me about it before i found it myself while googling my name. It's been more then five fucking years and though i warned the moderators a billions times, they still haven't removed it. And it's one of the first pages that occur when i google my name. So each time i see the page, i think about suing them, but i find it too troublesome and give up.

Sharing your art is a good thing, especially when you see your art takes attention and is criticized, (no matter in a good or bad way), because it makes you feel seen and heard. I think sharing the art is all about expressing yourself, so there's no harm in sharing it. But it becomes a fucking disappointment when you see it's being used without your permission.

I'm not taking photos anymore, mostly because i don't have the time. But if i kept on  doing it, i'd totally watermark my photos.

[Morpheus Laughing]

Copyright is automatic (in the UK at least) but it helps to be able to prove that you had the idea. It used to be possible to store stuff in a bank vault and log the date it was admitted but banks (locally at least) have stopped doing this because two staff members have to be present when a customer wants access to the vault and this can be costly for the bank.

I've uploaded some of my experimental music to this site:

www.futurecopyright.com
"An easy to use, clever web-based system. And... it’s free. Future Copyright is used by musicians, designers, actors, film makers, inventors, writers, journalists, teachers, cartoonists, biographers, programmers, architects etc - to copyright and protect their creative works."

It is essentially a "witnessing" site that logs the date of uploaded content. There are other sites like this that might be worth researching but some are services you pay for. I'd recommend using at least one other website because any business can go out of business. I found "Future copyright" in soundonsound magazine so I'm hoping it's legitimate. I do use another Site as well but I paid a subscription fee for it (about £7 or £8 a year). That one has been in business for about a decade so it has some staying power. I found that one in a music magazine as well (might have been the same Magazine I found the other one in).