Gerry Alanguilan

How can you REALLY protect your copyright?

Apr 28, '08 2:21 AM
for everyone

In the light of this example, I'm curious as to how you can really protect your work online.

For instance, if someone in Hong Kong (like the example in the link) puts together a book with artwork lifted from your site without your permission, how would you proceed?

Oft mentioned advice is to always have your work legally copyrighted (although according to copyright law, any work that you create is yours from the moment of it's creation). But to ensure it, you have it copyrighted formally, and as back up, send your work through the post office back to you and don't open it.

But what does that really protect? You are only ensuring that you have the proper legal documentation that a certain piece of artwork belongs to you. It won't stop people from another country stealing your work if they wanted to, even if your artwork is watermarked. By this example, it demonstrates that watermarking does not discourage people from stealing your work at all.

If that happens, what can you do realistically? Your documents will only be useful if you decide to hire a lawyer and mount a lawsuit. Would the ordinary Deviant-Arter or Blogger have the financial means to do such a thing against an offending party living abroad?

You can mount an awareness campaign which includes protests, letter writing etc., against the offending party/publication, which is one way to go. They may be shamed into stopping the publication, but then again, they probably won't. Some people are shameless and cold like that.

What do you all suggest, short of not posting your artwork online at all?

Tags: copyright, theft, artwork, art

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18 CommentsChronological Reverse Threaded

nikkocarlo wrote on Apr 28

alanguilan said

What do you all suggest, short of not posting your artwork online at all?

Parang ang hirap po nito. Hmm pwede naman po yatang magpost ng works online.. pero ano kayang pwedeng gawin para hindi ma-download... :[

alanguilan wrote on Apr 28

nikkocarlo said

Parang ang hirap po nito. Hmm pwede naman po yatang magpost ng works online.. pero ano kayang pwedeng gawin para hindi ma-download... :[

Pwedeng maliit lang.

riot3223 wrote on Apr 28

pwede maliit lng, 4x6 inches lng ung artwork tapos 100 or 50 ung resolution tapos 7 lang image quality, mga 70 kb lang ung file size nun, di na nila mgagamit un for print, masyado na mababa quality. kasi karaniwan nguupload mga hi-res pa mga artwork kaya tuwang tuwa naman mga magnanakaw :) un lng sna makatulong kahit konti :)

nikkocarlo wrote on Apr 28

:D oo nga noh... lagyan na rin ng signature para mapatunayan na iyo nga :P

theilldiablo wrote on Apr 28

Ang lungkot naman nito. I think kapag pinagkaperahan na 'yung works mo then you have at least part of the income. But what I see here is talagang kinuha 'yung contents ng site tapos ginawa lang book form. I think this is piracy to a new level. I've seen pirated DVD's, PDF books and comicbooks, knock-off toys. This is something new to me. Sa tingin ko lang.

m00nb3am wrote on Apr 28

DeviantArt's Watermarks are big and nasty but it makes it pretty obvious it can't be used for reproduction. Pero makakapal talaga mukha ng iba. Signature won't do either. Makapal nga ang mukha eh. pwede ding super liit lang para hindi pwede for hi-res printing. haha. :D

edge wrote on Apr 28

post online and expect it to be taken. period.

i think it's people's mindset changing -- dati everyone was afraid of having a big brother watching our every move, now everyone's broadcasting their every thought in their own blog. sabi nga sa CSI, it's not that people don't value privacy -- they don't expect privacy, they value openness. nawawala na ang "sense of ownership" with the internet, so pretty soon we might have a star-trek like world in our hands.

anyways, if you have plans of earning money off artwork, dont post high res pics on your site. period. :D

kafkaed wrote on Apr 28

I agree: post anyway. Small-minded people will always rip you off the higher up on the food chain you get. Still there are ways to use piracy to your advantage. Japanese manga captialize on pirates to do their advertising for them. The people with money who also care about "quality" will buy your originals and value them.

In my view, the bigger crime would be hiding your light under a bowl.

Okay, this isn't even remotely a perfect arrangement, but it looks good from where I sit. Maybe wiser minds will figure out how to better work within this current thinking of art-as-commodity. maybe we'll even trash the thinking and try for something more equitable. Creative Commons is a good start. But right now, I'm not one of those wiser minds. Mayhap we can talk about this next con?

roninvampire wrote on Apr 28

I'd have to agree with the suggestions that posting lo-res versions of your work provides additional protection.

But this is really more of a chicken and egg situation to me. Yes, it is our responsibility to protect our work. But if people respected copyright laws, the responsibility shouldn't be that hard and all the effort we put into making our work thief proof would be minimal. Comparing it to a much bigger scenario, would we need to defend ourselves if there was no threat?

The best (and most idealistic) thing that artists could do is to unite and insist our ownership over our work. Let people know that we do not take art theft lightly and that there are consequences if such a crime has been committed. Basically, we let the world know how to respect copyright.

Again, it is idealistic notion that requires a 180-degree paradigm shift and resources to "execute" violators, but I think it's possible if we all work on it. For now, I guess we have to rely on the power of the watermark.

jediskywalker23 wrote on Apr 28

how about limiting access to it? at least that's what i do when i upload something that is mine. instead of having everyone being able to access it, restrict it to your network or even your direct contacts lang. you can also begin by being diplomatic - politely asking the person to remove the thing he took from you. if s/he does not comply, karma at kaso lang ang katapat dun. i hope i'm able to contribute.

markcg wrote on Apr 28

I've had this happen to me but not for commercial gain. It was one of those moments where I feel sad for the person than be mad. I might have felt differently if he was selling something of mine though. As someone has posted, put it online and you have no guarantees it won't be stolen.

Saying that however, you can take measures to make it harder for people to take your images (I'm assuming we're taking about images here). What you can do is make it hard for people to steal it. You can build a fence around your house to keep people away but people who are determined enough would still find ways to scale those fences. Put watermarks. Place obvious signatures. Degrade image resolution and have people email you to get hi-res versions. Use flash pop-ups from thumbnails. I'm not a fan of javascripts disabling right-clicks functions (Down-Them-All plug-in on Firefox goes around that..as a simple 'save page') but that's also a way of discouraging theft. Bottomline is: find a balance to make it easy for users to view your work but make it hard for people to steal them.

rhodorasolis wrote on Apr 28

i "decompress" my works to low resolution-then put in a CSS code to sort of "protect" it by telling people that i own copyright when they right click on the image

rhodorasolis wrote on Apr 28

sometimes it works.....

alamat wrote on Apr 28

Couple of years ago, the artist of http://the-null.com/ found his artwork used as t-shirt designs in Hong Kong(?).

bugalerkz wrote on Apr 28

hala sir!!! korek po to!! there was once when i was looking for shirts sa mall, me nakita akong design sa isang leading tshirt brand here na nakita ko sa Deviant art....i was pretty sure because ( not that i am pirating the drawing or anything because all the great drawings that i see in the internet i usually save it just for inspirations ) but i have saved the drawing because it was so good, i always look at it to inpire me to draw...and voila, i saw the drawing used as a design...i don't know if it was bought by the brand to the artist, but as you can see there in Deviantart, everyone can easily copy it as sometimes everyone can just right click on it and save it...but the difference between me and the tshirt brand is they use it for mass production....

theilldiablo wrote on Apr 28

Sana man lang sa mga ganitong pagkakataon may royalty 'yung artist. Sana lang. I'm not saying that artists are there to make money at every turn but to be an artist is to suffer. But as they say, "Render unto Ceasar.."

riot3223 wrote on Apr 28

we can maake a group or a committee but the bottomline is, ung justice system natin e mahina, mabagal, malamang patay ka na pag nanalo ka sa kaso, may mga laws, local copyrights, international copyrights, but sa ordinaryong artist, can he afford a good lawyer for several years? sarado ka na financially, drained ka na.

to rhodorasolis... yung css code minsan may butas, lalo na pag gamit mong browser e firefox, or pidutin mo lng un right click key sa keyboard pwede mo na save ung image. :)

to jediskywalker23 ...
pwede mo malimit yung access but mostly ang gusto ng mga artist e ipakita sa buong mundo ang trabaho nila, to be recognized and appreciated :)

maraming pwedeng gawin paraan ang problem lang e dapat ipatupad talaga ang copyright laws, with heavier punishments, lower fees sa copyright registrations, kung pwede nga free na lang, why would i pay for something i made di ba?

artistmonk wrote on Apr 28

Online files must be at 72dpi and not more than 600 pixels in width. Add watermark (all the better when subtle) and sign your artworks ALWAYS! And then tell annoyed viewers to come visit your sala if they want to see the actual work. >:D

In any case that you know the "thief" personally, do not hesitate to poison their water dispenser with Dora rat-killer. Either that, or you can just beat the shit out of them. :P

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