: What copyright considerations should I take when putting work on a personal blog? I've just started with graphic design, and I want to put some of the stuff I'm doing up on a Tumblr blog.

@Sherry646

As a general rule, if you want to be 100% sure that your work will not be stolen don't put it on the Internet. As John and DA01 pointed out watermarks, stamps and so on can be cropped out, replaced or somehow excluded from the image file. If anybody really just wants to use your image without your agreement he will and it is likely that you will never find out; a lot of people use pictures (in presentations, to show around, whatever) found somewhere without referencing them which is strictly interpreted violating copyright rules. However there is the concept of Fair Use, allowing the use of resources for educational purposes or similar.

All these point asides there are lots of rewards of actually showing off your stuff on the Internet: for the very few people that may take advantage of your work (and who will actually try to commercialize it?) there will be dozens viewing it, some will leave a comment and there will even be this one person that gets inspired by your work, creates their own and gives you credit. If you want to head in this direction think about using a Creative Common or Copyleft license (rather than strict copyright) in which you'll give away complete protection of your work in order to let people share or adapt it.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Shelley591

The basics of copyright are fairly simple: If you create something, you own the right to decide who may copy it.

By the very act of you creating work, means you own the copyright.

Watermarking/Embedding/etc are all technology solutions to a legal concept. So they don't really have anything to do with copyright. They simply make it a bit more annoying for others to take your work if they so desire.

You have to decide how much you care about that.

As for legally protecting your work, one thing you can do is register your copyright with the government. This gives you a bit of added recourse to collect damages if you ever decide to pursue legal action. Beyond that, it's basically a legal game (read: you hire a lawyer).

P.S. MCAD = Minneapolis? If so, good school. I had a very brief stint teaching there. Have fun!

Vote Up Vote Down