Social media is a great place to show off your creativity and attract new viewers (and potential clients) to your artwork. Posting your art on social media or on an online portfolio are some of the best ways to get your art in front of the right eyes and display your hard work. The downside of this accessibility is exposing your work to being posted, used, or printed without your permission. To combat these dastardly deeds, Hero Cat is here to keep artists informed on just how copyright protects digital art and some simple tricks that can guard your art against infringement.
Is My Art Copyrighted?
The good news is that copyright protection for your original work kicks in once the piece is fixed in its medium, meaning once a piece is created, it is your protected property. As the author, it is up to you how to sell, display, or distribute your work. The bad news is, as just a few hours on the internet will show you, there are a myriad of ways for your artwork to pop up all over the web without you receiving credit or compensation. More good news though, registering your artwork with the US Copyright Office can help you fight back against infringements and seek compensation for unauthorized use.
Are Social Media Posts Considered Published Artwork?
If you choose to register your art, you will be asked to provide the date the work was published. There are benefits to this, as copyright law allows for a 3-month grace period between publication and registration where artists can still seek statutory damages in infringement cases. The catch? Copyright law is still trying to catch up with the 21st century, namely the wild west of social media.
There is no standardized agreement on what exactly constitutes a publication on social media, but copyright law does clearly state that a work is published when it is made available to the public for sale, licensing, or distribution. This has caused many to question whether displaying pictures or videos of your art on social media counts as distribution to the public. Whether social media posts count as published art is still debated, but it is usually good practice to note that the piece is not for sale or redistribution on the post if you do not wish to consider it published. For battling infringements, it is often to an artist’s advantage to register their work as soon or near to the first date the work is put online or anywhere in the stream of commerce so they can demand statutory damages and have a stronger legal basis in their pursuit.
What Can I Do to Protect My Art?
Armed with an understanding of how copyright works, you are now in the best position to take steps towards mitigating infringements and asserting your right as the author of your pieces.
Before posting any artwork, you can add your own watermark or signature that not only credits your work but can also allow potential clients to recognize you no matter where on the vast reaches of the internet your art ends up. On that same vein, including metadata of your name, creation date, or other details onto your image helps your credit travel with your work around the world wide web. On the flip side, many artists choose not to add a watermark (which is not required for copyright protection) because they feel it distracts from their creative work. Ultimately, that is a decision for you to make based on your own feelings on the matter.
Taking short videos or pictures of the creation process or saving the original layered file of your art can also be helpful in proving your ownership if it is ever disputed.
For patterns or more intricate artworks, posting a cropped portion of the piece makes it harder for others to copy your work while still showing off your mad art skills to the world.
As artists adapt to new tools and technology to elevate their creativity, they should also protect their work from the advancements in infringement. The use of intellectual property without compensation or permission from the owner removes the author from their creations and affects their livelihood. Taking a few easy steps today can help foster your art career and social media platforms down the road.
Disclaimer: The information contained on this blog post is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.