Copyrighting Artwork

[st_sleek]

when is the best time to get registered copyright over your works, and what's the most efficient cost-effective method(s)?

[mukkinese]

The moment you create a piece, it becomes your copyright.

Registering it is really only necessary if you think it will be worth a great deal of money to you ( such as trademarks and logos ) as an exclusive image.

[st_sleek]

okay, so if i was going to publish some sort of comic or something, I'd want to register all the characters in it separately, or could I just register them collectively as a whole?

I don't really believe that though, i mean a "copyright" doesn't really offer any protection against plagiarism if you can't take someone to court for stealing whatever it is right? ...atleast i think that's what it said when I was at the copyright website earlier, it's "copyright" to the producer of it, but you can't sue someone if it's not registered, so to me it just seemed like a label to give it so you have a false sense of security or something.

[mukkinese]

Of course you can sue someone if your copyright isn't registered, registering is an added and pretty much bullet-proof way of copyrighting, but ( relatively ) rarely used by individuals.

What you have to ask yourself is;" Am I being paranoid or am I likely to be ripped off for big bucks?"

Prosecuting a breach of copyright case can be expensive with no guarantee that you will get recompense.

It's a sad fact of life work published online is open to theft, but the owner can usually prove it's theirs one way or another.

If your copyright is breached online ( someone publishes your work without your permission on the internet ) and asking the perp to cease doesn't work, then a simple complaint to their ISP will usually do the trick.

[Elwell]

http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/
http://www.copyright.gov/register/visual.html

[Wight Zombie]

if you want to legally protect your work the best way to do is buy a tamper proof container at the post office, put copies of your work inside art, art on cd's etc, then seal it and mail it to yourself. the date will be stamped on it and prove when it was sent aka earliest provable date of creation and it being tamper proof means it was highly unikely you modified the package after it was sealed. keep the box when it comes in the mail in a safe stored away locale and if someone wants to contest you drag thier ass into court and sue them. if your contesting a online picture it always helps to have the full size huge original.

otherways are getting your printed in a magazine/newspaper or some other public printing.

having your art on a website and having many people attesting to viewing it at certain tiems dates etc may work also although there are some holes in that.

[dufaeth]

I'm brand new here, but I thought I'd clear up some common misconceptions.

Of course you can sue someone if your copyright isn't registered, registering is an added and pretty much bullet-proof way of copyrighting, but ( relatively ) rarely used by individuals. You can't really bring a lawsuit without having registered.
Mailing something to yourself has no legal basis either.

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html

[mukkinese]

I stand corrected. DOH!

[st_sleek]

thanks dufaeth, I was sure that's what I had read...

so when is it an appropriate time to register a piece, and are there ways you can register several pieces at once?

[Elwell]

From http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ40.html#registration1

REGISTRATION FOR TWO OR MORE WORKS WITH ONE APPLICATION AND FEE

Two or more individual works may be registered with one application and fee as follows:

Unpublished Works

A group of unpublished works may be registered as a collection if all the following conditions are met.

* The elements of the collection are assembled in an orderly form.
* The combined elements bear a single title identifying the collection as a whole.
* The copyright claimant or claimants for each element in the collection are the same.
* All the elements are by the same author, or if they are by different authors, at least one author has contributed copyrightable authorship to each element.

NOTE: Works registered as an unpublished collection will be listed in the records of the Copyright Office only under the collection title.

[Big-Dave]

I think the arguement about whether it's copyright automatically depends what country you're in. I'm pretty sure that, in the uk at least, a copyright is automatic as soon as you make the piece. It used to be that you had to register it, but they abolished that since it meant people who couldn't afford to get work copyrighted could be ripped off by people who could, and therefor could copyrigth the poorer artists work to themselves.

As far as I know the registration is just a formality now in several countries, although it does add weight to a law suit it is not compulsary

[mukkinese]

Ah...since I live in the U.K.- I was right. Alright then; partially wrong. Mind you it is some time since I checked up on copyright. Should really keep up with these things where-ever we live.

From the U.K. patent office intro to copyright;

"Before you go any further you need to know that there is no official register for copyright. It is an unregistered right (unlike patents, registered designs or trade marks). So, there is no official action to take, (no application to make, forms to fill in or fees to pay). Copyright comes into effect immediately, as soon as something that can be protected is created and "fixed" in some way, eg on paper, on film, via sound recording, as an electronic record on the internet, etc."

And in the FAQs;

Will my copyright be protected overseas?

Usually, but not invariably. The UK is a member of several international conventions in this field, notably the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). Copyright material created by UK nationals or residents is protected in each member country of the conventions by the national law of that country. Most countries belong to at least one of the conventions, including all the Western European countries, the USA and Russia. A full list of the conventions and their member countries may be obtained from the Copyright Directorate. Protection overseas can also arise from obligations in the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which forms part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement.