With the explosion of the Internet and social media, the possibilities of having your work seen by audiences around the world are greater than ever. However, that also translates for artists that you are required to protect both your art and images of your art online and to avoid them from being copied and sold off elsewhere.
Numerous are the horror stories of independent artists whose designs and artworks have been stolen by big retailers and, even worse, by other fellow artists. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to safeguard your work online and keep them protected.
1. Add a copyright symbol
Knowing how to copyright your images correctly can deter people with malicious intentions wanting to rip off your artwork. One way to achieve this is by adding the copyright symbol © on the footer of your artist website along with your artist’s name, such as in: “© 2022 Mengano Smith”.
2. Check the resolution of the images of your art
The images you post online or on your website should have enough quality to be appreciated properly but not too much (around 2000px in length and width), as otherwise your artwork might get stolen and printed and sold elsewhere.
3. Embed the JPEG file
To be extra careful and to avoid having to include a copyright mark across the picture, ensure to embed your jpg files with your name and a copyright notice using metadata. Furthermore, by embedding your copyright information into your images, it will be simpler for Google to find your art images as you can even add your name to the fields for the caption and keywords.
4. Sign your name on your work
Even if it’s at the back of a piece, ensure to always include your signature and the year of creation, so you can protect your works against copyright violation
4. Read the Ts&Cs
It’s always worth double-checking the terms and conditions of any agreement you sign with a brand, institution or private client and check whether they allow you to “retain the intellectual property rights on the artworks of your own talent, during or after the term of the agreement”.
Have you already tried some of these strategies or others to protect your work? Let me know in the comments!
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