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I am not a lawyer - This is not legal advice!
I'm often asked about copyright. It's a strange subject and people have strange ideas about
it.
When you were a young, you didn't like the kid next to you copying your test answers
so you shielded your work from them so they couldn't see.
This is the essence of copyright. Making sure that the guy next to you doesn't profit from
your hard work. That means the home work you did, learning french verbs, or your years
of learning how to write or paint and create images and stories that people want to buy.
It may also be the time and effort you have put into a new invention, but that tends to
be covered by patent law.
You cannot copyright an idea. If you have a great idea for a novel, then go write it.
Don't tell people about it. Until you have publicly published your work it is still only
an idea, and anyone else can take your idea and make a work out of it.
Ideas float around in the air. I've often had ideas, taken a synopsis to a publisher
to be told that they bought almost the very same idea the week before!
Oscar Wilde said: Talent borrows, Genius steals. Talent regurgitates the same old stuff, but
a genius mashes up the things they have stolen in new ways and presents something entirely
new. Importantly, Genius gets on and does the work and and actually makes the book or
the artwork, Genius doesn't stand around talk about it.
Often I'll be talking about writing or drawing and someone will say something offhand that
triggers off a chain of thought in my head. Then that person says, "Oh, I'll have ten
percent of that idea!"
They are welcome to 100% of it... IF they do something with the idea themselves. I'm
the one who actually takes the idea and has the vision of how it can be created and exploited.
I need paying for my time and experience.
Frequently you will see a website plastered with copyright notices.
Thos signs really put me off and I immediately click away to something else. It's usually
very mediocre artwork done by someone who is immature and anxious about the quality
of their work. The copyright notices seem to say:
"These images are Copyright - Move away from the artwork and put your hands behind you
head. - The copyright police have been alerted and are on their way!"
As a general rule of thumb, the more copyright notices you see, the worse the artwork is.
What does that person think they are going to do if a website in China copies their work?
Are they really going to sue them?
Copyright is an intangible legal entity. The moment you create a work of art or write a
string of words and put them in a particular order, like a book or an essay, you own the
copyright in it. But only in countries that have copyright laws or countries that reciprocate
the copyright laws of your country.
In the UK, where I live, copyright in literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works lasts
for 70 years after the author's death, so their family or benefactors get to exploit
the work for a good while too.
You may want to put a © symbol and the date of creation on your work to say this is when
it was made and I made it. But if it comes to a court of law you will have to provide
real proof that you made it on or before that date. Stuffing it in a recorded envelope and
sending it to yourself might help a little but not a lot.
You do not have to pay for copyright. It exists the moment the work is made. Anyone who asks
you for money to copyright your material is a making money for old rope.
When you sell a painting or a manuscript, you still own the copyright. Copyright is
a different entity to the physical instantiation of the work. You need to make this clear to
the buyer.
You can sell the copyright as well, but ask for more momney, especially if they are going
to sell a million tshirts with your design, or print a best selling book with your words.
You are always best, if you can afford it and can stand up to the person waving cash
in your face, to let them have a license for a set amount of time for a straight cash deal
or for a royalty on each item of your work that is reproduced and sold.
Now, are you going worry yourself sleepless over all this? Go to law over copyright and
even if you win, only the lawyers will get paid. You will be destitute for the rest of
your life paying all the legal bills.
If you are Disney, and have billions invested in creative work and you have your own lawyers
then it probably makes sense to go to law mostly to to terrify those who would copy
Disney into thinking again.
But if you've just painted a picture of a street scene or an apple, relax, it's just
not worth worth worrying about.
If you put good images up on the internet, they are going to be copied. If you don't
want them copied, don't put them on the internet. Keep them to yourself and put them in a locked
drawer where no one will ever see them.
When words and images were easy to control and copying was expensive and easy to detect,
copyright worked just fine. But now copying is so easy and almost impossible to police.
Solid copyright enforcement on the internet will destroy all the good things about the
internet and make it - if not worthless -then certainly worth less.
Musicians were hit first with mp3's and the iPod. Authors are now being hit by eBooks
and I'm sure Artists are going to be hit in someway too, quite soon. So the reality of
copyright is changing.
Copyright law has already evolved to allow for mashups and the Creative Commons allows
you to designate work as copyright free - as in: "do what you like with it, but please
credit the author or creator."
This allows for ideas to spread and cross-fertilise and new, better and popular things are created,
as many people add their bite to make something new and robust - they then have to find alternative
ways to exploit the new work or idea.
The world is changing fast and I fear that creative people will have to find new ways
to support themselves as the world is flooded with ebooks and art on the internet.
I guess it's kind of a new stage in evolution. If you let yourself get obsessed by copyright,
I fear you may well get washed away in the digital Tsunami, that has only just begun
developing speed and power.
You are best to just have fun and enjoy what you do for art's sake, or, if you want to
make your living out of it, either be a genius or start looking for some higher ground, high
above the waves that have started to crash around us.
There will be a lot of copyright lawyers drowning in the swell and Copyright is not going to
be the lifebelt that saves creative souls like you and me.
Relax. Just make the work and and make it as best you can.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my personal view of copyright. While that is sinking in, watch
this video about where I thinkIdeas come from. Or take your chances with the mystery drawing
video!
Either way make sure you are subscribed for more weekly drawing and advice - and in the
meantime keep drawing drawing drawing - practice practice practice and I'll see you next time
- you take care now - bye bye