Copyrighting?

Ok, Ive got a little problem. Im trying to send in my resume in to gaming and art companies (just to kinda get my name out there) and I want to send some of my art with it. My only concern is that if its not copyrighted or protected in some way, they could use it without my concent. Is there anything I can do to the images to make them "officially" mine?

First thing you should do is get a biz lisence under what ever you want your design company name to be(there cheap like 30 bucks a year). Then add this text small on your images

All media is copyrighted by BLAHBLAH.co 2004

This make it copy righted under your company name. Youll see this alot in web design at the bottom of home pages.

Its already copyrighted

i think putting your name on it is enough... like:

All rights reserved to YOUR_NAME

You don't need to by law. If your worried just watermark it.

ok, I was just making sure that there were no special hoops that I needed to jump through. Ill probably just do what Noamdesign suggested, and put "All rights reserved by Smokenjoe" at the bottom. Also, thanks for the assurance Fusion, and I may go ahead and watermark too.

If anyone else has any ideas, Im open.

Copyright is only as good as how well you can enforce it, and if you can prove you own the copyright.

It doesn't matter if you have a copyright notice on there if you can't enforce it. Yes, they could attempt to screw you and use your work without permission.

Don't use "smokenjoe". To an employer this means nothing, and you're going to have to explain who "smokenjoe" is. Just a simple..

Copyright Your Name ©YEAR. All Rights Reserved.

If it's a digital image, put it somewhere out of the way on the image. If it's a print, simply write/print (buy a rubber stamp on eBay, and add your signature) it on the back of the image.

Simply creating something automatically copyrights it. You can register your copyright, which will give a confirmed government issued datestamp as to when the works were created. Showing that it was yours on that date (and for evermore, unless you sell the ownership).

I'm not sure what registration costs, but it can cost quite a bit, and will soon add up if you have several items that you need to have registered copyrighted.

For submitting with your resume though, I don't think you've much to worry about. If a company receives your resume out of the blue, they're going to assume you've sent it to several other companies, and they're not going to run the risk of breaking the copyright & using it, knowing that other companies in their field have seen this image and know it's your image. It'd just be too damaging to their reputation.

The copyright statement is not applicable and is reserved for publication. The correct statement is ALL RIGHTS RESERVED either before or after your name or studio name. Additionally you should never allow your work to leave your control without a watermark. Additionally I think your watermark should be large and opaque. Not small and easy to cut/crop out.

There are two ways to register a copyright:

1. Register it with the US copyright office. You can register at least 19 works for one fee.

2. Poorman's copyright. You put the work in an envelope. Mail it from yourself to yourself Attn: Name of the contents or something that will allow you to easily identify the contents 20 yrs later without opening it.

If you ever need to prove in court that you are the owner of the copyright, that sealed enveloped with the postmark on it establishes when your copyright became enforceable. Hence the reason why it is important to be able to identify the contents without opening it. Since you cannot open it until you get to court and introduce it into evidence.

Got a link?




also:



taken from: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home

Alrighty. Thanks for all the advice. Im gonna do the "all rights reserved" protection and the "poor mans" protection. Again, thanks for your input. The actual reason for this being brought up is that I did have someone claim that my work was theres, and luckily I got it all straightened out, but it made me realize that I needed to do something.

Hasta!

An old trick, but it won't hold up in court.

Steam open the envelope, replace the contents, defeated. Unless you can find me a single instance where this has actually worked in the last decade

ahh ha, get it
thnks , it is needed 4me as well



Toon

With today's technology and/or forensic advancements I doubt you could successfully steam open an envelope without detection. Nevertherless the envelope I was referring to would certainly not respond to a steam treatment.

Actually, I believe that it can be used. I work at a bank and the way that we store official documents that need to be dated is this:

We stamp date the item, and then have two employees sign over the stamp. It is then sealed into an envelope and then the envelope is stamped and signed right on the seal. The idea is that if the seal is steamed open, as you said, it will be obvious to anyone who works with that type of stuff ( an investigator etc.). At least one of the stamps or signatures will have evidence of water damage. Sure, I bet theres a way around this method too, but theres only so much that you can do.

What about mailing the work itself much like a postcard ?