Copyright for Designers And Artists

Copyright means that when a designer, illustrator, photographer, or other visual artist, creates an original piece of artwork, that person owns the right to make copies it.

Even if the creator sells the artwork, they retain the copyright to it. The moment the artwork is created, the copyright is created. There is no required process to register a copyright — although if you do create something, it's a good idea to register it, which can be as easy as 

• If an artist creates an artwork and then sells it to someone, the artwork belongs to the buyer but the copyright for the painting remains with the creator unless other arrangements with the buy.
• If an artist creates an artwork for an employer or client who pays them to create the work, this is called "work for hire" and the work and the copyright belongs to employer/client.
• If an artist creates an artwork and then permits a company to publish it, this is called licensing and the artwork and the copyright most likely belongs to the artist, although it depends on the agreement signed with the publishing company. 

Copyright Rights

The creator retains the right to reproduce their artwork, copy it, display it in public, and to benefit economically from it. The creator also has the right to prevent someone else from copying or using the image.

The creator may permit others to use their images by granting them a license, which is a written agreement which details ow the client may use the image, for how long, in what manner, and how much the client will pay for the image. 

Copyrights vs. Patents

Patents protect procedures, processes, systems, and/or methods of operation, where copyrights protects only expressions of ideas. So, even if Marie Kondo copyrights a book on organizing, she can't sue you for rolling your clothes.

Copyright Abuse

In 1976, copyright lasted for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. In 1998, the Copyright Term Extension Act extended the term to the author's live plus 70 years and corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever ended first. Basically, Disney is responsible for lobbying and passing the act to keep Micky Mouse out of the public domain.

Many artist feel that this is ridiculous, and prevents works from entering the public domain that should be there for everyone to use. In response, many artists are looking for fairer ways to protect their work, and many have turned to:

Copyleft 

There are several organizations that are trying create a fairer system. My favorite is Creative Commons, which allows various types of licenses to be created for artwork. You answer a series of questions about how you want your work protected, and Creative Commons creates a custom license that you attach to your artwork.

It's About Respect

In any and all cases of using images for a project, if you're making money with it, you must respect the work of others and give them their fair due. Wouldn't you want the same courtesy applied to you?