Copyrights

[Monkeysrule]

I just heard about a 20-year-old woman who posted a picture of a dragon coming out of a cookie jar or something. She posted it online, and another woman ripped her off and started selling her own version of her image to make a profit. Well, having heard about that, I am a little apprehensive and have a few legal questions.

1. If I draw a little (c) on my drawings before posting them, does it make it officially "mine" and copyrighted?

2. Is it legal to "copyright" art based on Anne's characters and dragons?

3. How likely is it that this will happen to one of us?

4. What sort of action can/should I take if that happens?

Thanks! :O

[Scott]

1. Keep Hardcopys, scan them in and add some watermarkings of some discription to them

2. Best email her and ask but IMHO id say it be illegal to do that

All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright© Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2000, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author. The Dragonriders of Pern® is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited.
3. Down to sods law

4. Personally, if you dont want to risk it dont post the images
but legal action of some kind is what you'd have to do

Also keep images down to a Small resoloution as it makes it a lot harder to enlarge (150 * 150 pixels id reccomend)

We here at Annemccaffreyfans.org cannot be held responsible for any images stolen or copied edited and so on.

so its really down to yourself if you post them or not

[Monkeysrule]

Thanks. Just wondering :) It's not gonna stop me from posting here, though :evil:

[Mystique]

I once had some graphics stolen online. I tried to do something about it...and never could find anyone in the law profession to help me. I was basically told by everyone I contacted that I was on my own. It sucks...but unfortunately, that seems to be the way it is at the moment. :(

[Scott]

Did you watermark your work in anyway?

[Kat]

I looked around trying to get specific answers.I did find this on Anne's site.

http://www.annemccaffrey.info/fan-fiction-rules.html

That might answer a few of them.

[Monkeysrule]

What is watermarking?

[Milo]

A water mark, in the traditional sense, is a subtle mark on a piece of paper, to identify it.

Online, it is something that marks a piece of artwork, without ruining it.


Bad explanation, maybe another good give a try. :)

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

A water mark, in the traditional sense, is a subtle mark on a piece of paper, to identify it.

Online, it is something that marks a piece of artwork, without ruining it.


Bad explanation, maybe another good give a try. :)
That's pretty much what it is. With artwork it's something like a pale type "copyright of <insert name>" across the bulk of the art so that it can be identified as your work, yet others would have a heck of a time photoshopping it out to steal it as theirs. But it should be pale enough without spoiling the picture.

[Monkeysrule]

How do you do that?

[Zarkon]

How do you do that?

Say that you have Adobe Photoshop. You would stick the image into the program, make a type layer over the image, and type in "THIS IMAGE IS COPYRIGHTED TO MONKEYSRULE OMGOMG DON'T STEAL YOU JERKS!!!!ONEONEONE" on top of the image somewhere important--> somewhere that didn't totally ruin the composition of the picture, but a vital part of the image, like, over the chest of a dragon you drew. Then, you would toggle the opacity on the text to about 20%, so you can see past the text and still note the beautimous detail on the image.

I'm kind of halfway into copyrights. I copyrighted a bunch of my stuff on my website, as you can see, [http://www.inkytwist.felineilk.com], but didn't copyright a lot of stuff, including most of my photographs. After awhile, I just feel like a complete dork, pasting my name all over a snapshot that is just silliness really, nothing serious.

I mean, theft is theft, but I'm not that paranoid about it, you know? And considering myself an [albeit distant] part of the Aido / Banrai fiasco, I do fear art theft, considering the frightening capabilities of a specific artist.

(note to art peeps: STAY AWAY FROM ANYONE NAMED BANRAI. DON'T EVEN TRY IT. Aido is really sweet and is the victim of an insane theif who can't even cover her tracks. If you want a link to some hardcore evidence/are morbidly curious about the story, ask me for a link, I will find one.)

Anyways, yeah. I always feel like a bit of a dork with copyrights, and it really irritates me to see a person drawing smilie faces and copyrighting them in big images. Blargle. But that's just a pet peeve of mine. :)

[Monkeysrule]

Thanks.

ps. I don't have any kind of photoshop. Is there another way?