The term 'Copyright' has been a theme of discussion for many years, though ending the argument was a lot easier in the past and people were actually able to set up an agreement. Now that we’re living on the Internet era, understanding copyright has become a more complicated issue that affects among others, us designers. For graphic and web designers, understanding how copyright works is something that they don’t really care about, because you could say that in this alcove there’s still a lot of confidence in people’s good manners and therefore many design jobs are contracted through simple oral agreements (or not even that), but now we’re going to study why designers need to pay more attention to legal terms, contracts, copyright, Creative Commons and others. Disclaimer Although we have made a large research to learn how copyrighting works, this cannot be considered as a legal article written by a lawyer but an analysis made by designers for designers where we will be sharing the results of a careful investigation that wants to help clarify all the major doubts regarding copyright and legal issues surrounding graphic and web design. It's also important to state that though many of the copyright licenses mentioned on this article can have a worldwide coverage, it's important to study the laws that apply in each country so you can know how to proceed properly. Copyright Understanding copyright is submerge into a huge palette of legal grays that look like they were almost made in purpose to persuade us from reaching our target. To prevent this from happening on this article we will try to explain all the basics behind copyright that web designers need to understand, so they will always be standing on solid ground. When you’re working as a freelance, some of the doubts that come to your head at the time of signing with the contractor are “Is my name going to be displayed?”, “may I showcase this work in my portfolio?”, “Am I still owning the rights over the original artworks?”. To answer the first question we must comprehend the contractor’s situation: Sometimes when an agency is hired to create a campaign, a design or something similar, they delegate some of the job in freelancers with the final work will being presented as an internal work, making your name difficult of being showcased because then, the client will find out about your existence and the whole meaning of the agency will be gone. The second question is more favorable for designers. There’s nothing wrong in exhibiting something that you did for a third party in your portfolio, just make sure to specify the role you played on the development on that project and also clarify that this was a job delegated by the agency, that way you won't jeopardize the company’s name and besides, it’s commonly known on these days that companies hire freelancers occasionally. In any case the most important thing is to maintain an amiable relationship with the agency so you can continue to work as a team in the future. Regarding the third question, it's between you and the company. Usually when an agency hires a freelancer to design something for them, the freelancer ceases the rights of his artwork when signing the contract. This issue has a lot of legal implications that we will try to explain later, in any case you'll have to leave all clear on the contract so there won’t be any problems later on. Always make a contract! Beyond all the lessons we can give you regarding copyright, the truth is that the most effective way to avoid any copyright issues is signing a contract, this is not only beneficial for you but also for the agency. A contract will establish all the legal aspects, including design times, payment, disclaimer, ownership and basically everything (legally viable) you want to write down. Copyright and images There’s something that we all have done (here come the denials) and it's taking pictures from the internet without permission. Using Google Images is a bullet-proof system that anyone can understand after a few seconds, just type the image you’re looking for, click Search and then click on the image you like. To copy the image you can either hit right click and select Copy Image or if you’re more of a hacker then click Print Screen and paste it in Paint, this is a clean cut that apparently does not harm anybody but the truth is that what you’re doing can be sued. Usually when someone finds that you’re using his image without permission they will only ask you to remove the picture from your site but this could take you up to jail. Tracking every duplicate of your design is just cumbersome and you will usually let it go, but if you definitely want to keep your image immaculate, there’s something called electronic trademark. With electronic trademarks a little piece of code is embedded within the image file and even if the person modifies the file, the mark will remain, you will now think “So he’s going to check picture by picture?”, well the truth is that technology allows designers to track their work easily and find out who is behind the robbery. How to avoid this? To keep you safe from any legal issues regarding web pictures you only have to keep the obvious things in mind. Make sure that the picture you want is free to use and if not, then what permissions do you need to use it, it’s a process that will not take you much time and will avoid you later frights. There are many image stocks out there that for a reasonable price can provide you tons of high quality pictures, you should check them out. Protecting your images Fortunately there’s still a lot of decency and it’s likely possible that nothing awful will happen to your images. In any case if you want to protect them, here are some very effective methods that can prevent people from stealing your work: Use electronic trademarks, they’re hard to detect by average users and will help you keep track of all the duplicates that are being made of your pictures. Register your images 3 months before making them public, this will grant you the entire ownership over them and the right to sue anyone who uses it without permission. Let people know that your images are copyrighted by placing a (© 2008 Your Name Here) somewhere in the picture. Leverage your design skills, do not upload the original version of your designs, instead of that, you can upload 72 dpi versions that are harder to use and more to print. Make them suitable for the web but not for thieves. Put an advice on your site where you clearly say that your images cannot be taken without permission and that every artwork on the site is covered by copyright laws. If the site that stole your designs it’s taking profit of your design through ads, you can contact Google AdSense at [email protected] and report that the site in question is violating the AdSense’s terms of service. A simple Copyright mark in your pictures can persuade people from stealing it. Copyright registration (1) We know that all this information is useful but now you’re probably saying “OK, so how can I register my designs?”, to help you with that we found an excellent article by Chris Jackson where he discusses copyright on the web, let’s take a look at the requirements to register an original design. Artwork is registered on Copyright Form VA, available from the U.S. Copyright Office by calling the Copyright Forms number at (202) 707-9100 or by visiting http://www.copyright.gov/. Cost is about $35 to $45 US to register each work you've created. The form comes with instructions and you can make as many copies of the form as you need. You can probably fill it out without a lawyer's help. Remember to keep copies of everything you use to file your registration. It usually takes up to 16 weeks to receive the copyright registration with your registration number. (1) This section was originally written by Chris Jackson, all rights reserved. Copyleft As an alternative to Copyright, we find Copyleft, a practice that leverages Copyright to offer the chance of making a program or work free for distribution and modification, but requires that the same rights are preserved in the modified versions of that program / work. Copyleft guarantees every user’s freedom by demanding that the same freedom rights are passed to the person who received them to the next one. One of the incentives for using Copyleft is that it helps programmers that want to modify a free software obtain the proper permissions for do so. To copyleft a program or artwork, the first thing to do is state that the work in question is copyrighted, then add to it some specific distribution terms that gives everyone legal rights to utilize, modify and redistribute the program’s code as long as the distribution terms remain unchanged, making both the program/artwork and freedom terms inseparable. How to use GNU licenses for your own software Royalty-free This term refers to the legal right of using copyrighted work or intellectual property without having to pay royalties for every use or per volume sold, sometimes it also applies to a time period of use or sales. Most open standards are royalty-free as well as many proprietary standards. The term does also apply to the photography field, in which case refers to a certain copyright license that grants the user a one-time right to utilize a photograph without restrictions, meaning that the user can use the picture in several projects without having to purchase a new license in every occasion. NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) Have you ever kept a secret from a friend and he told you
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