Rights usage...

[Onna Point Research]

If you’re serious about protecting your work, file for copyright protection with the US Copyright Office. Here are four important reasons why filing for copyright protection with the US Copyright Office is important:

1. Copyright registration establishes a public record of your copyright and puts everyone in the world on notice that you have sought and claim copyright protection under the US Copyright laws.

2. You cannot sue anyone for copyright infringement until you have filed for copyright protection with the US Copyright Office.

3. No award for statutory damages or attorneys fees will be made for any infringement of a copyright in an unpublished work which occurs prior to the submission of the copyright registration documents. The same holds true for published works, unless the copyright registration is made within three months after the first publication.

4. If the registration of your work is done within five years from its creation, it is considered prima facie evidence in court. Prima facie evidence means that if you ever went to court, proof of the copyright registration with the US Copyright Office would be sufficient evidence of your ownership of the copyrighted material.

The only way for another party to win would be for them to present evidence showing:

* that they had a pre-existing copyright claim to the work.

* that you permitted them to use your work.

* that you didn't actually create the work.

* that you stole it from them.

[imagine]

yea butt its like $45 bucks an image so it is unaffordable to most artists to copyright all their work.

[ajosephb]

I get royalties from every Dr. Bomb toy that gets sold.

Thanks Frank

[Onna Point Research]

Originally Posted by imagine

yea butt its like $45 bucks an image so it is unaffordable to most artists to copyright all their work.

Not true. You can send in a CD with all of your art work and register the CD. Professional photographers do it all the time.

[imagine]

i heard that doesnt work i'll have to look into it more

[JohnnyJack]

I was told that it was $45 buck per envelope. Not $45 per piece of art.
So you can send a envelope filled with artwork you want registered with one $45 fee and all would be registered.

[Onna Point Research]

This Graphic Artists Guild site has some good info:

http://norcal.gag.org/legalities/200...ties_no02.html

[The Fresh Prints]

poorman's copyright.

certify mail it to your self and never open it.
it will have the date of "copyright creation" and is authenticated and sealed by the federal post office.

i have heard this holds up fairly well in court.

[b_turner]

We charge clients and additional fee if they want to use the artwork from a poster (we designed for them) for anything else... this usually applies to offset printings of postcards, elements of the design on t-shirts, stuff like that.

But even then, that doesn't give them free reign to do whatever they want with our design.

Keep an eye out on your piece...

[Rock-C-Art]

Well there is definitley some tricky shit going on. Apparently these people ARE the people that inquired about using it for a cd cover. They are using two different names, they don't have a telephone listing under the company name and the contact email on the website they have bounces back. I'm goint to do the poor man copyright NOW and I am filling out the official forms even as we speak.