Unauthorized Models on Facebook

[airdave]

Originally Posted by FRD

Simply placing a copyright notice on the work only holds that the copyright is pending but to be protected, you actually have to file it with the library of congress.

This applies ONLY to USA.
This is an International forum.
Copyright laws are different around the world (check your location).

According to the Canadian Copyright Act, a visual artist is an Author of Artistic Works.

An artistic work includes paintings, drawings, maps, charts, plans, photographs, engravings, sculptures, works of artistic craftsmanship, architectural works, and compilations of artistic works.

Generally, the creator or author of an artwork is the first owner of copyright (with some exceptions), and an artist’s original work is automatically protected once it is created. Your copyright exists in Canada during your lifetime and for 70 years following your death (with some exceptions).

You can choose to register your copyright through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, but it is not required in Canada.

[PetworthPilot]

In a class I took in IP (intellectual property) it was explained that a work has a copyright the moment it is created and that submitting the paper work and check with the Library of Congress registers the copyright.



Having a copyright on your work is an awesome thing if all parties will honor that copyright. Facebook is sort of the wild, wild, west in that they will take down accounts that violate social norms but it make take some doing to get that done if they do it at all.



I alerted Maly Modelarz that I saw their work on the FB group and they responded that you needed a special kind of paper in order to make their models work.

Originally Posted by FRD;79865
7

Simply placing a copyright notice on the work only holds that the copyright is pending but to be protected, you actually have to file it with the library of congress.

If you have a legal, legitimate copyright, get a lawyer, problem solved, it's only $50 to get it and it is, "worth it's weight in gold", I would highly advise every designer to take the extra measure to make sure that your work is protected.


(you either protect your work or you don't, it's a "binary" choice)


Yeah... sure... the notice is meant to protect you UNTIL you get the copyright but if anything happens before then, you are going to have a, "hard hill to climb" without that legal document, WITH that legal document, it's a "slam-dunk" at which any lawyer would jump on for the, "opportunity" for, "retribution" (yours and his).


In 40 years, all of my, "greatest rewards" have been directly derived from "leveraging" copyrights, of far more value to some than realized model sales.

[Siwi]

From the UK govt:

You get copyright protection automatically - you don’t have to apply or pay a fee. There isn’t a register of copyright works in the UK.
You automatically get copyright protection when you create:

• original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including illustration and photography
• original non-literary written work, such as software, web content and databases
• sound and music recordings
• film and television recordings
• broadcasts
• the layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works

You can mark your work with the copyright symbol (©), your name and the year of creation. Whether you mark the work or not doesn’t affect the level of protection you have.

[FRD]

Right, you are "protected" from the moment of creation but if you want to present a "legal defence" you had better have the document because anyone can slap any notice on any work and it becomes "open for dispute", to avoid this potential, get it registered.

[FRD]

Sure, you can prove that you are the creator in court with reams of paper but with one simple document, it would never get that far.


I can think of a good number of practical reasons to get it registered and very few good reasons not to.


In "my line of work" it is CRITICAL
(how can you leverage a copyright without officially owning it?)


So for me, it is essential.

[Texman]

I am closing this thread before it devolves anymore. This topic has been covered ad nauseum.