All too often we read of artists finding their art work on the market, where someone else has copied their work and are making a profit off of it. This has recently happened to Mona, a fabulous Mid-West artist ~ It’s a pretty sad commentary on our society today. Why bother to post your work on the internet – it’s pretty simple for some, it is how they earn a living. Posting a warning all over one’s blog doesn’t matter in the least, these folks totally ignore it and could care less.
Question: are you doing anything to protect your art? Are you concerned that what happened to Mona could happen to your work?
I’ve only recently started the process of legally copyrighting my paintings, and I guess will now begin to watermark the pieces as well. I have had spiked viewing activity every once in a while, where 400 views are clocked in a day – unusual and highly likely that something is going on and it’s not that that many folks are just loving my work.
Every day I lose a little bit more confidence in basic human values and morals. Are we at a point in society where it’s too late to turn back?
So recently I got an email from a customer who said “Hey, I see your artwork is on puzzles on this site. I hope you knew.”
Well no I didn’t.
What to do … what to do…
Sigh …
So I contact my licensing agent and asked if he wanted to send them a bill for use of my images. And he was all “Hell yeah.”
Okay … that’s paraphrasing on my part … just a little.
Or maybe a lot.
One of those.
But it got me to thinking about how often this happens. Folks using my work thinking it’s free for the taking. And though I have held off doing this it is finally time to watermark all my images on my website. Currently I’m about half way through.
I Probably should have caved years ago but the artist in me wants the images to look nice. You…
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Oil Pastels by Mary 
ps… this post was quite popular: http://playamart.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/right-clicking-images-from-websites-pinterest-and-google/
Absolutely Lisa, your post was an excellent piece on this – a lot of good advice w/Pinterest too. I doubt all this will go to stopping the practice, but perhaps some folks might hesitate before they cut/paste or copy.
A truly sad state of affairs. I am not an artist, but I know if I saw one of my poems, prose etc. with another’s name on it I would feel violated. In this day and age it’s seems to me that the only thing that matters is the bottom line. What a shame.
That being said, I love your painting of the horse, and my granddaughter asked me to buy it for her. She loves horses and even at just six she rides beautifully. She is infatuated with horses.
Hi Patricia, glad you appreciated the article. Mona is the artist who painted this beautiful horse. If you would like to purchase a print from her, I’ve attached the link to her blog and within her comments on this article she has posted her website and other places that you can purchase a print. http://monawildgal.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/let-the-great-watermarking-begin/
Great reblog and comment. Unfortunately, this kind of thing is very prevalent these days. 😦
Thanks Jackie, too bad – right? One day perhaps these folks will understand the individual harm they are doing to artists, I like to think that good prevails in the end.
Thanks for this Mary. I am curious how you find the copyrighting thing working out?
An easy-ish way to see if your images are used elsewhere is to do a Google Image search or use a company like Tin Eye. It’s a can of woems though. I know artists who spend time tracking down infringers, sending cease and desist, or take down notices like it’s a part time job.
Hi Mona, I’m glad you got some traffic w/re to your post. My husband and I have only gotten started with the copyright process, I suspect that it may be a deterrent for a second and then the person is going to do what they’re going to do. That age old question, how much time and money can one person devote to hunting these characters down, all the while managing their blogs/websites, etc. and oh of course, painting? I do use Tin Eye, found an instance, and after I asked had one Pintrest take one of my images taken down from her page. All the best to you – wishing you a fantastic year! Happy painting.
hey
yes, it’s very frustrating when someone steals images or claims, ‘oh, i got it from google images, so it’s ok.’
thanks for helping educate the masses. it’s a long long uphill battle, but every little bit helps
Thanks Lisa. At least google has started to track whose grabbing images, that’s a good thing.
that’s great! that will help a lot if google forces others to think before right clicking.