Lesson 10: Copyright Symbol and Watermarking

Lesson 10: Copyright Symbol & Watermarking
By Melissa Olivero and Terri Hopkin

(2005 © Melissa Olivero and Terri Hopkin)

Firstly, for anyone who doesn’t know how to make the © copyright symbol, all you have to do is press and hold the "Alt" button on your keyboard and then choose 0169 on your number pad, and hey presto you get © ! It is that easy!

So how do you correctly add the © to your work?

The very basic information you should give in crediting copyright is the © symbol and the name of the copyright owner.

If you open any book and look for the copyright symbol on the credits page, you will normally see a year date printed alongside it, for example 2005 © Author’s Name. The year marked is actually the original year of publication and the copyright lifespan begins from then. This is the historically correct way to type a proper copyright notice, however all too often the year of creation is not disclosed to us by the artists and it is not possible for us to credit in this manner. Which ever way you write the copyright notice is fine; both credits are legal and enforceable by law.

If an artist makes alterations to an image, then he is entitled to add extra dates on each occasion, but the alterations must be significant to warrant an additional copyright notice. So if you see an image with © 1995; 1998; 2005; what the author is actually telling you is that the original image was first published in 1995 and, that in both 1998 and 2005, significant alterations were made to the original image.

Copyright Lifespan

We covered the lifespan of copyrights in the Public Domain Lessons, but as a rule of thumb, for all images published after 1978 we advise you calculate the copyright based on the life of the author plus 70 years. Stop and think for a minute, can you work out why it doesn’t really matter if you have the year after any images published since 1978? Yep, it is totally irrelevant; it doesn’t matter whether the artist painted the image in his youth or just before he died, the new laws mean the lifespan of the copyright is the same ***smiles***

As we already know, Copyright Law between the years 1923-1998 is not straight forward, so once again, if you have a specific image from that period in time, then in this instance it is important that you enter the year of the copyright.

Watermarks

What is the best way to display the copyright notice? What can we do to help the artist retain his credits when we use his art? Very easy, we use a watermark. Watermarks are very important and the creation of a personal one should be very high on your priority list.

The homework for this lesson is going to be creating a watermark, and we will supply you with an excellent tutorial, so do not worry if you do not yet know how to make this mark.

So what do we need to consider?

When we wrote to our artists requesting permission to use their work, we told them that we would include a watermark, so it is important that you fulfill this obligation. The only time a watermark is not needed is when the artist’s own signature or mark is loud and proud in his design. If the artist’s mark is feint or obscured, you should add another mark to the image.

What about your own work? With the advent of the digital camera, more and more of us are using our own images in our creating, so you should take credit and watermark your own images too. If you upload your photographs to the free to use sites, think about adding your watermark to your basic image before you upload.

Why do we use a watermark?

The purpose of a watermark is to show OWNERSHIP. It is you legally saying either I made this image, or this image belongs to XXX. It should be on top of the image or artwork not apart from it. Obviously it should not distract from the original work and done correctly it will fade into the background (meaning it wont glare at you, but it should be readable and obvious to all when they look for it)

Now, should some unscrupulous creator (**smiles***) "rip" your creation, or if it doesn't save properly and the footer credits are lost, then all that remains is the original image with the intact watermark, you have not done any damage to the artist’s work and worse case scenario you will have prevented another "Group Share, Artist Unknown" from circulating. Not the best scenario we grant you, but at least you will not have done any damage and you can be proud that you have done your best to protect the artist’s work.

Conversely, using the same situation, if you had added your own personal watermark to your creation using your artist’s image, and the same set of circumstances occurred – what would be left? Your artist’s work with your name blazoned across it, it doesn’t matter why you did what you did, or how good your intent was – the bottom line is, to your artist it will appear that you have tried to claim his copyright.

So... if you did not draw the image or take the photo -- please do not put your personal watermark on the art or photo itself, that space must be reserved for the original copyright owner. If you wish to put your mark on the work, put it on the frame, or far away from the original graphic, never leave yourself in a position where it could appear that you are taking credit for work that is not yours..

Exception to the rule

As with most things in life, there is an exception to the rule. If you are working with CILM images, please note that they have their own requirements. While normally it is not ethical to put your name on an artist image, a CILM license does require that the artist copyright, license holder name and # be on the actual image.

Watermark Tutorial and Homework

Finally, lets look at the creation of the watermark itself. The tutorial explains how to use your layers menu to lower the opacity of the image. The opacity means how "see through" the image is. There is a fine line between making your mark a huge part of the artwork or not being able to read your mark at all. Your personal watermark is what identifies you, it is your logo. It should be very important to you and once you create your watermark, you need to tube it and when you use it... it needs to go on it's own layer so that you can lower the opacity to fit the art or photo.