The history of copyright began a little over 300 years ago with the printed word and now encompasses performances, paintings, photographs, sound recordings, motion pictures, computer programs and more.
With the rise of technology, the ability to spread art and ideas has increased greatly as well as the ease to copy them. From movies and music to pictures and paragraphs, copying is as easy as a right-click.
Due to the ease of electronic copying, many photographers and artists have avoided the web like the plague. Afraid of losing their work, or virally spreading in a way that it never points back to them, the artist.
Even still, the value of an artistic idea can hold even greater value. The concept is “borrowed” and “recycled” leaving the artist no retaliation against the thief, except maybe public mockery, as seen time and time again on Thought You Wouldn’t Notice.
Some say the answer is in adding watermarks, adding copyright messages, and rendering artwork in Flash. These simply slow the problem down. Watermarks inhibit the art, copyrights are ignored (FBI WARNING), and you can take screen shots of Flash, plus, iPaders are unable to use it.
What’s an artist to do?
(inspired via Graphic Mania)
Stephen says
One thing is we have to make decisions on a case by case basis. There are situations where making art freely available is worth the value of spreading it. We can ask for credit, but since we can’t control its use, we have to be sure its something we want to give away.
From there, certain works are definitely worth keeping behind some sort of pay or access wall. I guess it’s a bit like the freemium model. We give away some, and lock down the rest. Being willing to give away some work will gain the respect of some users and help control the use of the art. Can’t control every though.
Nothings perfect, and artists probably have to find more diverse sources of income these days to help hedge against piracy.
Eric Dye says
Very insightful!
Thank you for your input!