posted
Reading the thread about the stolen work showing up on someone else's website as their work, I needed to write this.
Several years ago I heard of a woman who had done some drawings for a high school sports team. The coach never told anyone that she designed them, not him and he was getting the credit for creating these designs. He wasn't at all upset about it. She was. Her advice is when you have a design, make a copy of it and snail mail it to yourself, never opening the envelope. Have the envelope marked as to what design it is. If there is any question later on about who created it, there you have it, in a still sealed envelope with the postmark showing the date you mailed it to yourself. The government may lie to us about a lot of things (don't even get me started on Rozwell.) but I've never heard of them lying about the date on a postmark.
Laura Butler had said about a similiar situation and they had dated faxes to prove who's work it was. How are the faxes dated? With all the fax machines I've dealt with, when you set them up you program the date and time. This can be easily changed. Same way with saving files on a computer. I could easily manipulate something I did today and make it appear as if it was saved 5 years ago. I think the postmark is the most surefire way to prove dates.
If anyone has any other ideas, please share with us. Obviously we can't copyright EVERYTHING we do, it would just take all our time and money to do that.
------------------ Chris King Paper Works & Graphix Indiana, PA
Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
I put this at the bottom of all of my e-mails and faxes with layouts...
Any artwork contained in this message is the COPYRIGHT property of Sign Man, Inc. and may not be re-transmitted to parties outside of the intended firm's agents. Original artwork, layouts, concepts or any other creative design remains the property of Sign Man, Inc. Any misuse of the copyright laws may result in legal action. These include but are not limited to: business cards, letterheads, magazine and print media, t-shirts, web sites, digital media or any other reproductive use. Established corporate logo's and artwork remain the property of their respective organizations.
------------------ Pat Neve, Jr. Sign Man, Inc. 4580 N. US 1 Melbourne, FL 32935 321-259-1703 signman@signmaninc.com Capt. Sign Letterville Constituent constituent: "One of the individual entities contributing to a whole"
Posts: 2284 | From: Melbourne, FL, USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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posted
I'm sorry to burst your bubble on this one, but the plain truth is that as a practical matter, once you let your design out of your shop...you're toast. Sure, you can take the guy to court but you will still lose because it's expensive and even if you do win, you lose. You have to prove HOW MUCH YOU WERE DAMAGED and that won't be a large sum. It's not worth the trouble. If you have to let a sketch go....cripple the sketch in such a way that it is not usable by anybody. Your best bet will always be to get paid up front for the design and then don't worry about it. Keeping the sketch "in house" will pretty much insure you don't get ripped off. If you do let it go...get the money first.
------------------ Louis A. Lazarus Milt's Sign Service, Inc. 20 So. Linden Ave. #5B 650-588-0490 fontking1a@aol.com
Posts: 560 | From: El Granada, CA | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
Thanks for the replies. I brought this idea up because I had heard about it years ago and it's nice to have other's opinions on it. The particular incident that happened was this woman did a design that the high school sports team used for shirts, newsletter, etc. The coach was getting compliments and credit about "his" design. She wasn't paid for it, and there weren't any real damages as they used it on stuff to be used as fund raisers. She gladly did the design and 'gave' it to them. Her gripe was this coach who had no problem whatsoever taking the credit and compliments. The "mail a copy to yourself idea" was a thought in this case, she wasn't going to sue him, she was just upset that he was taking credit, but she couldn't prove it was her design.
What does that say to the students he's suppost to be coaching?
What exactly is involved with copywriting your work? Isn't it expensive? lenghtly process?
------------------ Chris King Paper Works & Graphix Indiana, PA
Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
I thought I would add that as soon as the forms and artwork are received "in acceptible form" (per Library of Congress requirements) the copyright is in effect, regardless how long it takes them to process the forms.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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but I've never heard of them lying about the date on a postmark. 
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