Protecting my Designs, What a good license...

[Gen2ly]

Hi all. I'm kinda new to the whole design world, but I'm starting to like some of the designs I've been creating. So I'm hoping that some more experienced designers out there can give me a little advice.

I'd like to be able to protect my designs, how exactly do I go about it? I know of Creative Commons's and have eared a thing or two about deviantart, do they protect a submitter's design? How's this work exactly? I have some designs that I'd like to use on a webpage but wonder if they could be used by anyone. Are there any practices out there that some of you use that can help keep designs protected? What do I have to look out for?

[kknd]

Creative Commons Share-Alike Attribution is a good license.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[Gen2ly]

Thats pretty cool, I like the idea of it. It's the attribution part that interests me. I'm not so much against allowing another user to be able to use the work ( a lot of my designs are going to be for open-source anyway ) but I would like to be known as the originator of the design. Also the added (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work} I think is pretty smart. I suppose a lot of the icon work I see at Gnome-Look (http://gnome-look.org/) is this way? I ask because I see some of these projects that just use another person's design with a few minor changes and call them their own. I'm not complaining if the author's not complaining. But I'm not sure that I'd want to put artwork out there and alow anybody to put their hands on it and do as they wish. Possibly I'm being selfing or narcisstic, but I think that is important.

Also, and maybe I shouldn't question this at this forum ( being open-source oriented [I apologize in advance] ) what if I didn't want my designs to be shared. This one graphic I'm working on is pretty unique and I may not want it to be in the public domain ( I haven't just decided as of yet ). If I wanted to keep it unique and out of the public sphere is there something I can do? Are there licenses available for that for that?

[Kooya Kurt]

Hi, I'm a designer myself and I believe it is perfectly okay to protect your work or to at least get credit for it. Even in the open-source world everybody who creates something gets their name added into the free license. Whether for recognition, protection, or for monetary gains, you must have some sort of copyright for your work. So if you explicitly want your designs to be distributed for free, thereby protecting your designs from being sold by other people claiming it as theirs, then get it copyright-protected. To see more info on copyright, go to-->> http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
Keep the creative juices flowin', let me know when your designs are out and where to find them. :)

[CAD-MAN]

Creative commons Share Alike attribution is good for most things, but if you were going corporate with your designs (i'm assuming from your post that you are not), then you may want to think about a license that restricts people from modifying your work (for example, if you were to start a business, and create a logo for it), perhaps Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported, if you wanted to stick with CC.

I look forward to seeing some of your work!

[Niklas Schröder]

i would like to second the creative commons idea. i use it for all my stuff. the great part is that it's official, it looks good, it lets other people use your work under certain conditions, and most people will respect it (most being about 98%). :)

[fktt]

basically anything YOU CREATE is automatically copyrighted to you.. :) though i guess this thread isn't about that, a?

[Gen2ly]

Thanks for the ideas. yes CAD-MAN for the most part I want to keep my Designs open and un-restrictive. I do have a couple that I'm working on that I would like to be able to protect more, ( i.e. hopefully someday for a business ). I wasn't not sure the CC licenses varied to be more restrictive. Thats definitely is positive help. Appreciate it.

I was hoping to share my first work here but I think I'll wait till Monday as my host seems to be down at the moment.

[Gen2ly]

Ok, here it is. Its definitely humble... but I like it. I'm a laptop user and I've noticed that laptops probably don't get all their due in Linux. I've been trying to improve my around 2 hour laptop battery life. So I thought I'd donate Tux Asleep to the project:

http://www.archive.org/download/FontRenderingInLinux/Suspend2Sources-a1-500x500.png

Here's the original (http://www.archive.org/download/FontRenderingInLinux/Suspend2Sources-a1.svg). I decided to go with the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) license. It offered attribution, the share alike philosophy ( which I like alot ), and Non-Commercial use, which I thought was in the Linux concept. Thanks for tips with the CC license.

[AJB2K3]

basically anything YOU CREATE is automatically copyrighted to you.. :) though i guess this thread isn't about that, a?
err no actually
the moment a piece of work read/viewed by another party then its copyright to the author and all readers/viewers acknoledge that.
so in a digiatal world this translates to

When the data is read by a device then the copyright is now recognised as yours.
so .. if a computer has loaded the image (in this case) but not displayed it the owner of said device recognises your ownership of the material and agrees to your term.

this ( i hope ) is a simplyfied version of Pore Mans Copyright and also is now acceptable under the courts

[Kooya Kurt]

Another of what is known as the Poor Man's Copyright, which is placing a copy of your work in a SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) then sealing and sending it to yourself, will not suffice in court. Though it is true that the moment you author/create something, including digital media, it is instantly copyrighted to you. The SASE way may add to your ways of proving that you do own the work, but is NOT enough. I could suggest it, but only while you are in the process of registering your work with a copyright office, which you should do immediately.
Now for those who want to do the Poor Man's Copyright: when it arrives thru the mail, don't open it. It defeats the purpose. Believe me, because when it gets to your doorstep or wherever else you may have sent it, 2 things may happen, (1) us humans are capable of forgetting things and you yourself might open it (seriously!), and (2) someone else in the house are capable of opening it the moment it arrives, mostly in your absence (like, say, your wife).
So, since you'll be doing it, which means you are serious about protecting your work, why not find the number of a copyright protection office and inquire about how to register your stuff?

Kooya Kurt

Some of the sites to check out:
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/08/25/the-myth-of-poor-mans-copyright/
http://www.funnystrange.com/copyright/myths.htm
http://numly.com

[Gen2ly]

This is definitely something interesting to consider, while its legality is debatable, a date stamp from the post office would probably help keep others from claiming a copyright at a later date. Newer media however, ( i.e. all digital media ) will probably be redefined. Since usually all digital media is date stamped and most of the time backed up when put online, this in itself is a simple date stamp. The asleep image I just displayed is probably as good as putting it in a gallery. The viewers become the copyright. Unless someone can prove that the same image has an earlier digital stamp on some other server, its probably as good as one can get to copyrighting, protecting it however...

[dmn_clown]

Thanks for the ideas. yes CAD-MAN for the most part I want to keep my Designs open and un-restrictive. I do have a couple that I'm working on that I would like to be able to protect more, ( i.e. hopefully someday for a business ). I wasn't not sure the CC licenses varied to be more restrictive. Thats definitely is positive help. Appreciate it.

I was hoping to share my first work here but I think I'll wait till Monday as my host seems to be down at the moment.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html

Choose wisely, creative commons licenses are still not considered free licenses.

[Kooya Kurt]

Yeah, that's true. Digital media is a totally different animal. Check out http://numly.com for their digital fingerprinting. It's free. Even if you get their premium account and you cancel it later, the fingerprints still hold. Well, at least that's what they say. Check 'em out. Might be worth it.

Kooya Kurt