No, I didn't get bored with blogging and move on to something more interesting. I've been doing housekeeping on my computer. My work is essentially collage. So I'm always looking for new snips or images. All of them copyright free or free to use under a Creative Commons licence. The free to use images require me to link back to the original owner. Sometimes late at night I go looking for images and download quite a few in an evening. And sometimes I forget to type in who owns it. My advise to you, "Don't make that mistake". You will be re-searching the internet for the owners when you decide to use that image.
My housekeeping is done. Now everything is sorted nicely into colour coded folders in alphabetical order. There are a few strays. I feel like posting a note under my picture asking if anyone owns that graphic. Something like, "If this is your snip, feel free to send me a terse, yet polite email and I'll give you credit".
Sometimes I wonder about copyright. If you find an old photo at a garage sale, do you have the right to copyright it? Some of those people could be alive. I often wonder about those faces. Would that charming little child who may be in their 80's now, really be happy about a cherished memory being Zettied? Don't they own their own image?
Another thing I saw tonight was a site that sold rubberstamps claimed that the images on the stamps are copyrighted. It stated that anything made with the stamp could not be sold as it was copyrighted. Is this going too far? If I put a sticker on my work I don't have to thank the sticker company.
It is something to think about. Copyrighting old images that belong to other people or, are already published just seems wrong. When people do that we lose track of who actually created the image or its origins. What if someone copyrighted the Rosetta Stone? After all the author is long since gone. Would we then be charged to have a peek? Would scientist have had to pay by the hour to study it? I think that the whole situation should be looked at more carefully. At least take a moment.
These are the things I think about late at night. It's 4 am.
Masks:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnuckx/4701308889/in/set-72157624276908530/
Tree:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubyblossom/sets/
Background photo: I had it laying around
© 2010 NeonSun Studios
Next time: How to protect your artwork
