You do not need to register your work. No one, company, studio or agency can claim the work as their own unless they have a signed copyright assignation document from the creator, prior to printing, duplicating or publishing the work, and that includes the internet.
Your work is under protection as soon as you have created it.
Never breach another's copyright, it can cost you a lot of money and damage your reputation.
You do not need the copyright symbol on all of your work, it is under protection as soon as you have created it if you have a recorded instance of creating it such as a blog, a dated file, an email etc.
Limitations
You are not covered by personal copyright - facts, conceptual ideas not expressed in a tangible form, public domain as mentioned, expired item as also mentioned.
Public Domain
Artworks fall out of copyright and enter the public domain in the UK 70 years after the death of the artist.
- sound recordings, films, broadcasts and cable programme are protected for 50 years from the date of making
- copyright in the typographical arrangements of a published edition lasts for 25 years from the end of the year in which the edition was first published
Reproduction rights
- You own both the copyright and the rights to reproduce your work
- no sub-licensing of your work without permission and fee. Retention of all original works
Licensing
You can limit the license you allow to that of single-use, meaning that they can use it for a single time, as opposed to using it on printed material, website etc. This means you can license and gain a fee for each use.
They do not automatically own it once they have paid for the design unless you have it assigned in writing to them.
When you get a brief ...
- acknowledge the receipt of the brief add some simple terms and conditions that will assure payment
- keep it simple as some clients are put off by 'legalese' and official looking contracts
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