Facebook, Google And Your Art Work. Copyright or not to Copyright?

Facebook, Google And Your Art Work. Copyright or not to Copyright?

When you are posting your art pieces on facebook think about the purpose for the post. Is it for business of or for personal use. If it is for personal use, be very careful what photos your post, Facebook can be an open book. (You can read Facebook Privacy Policy, section #6 at the end of this post.)

If it is for business this could be a good thing. Let’s think of the positive things that it can do for you:

• It can provide world wide exposure to you and your art.
• NO where is there any other place that you can advertise, world wide, your name and reputation than getting on Google. Especially if you are ranked high when Googlebots grabs your art images off of Facebook.
• The cost associated with this type of exposure to you is very minimal. Think about it… how much would it cost you for this kind of advertising exposure? The number would be mind blowing.
• Your art images can expose you to millions of potential clients and art collectors. Providing you are posting images of your quality art, you can gain a tremendous amount of name and reputation for yourself and the art work you have created.

Make sure your name, title and descriptions are all tagged with your art photo so no matter where it goes on the web people will know it is you.

If you want to know where your art work and name is going on the web, register your name with Google Alerts. (http://www.google.com/alerts ) Google Alerts will alert you every time your name is found by Googlebot at a new location on the web. This is a free service from Google.

There is the copy right issue. You have to weigh this with what is important to you. If people like your art work you chance or risk that someone will take an image of it with or without your permission. If you are at an event someone may ask your permission to photograph your art and then convert it into an app. to send to friends and family. Or, they my not ask at all and your art work can still show up on the web.

Don’t assume your art work is safe at any event you attend. Art shows, art festivals, art exhibitions, art contests… any art event where your work is exposed to the public is a breeding ground for people looking for a new idea and your art work is up for grabs (in their eyes). You can protect yourself by way of rights. Copyrights to be exact. This does not protect your art work from being copied or stolen, however, it gives you the right (if you find out) to order the infringement to cease and desist. You can copyright batches (groupings) of your artwork, designs, and patterns online for $35.00.  (http://www.copyright.gov/eco/ ) You don’t even have to go though an attorney.

Facebook Privacy Policy as of January 2011:

6. How We Share Information

Facebook is about sharing information with others — friends and people in your communities — while providing you with privacy settings that you can use to restrict other users from accessing some of your information. We share your information with third parties when we believe the sharing is permitted by you, reasonably necessary to offer our services, or when legally required to do so. For example:

To give search engines access to publicly available information. We generally limit search engines’ access to our site. We may allow them to access information set to the “everyone” setting (along with your name and profile picture) and your profile information that is visible to everyone.  You can change the visibility of some of your profile information using the customize section of your privacy settings. You can also prevent search engines from indexing your profile using the Applications and Websites privacy setting.