If you produce creative work, then you have an automatic copyright on that work.
This is to deter people from copying your work and claiming it to be their own.
You don’t have to do anything to start this copyright cover – it is automatic.
However, if someone copies your work and pretends it is theirs – how do you prove that you created it first?
That can be a real problem and there are various ways around that, but two web designers became fed up with pitching work to clients who then copied it and gave them no credit or payment.
So, they created a service called Protect My Work at www.protectmywork.com
This can cover-
- Logos & marketing material, logos, website design and content, manuals, course material.
- Music, songs, sound and lyrics.
- Art work, designs, drawings, illustrations, photos, paintings, sculptures.
- Dramatic works, videos, film, tv, dramatic works
- Literature, books, blogs, poems, articles, plays, screenplays, scripts.
- Software, apps, websites, code and databases
You can register your work at any time on Protect My Work but it is most commonly used before publishing work in the public domain on social media and websites.
Step 1 is to create an account at Protect My Work
Step 2 is to upload any relevant documents or simply email documents to their automated system
Step 3 is when they receive documents, each receives a unique reference number with a date stamped digital certificate to help prove your copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This copyright covers the UK & Ireland, all of the EU countries and all countries that signed the international copyright treaty called The Berne Convention (a total of 178 countries).
The automated system records the time and date the work was submitted and ensures that all work is logged and credited to its rightful owner while backing up and securing all data.
On receipt of the documents, the date of submission cannot be altered and is therefore an extremely reliable source of copyright protection by proving the original work, with the time recorded.
Protect My Work do not need to read the documents.
Once you are a member, you can use their copyright protection logo on your work.
If you have any experiences with copyright issues, do let me know, by email.
