Inspiration

Copyright For Dummies

Photo courtesy of PugnoM

The issue of copyright is always a hot topic amongst artists and the rules are confusing and difficult to understand.

I recently came across the Free Culture website which offers up some very interesting information, video and audio articles, including a link to the Creative Commons website. The Creative Commons website provides information on how to go about creating your own copyright policy as well as information on how to police it. In other words, you can now apply your copyright in language that anyone can understand. This copyright can be applied to work published on the internet as well as off the internet.

I am beginning to see more and more around the internet, that people are using a Creative Commons copyright. Images in particular, like the one in this article, are freely available under a Creative Commons copyright.
As textile and quilt artists, most of us live in fear of our copyright being abuser, a fear that is like a double edged sword. On one hand we fear having our work copied and ripped off, and on the flip side we fear having to deal with the repercussions because we simply are not sure of what they are.

I, for one, have decided to embrace the “Creative Commons” license and will in fact be revising all my online works to be covered under one of these licenses. A great idea in a world gone mad!