Illustration, Ethics and Plagiarism

The difference between Copyright and Plagiarism...

Copyright

• A legal matter - must be prosecuted if you do so
• Exists to protect a particular way of expressing an idea, not the idea itself
• Protects revenue - make sure copyright holders receive the payment due to them for the work

Plagiarism

• An ethical and academic matter - not illegal to plagiarise and may lead to non-criminal penalties.
• Concerns idea, not the expression of them
• Protects intellectual property and stops being getting credit for ideas that are not their own.

Copyright 

• Secretive
• Copy direction without reference
• Using ideas without permission
• Submitting someones work as yours
• Including images without permission or reference
• Working together and submitting others work - grey area

Avoided by

• ALWAYS creditting someones work or ideas through

- Harvard referencing

- Quotation

The Illustrators Guide to Law and Business practice, A01, 2008 - Simon Stern

Copyright - 

• The law that stops people from copying others work and ideas
• 'The owner of the copyright is an image is the only person with the right to copy that image or to allow others to copy it and this applies to any sort of copyright' p46
• Copyright lasts the creators lifetime + 70years after this time it is out of copyright and enters public domain
• Doesn't apply to similarities that happen by chance
• Doesn't apply to works of artists or craftsmanship in a public place - buildings and sculptures.

Best to:

• Not sell your copyright
• Use your own referencing material like photographs etc.
• Ask permission before you use reference materials
• Always credit an artists work if not using your own referencing

Creative Commons

https://creativecommons.org

'A non-profit company that offers an alternative to full copyright. Offering work under a Creative Commons license does not mean giving up copyright.'

Library Resources:

Areas that I found most useful from this hand out or that I didn't know are things that are really important in how to protect your own work:

Watermarking

• Easy and obvious to assert rights of image creator
• Easily done in photoshop with a text box and changing opacity
• 'Digimarc plugin' - embeds strong and almost invisible water marks. This can done by Filters>Digimarc>Embed Watermark

 I have always been aware of watermark as they come up frequently on Google images when searching for content but it didn't know how to embed one onto an image. Really simple and easy way to protect work.

Adding metadata to your images

• When image is downloaded, your name goes with the picture. Adobe Bridge.

Limit the size of uploaded images

• Keep images less than 1000 pixels wide - no use to people who want to use.

You can also

• Protect files with a transparent GIF
• Disable right-clicking on your page

These are factors I had never really though about when trying to protect my work. Its hard because even if some of these steps are taken there will always be a way around it like screen-shotting images.

Exceptions and Fair dealing...

'Fair dealing'

• Can use someones work if you can show that its fair dealing.
• Have to prove that work had no effect on the value of the one you've referred to - not a commercial competitor to it.
• Example - Banksy's Dismaland used design elements from Disneyland for its logo, but is clearly a different artwork and is no way a commercial competitor to Disneyland

'Parody, pastiche and caricature'

• Limited amount of others work for amusement
• Example - Family Guy

'Academic, non-profit use'

• If want to use it for own private study or research - must acknowledge source of the image
• May legally use an image in your work, may wall breach assessment guidelines, so always check.