Questions about SU! copyright and watermarks

[Morning Glory68]

I've been working on several different watermarks for my cards. I noticed the copyright dates for Stampin' Up! are 1990-2007. I was under the impression that SU! began in 1988. Did the images not receive a copyright until 1990?

Next questions: Are there certain requirements for the wording in a watermark? If I make a card and I was inspired by another person's card, can I still say created by.....? If I use a stamp from another company other than SU, do I have to list each company with a copyright in my watermark?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

[krabearkub]

SU's website says to put 1990-2007. You just need to put the words Images Copyright or � 1990-2007.

If you CASE it, i would put my name as the artist and give credit to the original in the description as you are the one who made it.

I'm not sure about other companies copyrights.

[Morning Glory68]

Thank you for your help, Kurtis.

[Joan B]

There are two separate copyrights going here -- one is from the stamp company, which has a copyright on the image; the other is a copyright on your card or other item - -the total image including your use of the stamped image. Folks put watermarks/copyrights (they are actually 2 different things) on their cards in an attempt to thwart folks who might take the image and post it somewhere else as their own. Apparently, there are computer savvy thieves who know how to erase a watermark. (How desperate can someone be???).

A copyright is a legal claim of protection on the work you've done -- a watermark is really just any image that is placed over another image, in this case stampers use a computer program to place a watermark on top of the picture of the card, etc. So folks use a watermark as a means of copyrighting something. For example, in my day job, I might place a watermark of the word "draft" on a document that I don't want anyone to think is a final document.

Is this too much information???? LOL