As far as I understand it, the fact that you created it gives you the automatic copyright on a particular design. So, if you create an original painting say, the copyright automatically is yours. Obviously, there is a degree of trust involved that people will respect your copyright, but if you find your exact work somewhere else, with someone else's name on it, you can demand they either remove it, or credit it correctly to you. But it would have to be your exact work- if they have done something similar, changed colours, details, then it becomes their work, however, it would be ethical of them to credit it as 'inspired by'. It would certainly help if you created yourself a semi-opaque watermark than you can place over your work, in say, Photoshop, which is what many of us do. Just site the watermark far enough on the design that it can't be edited off, but still leave the artwork visible. It can be a very grey area in cardmaking, it is true- you could not say a design layout sketch was copyright- just the one you have actually done- papers/stamps/embellishments etc. You also have the advantage of files on your pc being dated for when they were created- so if you saw an exact copy of your design entered into a competition, say, you could prove when you created yours. Also, if you blog, the post itself will be dated for you.
Last edited by shazsilverwolf; 03-31-2014 at 10:59 AM..
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