Your work is valuable so keeping good records and understanding your legal rights are crucial to protecting your IP and developing your professional reputation.
There are many reasons why you should keep records of your creative works and supporting documents. As a creator, the last thing you want to see is your valuable work being used without your permission. We should be properly recognised for our creative mahi and that is a protected right. Think of record-keeping like an insurance policy –– it won’t prevent copyright infringement, and may not feel essential when you're creating work, but it’s critical to resolving a situation, should it arise.
More Drama – Less Drama
Some of the greatest films and television screenplays have been written by groups of friends. Collaboration is an amazing tool to create nuanced stories, especially when you get to work with your mates. When things get serious it can become difficult to avoid confusion and conflict over your rights. Having a Memorandum of Understanding and keeping version histories are essential steps to prevent unnecessary conflict, and you can store these in our online tool MyCreativeRights Catalogue.
A Word to the Wise
When you’re writing to a deadline, the task of navigating legal jargon and the detail of a publishing contract can be challenging. Can someone reproduce your poem without permission? Are you giving away all future options with that manuscript? When you’re working with an illustrator, who owns the copyright of the images? There’s a lot to consider, but it’s important to know your legal rights when signing a publishing agreement to ensure you protect the value of your work. Did you know you can store contracts and track key dates in the Catalogue?
Drawing the Line
We get it – you’d rather be creating than wading through the nuances of copyright law. Can someone reproduce your sculpture using different materials? Can a gallery use images of your work to promote your business? Can people post images of your installation on social media without crediting you? Keeping records in Catalogue helps to protect your IP and keeps all your documents in one secure cloud-based location, saving you the hassle of scouring your files and emails.
Best (St)art
Right now, the future might feel far off, but many of the things we create as students become the seeds for ongoing projects. Should students protect their work from copyright theft like established practitioners do? Once you're successful, could the ideas you had as a student be stolen? It's better to start protecting your intellectual property now, so you don’t get caught out when the future catches up.
Know your rights. Protect your work.
MyCreativeRights Catalogue is a FREE creative record-keeping and legal guidance tool for creative practitioners at any stage in their career journey. When you record a work in Catalogue you will be asked to enter basic details about the work: what is it, when was it was created, for what purpose, and, if necessary, with whom.
Within Catalogue you can upload supporting documentation such as version histories, legal contracts or evidence of creation. It is important to upload these as you go to store accurate metadata. If you don’t have a formal contract or agreement, you can upload email communications here too – it all provides important context for your work.
Catalogue also offers a copyright support questionnaire which prompts you to document more details about your work. When you complete the copyright support questionnaire, it provides a summary that indicates your copyright status and related legal guidance articles.
When your creative data is recorded in Catalogue, you can rest assured knowing that you've got what you need to assert your right to ownership if the need arises.
Image: Licensed via iStock