Having control over your ‘“author’s rights’”-property online once published

[Lu37545390878a]

Im in advertising/graphic design.

Once your doc. is published online, you lost control of what internet users can do with it. Anyone can copy/paste the digitalized composition. Ex: you create a campain on Facebook for a client, the client can simply copy/paste the advertising and use it on another social media without paying extras for using the Advertising on thata other soc,. Media network. 

Is there a way to having control of where else your Advertising is posted without your permision? Can you track where else this Advertising is been used? Ex: you create an Advertising campain on facebook for a cliente. Your client simply copy paste your advertising and use it on a different social media without me knowing and moneze (increasing the # of viewers) over my work without my permision and without me earning any extras over my work. (even facebook can manipulate the # of view or clicks (with a digital robot) they claim on their analytics)

Minting does not work here, unless you know where else in the WWW your work is been used and claim author's rights (if you knew where is beeing used), so there is no point of minting to litigate since there is no way to know where else or whoelse is using your digital image/work on the WWW. Is there a way?

Text intelectual property published online has No copywriting control once published in the WWW and no way to litiguete if someone else used your ideas and monetized over it. 

My point is that you cannnot claim intelectual property rights over your work at all once you publish it online since there is no way at all to track who is using your intelectual property on the WWW (images or textual int. prop).

Is there a way I have not yet found?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

If you publish it, it can be stolen. If you publish it in electronic format, it will be stolen.

That's the reality of publsihing and information systems in 2024, as it has been for quite some time.

The first question to consider, as I put to all new authors etc. certain their novel idea is going to be "stolen," is... so what? Other than a sale you probably never would have made, what did you lose? (And if someone is so brazen as to make major commercial use of your work, lawyers abound.)

Second question: sure your house isn't pretty glassy? 🙂

[Lu37545390878a]

I know what the reality currently is. The reason why I published this comment.

"Other than a sale you probably never would have made, what did you lose?" Simple Answer: MONEY!!

"And if someone is so brazen as to make major commercial use of your work, lawyers abound." Answer:Exactly my point. If you cannot prove it, only your lawayr will make money out of you, not you out of your work! ...NO one in the world is brazen, is that what you mean? 

Second "question: sure your house isn't pretty glassy?" cannot understand the meaning of this one.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

[...] 

Second "question: sure your house isn't pretty glassy?" cannot understand the meaning of this one.

By @Lu37545390878a

It's an idiom:

people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

"Welcome to the game," is all I can say; you're contestant #103,724,921 with these concerns. All you can do is lock down your work with clients so they can't take a $50 comp and run a $500k advertising campaign with it, find a good IP lawyer if you're ever really, truly ripped off on a meaningful scale, and otherwise just keep moving forward.

Since you have never used a single piece of artwork, writing, IP or design in your productions without getting a full license to do so, I'll withdraw the comment about glass houses.

And as much as this is and has been a perennial fear/issue/topic since the beginning of time (or at least Art), the overtones of hypercapitalism in this and every other endeavor are really starting to wear me down.

[Lu37545390878a]

A game I am not prepare to play any more.. I quit a job preciseley because they were monetizing way too much out of my ideas n work for the company I was at. I did tons of copywriting and others simply used my content to get a better pay. 

About the glass house thing: precisely because now I know how many hours you need to expend on an artwork (so that someone is willing to pay for that work) that I I License everything. But that action  adds up to your costs and the result is that you become less competitve against those who always search for passing over any copyrights artwork. 

Im studying computer science now haha. It is helping me understand how things really work on the www. In a way the reason I ended up posting here, and because over an In design work there is several work involved in the final work: Phsh, Illustrator, Indesign and copywriting professionals: all that work together in one single document makes it more expensive than just an Illustrator design for ex. 

Not prepared yet to stay with my arms crossed wile one's work is the result of others' making tons of money without me getting a fare and just stake out of those gains! NO way! 🙂

[BobLevine]

What does this have to do with InDesign?

[Lu37545390878a]

InDesign is where you create your work, your creations. That is where you can apply any way of "mint" or create a cooky before publishing online. Once saved N published there is no way to add creator's info inbeded in your work. Phsh has now a weak way to "mint" sort of way your creations but still in beta.. . InDesign has nothing at all so far. What is the point of expending so many hours in your creations if someone else can monetize even more than you (with a copy/paste action), the creator? Does that makes sense to you now?

[BobLevine]

Rule one: If you don't want it "stolen" don't put it on the internet. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing can stop your content from being used and the harder you try, the more you'll inconvenience the people interested in your content.

Of course, if you want to spend the money to set up paywalls, that's up to you but if you're asking about how to protect InDesign generated content, well, the answer to that lies outside of InDesign.

[Lu37545390878a]

It does not lie outside indesign. Indesign is the means for creating your artwork and it should have a way to prevent others from stilling your creation and work.  If you dont put it on the internet, you wont get paid! So if you are unable or unwilling to provide any ideas about what you can do to prevent anyone stilling your work, I dont understand what you are doing in this forum??

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

[...] Ex: you create an Advertising campain on facebook for a cliente. Your client simply copy paste your advertising and use it on a different social media without me knowing and moneze (increasing the # of viewers) over my work without my permision and without me earning any extras over my work. [...] 

By @Lu37545390878a

That's why you should sign contract with your client - describing where & how he can use what you've done for him. 

With other copy&pasters - well, you just need a good layer. 

[Lu37545390878a]

Exactly my point. You make a contract, and then... how can you  tell, know or prove your client is not breaching that contract on the WWW?   I know lawyers exist.. the point is how can you "catch" anyone, or your own client isnt breaching that contract?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Exactly my point. You make a contract, and then... how can you  tell, know or prove your client is not breaching that contract on the WWW?   I know lawyers exist.. the point is how can you "catch" anyone, or your own client isnt breaching that contract?

By @Lu37545390878a

Setup few searches with a name of your client. 

Use Google Lens.

Or use AI to search for you. 

[Lu37545390878a]

Ok thanks, I'll try that idea and post the results of my finding. Yet, if you have no embeded content on your artwork, Google is unable to provide you with that info AFAIK. not just that. i thought of using cookies but beginning Oct. 2024 cookies will no longer be accepted (for privacy reasons and all that legal stuff) although I dont care about getting people's private info, a cook could have done the job perhaps..

[Lu37545390878a]

Ok. Im back. Google lens only work if you take a pic on a device. I tryed to download the app into my computer but unable. Then I tryed using Gemini. It worked bit better. I was among the few invited by Google to try Bard, now "Gemini" , wile still on beta mode at the time, so I know a lot about AI. Yet, Gemini was extremely concerned about people's privacy (gemini refuses to  make a search over people's face images showing for ex. ) and security concerns rather than to be preocupy by  creators rights. It has not yet been programmed to be concerned about us rights, the creators! but did an acceptable job. Yet when I inserted my own brand design on a jpg image (without characters), gemini was completely unable to find it or providing me with any info whatsoever eventhough gemini was able to read the name's brand (on a jpg image not text) and text content on the composition that was already converted into a jpg image,  almost in all cases. I've tryed several creations and guess what? the only results in which gemini was able to download tons of results was a creation I thought I had licensed the image ( found it online and says" free image" and used it, but at the time I did not know I had to licens it before using it on my composition🤷)

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'm not sure there's much of use to add to this, and no, it doesn't really have much to do with InDesign except in a collateral way. (It applies to pencil, charcoal, oil paint work just as much, and to AI-driven 3D modeling, ditto.)

But a few more thoughts. First, I don't see anywhere that you claim your work has actually been stolen, so this seems to be a case of unfounded fears that someone, somewhere might re-use your work without permission or payment. (With the parallel notion that in some perfect world, they'd look you up to pay you $1.24 for the privilege.) To be honest, that's something you just put aside as a minor (and thus inconsequential) concern, or a very unlikely one — Mercedes stealing your design and using it in worldwide advertising, or such.

So do what you do (or don't, since you claim to have given up the field over this issue), collect payment from those who commissioned the work or will pay for it somehow, and move on. Just like the other millions who do this and aren't Disney or the estate of Andy Warhol.

But a a more fundamental suggestion, fairly far off the beam even for this collateral discussion, is that you might need to re/consider why you think every effort you make is due remuneration. (That's more or less the definition of 'hypercapitalism' and IMVHO — as a writer on consumer economics issues — it's a toxic mindset that infuses the last decade or two.)

[Lu37545390878a]

James giffort: you are just promoting pseudo slavery on this forum, and completely lost track of the  Indesign subject I started with.  If your concept of economics  and hypercapitalism is based on the fact that everyone stills your work, and has the right to still your artwork out of the blue... My response is: I have a family to feed, dress and pay for their future!!  You have no idea what economics means> I completely disagree with your statements! I will not move on as you claim!! If inDesign or Adobe inc. dont allow us to prevent thiefs online from stilling one's work, there is a problem:right_arrow: Im not asking you telling me what to do or how to deal with stilling!! You brought up the colateral discussion not me

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'm going to go elsewhere, maybe a little island where sense and literacy are on the agenda. Best of luck reforming human nature, though.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

[...] If inDesign or Adobe inc. dont allow us to prevent thiefs online from stilling one's work, [...] 

By @Lu37545390878a

If something can be displayed - it can be "stolen" ... And there is nothing anyone can do. 

It's enough that someone just see it - doesn't even have to make a photo. 

[Eugene Tyson]

Well - stealing can always happen - online or in person.

It's a world we're in.

I often visit websites that don't allow you to copy text from the page - or even select it.

But I can make a screenshot on the Mac and then select the text.
Or take a photo with my phone and select the text. 

I've been on websites where you can't right click an image - but I can use Google Lens to find the same image from the web page. 

----------

Personally - I spent a lot of time designing artwork for a restaurant and was dealing with the owner.

I sent small A5 sized low resolution images with DRAFT in red across the middle of them.

I never heard from him again. 

I walked by his restaurant and had a look inside.

Sure enough - all my artwork on the walls - with DRAFT in red - pixelated and looking awful.

He just took them - printed them - and put them on the wall. 

I didn't receive a penny.

If you think there's a way to protect your things online or in person - then think again. 

There's always a way. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

All true, and in the cases where you are aware of the theft, you can only deal with them on a case-by-case basis. But you can only get there by accepting that some degree of theft is inevitable. (And for brick-and-mortar clients who steal, it's not hard to spread the word among fellow providers. There were a few companies in my original hometown that couldn't get a Kinko's to print them a poster.)

As for being on a website... there are simple ways to extract content even from the most protected sites. If the data is on file and shown on a screen, it's obtainable. It perforce has to be... which is the root of the problem.

You shrug, you move on, you drop clients who think they're smarter than you, you don't lose sleep over it.

[Lu37545390878a]

Eugen Tyson: I experienced a similar thing . So I tryed copy/paste an image of the whole website page design as a backdrop and lock the image (no right click posible). The problem with that is that you needed to add buttoms over the image (and then anyone can read your backend webpage,  and google couldnt read the content. 

My advice when you show a pre-work to a client is you show it on a PDF with password, Like that there is no way your client still your work by copy/pasting. PDF allows you to forbid people from copy/paste or print the PDF document. Still, they can take a screen shot and use it but it wont look the same (as you mentioned yours (stolen) was all pixeled). Or a more secure way, you show your work on your own laptop and never share your document until it has been paid by the client.  

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

[...] PDF with password, Like that there is no way your client still your work by copy/pasting. PDF allows you to forbid people from copy/paste or print the PDF document. [...] 

By @Lu37545390878a

This won't protect you in any way - anyone can take a screenshot anyway.

[...] Or a more secure way, you show your work on your own laptop and never share your document until it has been paid by the client.  

By @Lu37545390878a

Sometimes the idea alone is worth more than the contents - so when you show it - you've already "lost it" ...