I'm Not a Fool, I Protect my IP!

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Good morning! Today may be April Fool's Day but I'm not fooling around when it comes to protecting my Intellectual Property to the fullest extent of the law in the United States. My full instructions for today's event actually went up yesterday as my second contributor post on Oh My Handmade Goodness. copyright and intellectual property awareness campaign

Many thanks to Abigail Page for creating two versions of the beautiful badge!

You can click the badge to read about how to register your copyright, why I encourage you to make a template for a cease & desist letter before you have a need for one and three levels of action for a copyright notice on your websites and shops: good, better and best. Since this is my first Don't Be a Fool! Day and I planned it on such short notice, I was not able to research and include instructions for other countries. I certainly want to expand on the information I have shared so far, if you would like to collaborate for the next version on July 1st, please reach out to me via email or in the comments.

As for me, the hostess of this event, you may be wondering which actions steps I'm taking to protect my IP today. I'm excited to share that I'm going to be doing a bulk registration of my work today vs. individual works! I do plan to make a template today also, but since I have recently rebranded my business, I need to make new letterhead first. Finally, I'm planning to strengthen my copyright notice over there in my right sidebar and I'll be going for the "best" option as described in my full post. I am so inspired by Kim Niles' comprehensive legal section on her website.

In a very serendipitous way, I learned about two things late last week related to my action day:

1. PhotoShelter and the American Society of Media Photographers have teamed up to offer a new Photographer's Guide to Copyright. If you do nothing else today but register your copyright(s), you are already ahead of 99% of professional photographers in the U.S., according to the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), see page 3.  They are clearly trying to improve those numbers!

2. There is a new website called imgembed that was created to improve the way images are shared online. I have only watched their demo video myself, so I can't vouch for it but it's certainly worth a look!

Let's be honest, navigating these laws is difficult and confusing. Please don't let ovewhelm, intimidation or fear get in the way of starting somewhere. I've shared many links to help you get started, just pick one and see where you end up, okay? I believe in you and I care about your IP, so please go read my full post!