Yes, artists are business people and creative ones at that!    In fact, I think you paint a good picture of success because you have learned one of the most important lessons of good business management – you ask questions before making significant changes to how and where you conduct business.  Well done.

As you already know, the Internet has opened up many cost-efficient ways artists and photographers can sell their works to a large public audience.  In addition, the Internet has made it easier for galleries to promote artists’ works around the globe.

Before putting any creative work that you believe has commercial value online, either at your own web site or another, it’s a good practice to explore the advantages of copyright registration. 

In comparison to patent applications, copyright registrations are relatively easy and affordable to obtain.  As a visual art, you would send a “VA application” with one non-returnable copy of the unpublished work (two copies if previously published) to the Library of Congress, in Washington, DC.

The fee for each visual work is just $30.  In most cases, registration can be done without an attorney’s assistance. 

It is important to note that you do have protection by copyright law at the moment one of your watercolors is created.  You don’t have to register with the US Copyright Office or even publish the work to hold these rights.

So why bother with a registration?  Basically, the value of filing a copyright registration is to eliminate any ambiguity over the ownership of a creative work.  In addition, copyright registrations help all “authors” of creative works qualify for statutory damages and reimbursement of attorneys fees in cases of copyright infringement.  If copyright registration is made after infringement, then the author is likely to receive only proven damages for the infringement.

In the spirit of following my own advice to seek extra guidance on important issues, I spoke to Fred Page, an intellectual property law partner with Holland and Knight, about other copyright concerns for artists.

Page warns that the most costly mistake made by enterprising artists is to assign copyrights too broadly to art galleries and other business partners.  Says Page, “Artists should read and fully understand the fine print of all contracts.  In most cases, artists don’t have to give away all the copyrights to a creative work to any single partner.”

Page encourages artists to allocate rights based on the commercial expertise of the business partner.  So, for example, an artist can maximize income potential by assigning limited copyrights of a design to a wallpaper manufacturer and then other limited copyrights to a textile manufacturer.

Another area of potential risk is conflicting expectations of artists and artwork buyers.   Some artwork buyers may not want artists to further commercialize or produce limited edition copies of original works of art.  To avoid costly, time-consuming misunderstandings, artists should spell out copyright ownership issues in all artwork purchase documents.  Artists may be pleasantly surprised to find that some buyers are willing to pay more to own the copyright to a specific work too.

Artists, authors, poets, software programmers, web site owners, architects and musicians can visit www.copyright.gov to learn how to file copyright applications for their uniquely creative endeavors.  Thanks for writing.