How to License and Protect Your Artwork
A majority of artists have never seen a real licensing agreement. It is unfortunate that many artists know nothing of the information that should be contained in an art licensing agreement and what doesn’t need to be in the same licensing agreement.
Many artists proceed to sign a license agreement without knowing what the details contained inside are about with the hope for the best and they put their trust in a company which shows interest in their art. However, such a naïve move can lead to serious problems.
As an artist one that is about to license his or her art, you need to get in-touch with a reputable licensing agent who has represented a number of artists. The agent will help you avoid signing away full reproduction rights to your art and if you have never been paid for art you have licensed and it is in use.
A licensing agent will help you recover or avoid losing your original works to companies who demanded them but failed to return your work. There are a few licensing art basic factors as an artist you need to before you proceed with the licensing.
Licensing Basics
License translates to freedom to do something. When you agree with a company’s license art promotion, you have given the company the liberty to use your art. You have given the freedom and ability to use your art in a particular way, on a specific product, for a specific duration of time and with restrictions on the art’s use.
As an artists you can copyright your art and own it for 75 to 90 years from the time of creation, this is disregard of whether or not your art is registered with the U.S Copyright Office. As the owner of the art piece, you will also own the reproduction rights. Your art is protected and no one can reproduce it (your art) without your authorization.
As you sign a license with a company, you basically sell to the company the right to reproduce your art in a structured and certain way for duration of time. Copyright laws are quite robust that your family or legal heirs will still own your art copyright until 70 years after your death.
Protecting Art
As an artist, you should consider registering your art with the U.S copyright authorities. Copyright laws were enacted to protect artists and their art, the law covers published and unpublished works, to protect your art from being stolen.
Copyright laws cover visual and written works which consist of: paintings, sculptures, essays and photographs.
Licensing Art Promotion
When it comes to art licensing, it is not a must you enlist the services of an agent to succeed, a number of manufacturers are happy to work with individual artists and at times through agents. However as an artist, using an agent to promote your work can have a huge impact (positive) on your business and your lifestyle.
The future of art licensing lies on promoting your art on social networks such as Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter, social networks have literary billions of users across the world, these are platforms which will promote your works for art in the quickest possible way.
You can promote your art by uploading on video sharing sites such as Vimeo and YouTube, such sites receive loads of views and your art will be recognized across the globe. Create your art pieces, copy right your art and use both conventional means such as using an agent to promote your art and using social media to promote your art before you license it to companies or individuals who will give you a great deal on your art.