Fire Tips: 7 Ways to Own & Protect Your Work as a Creative

Recent examples of stolen or copied work are a good reminder to know your rights.

I received many strong reactions to the Mel Robbins plagiarism report I published a few weeks ago. Most people were shocked: “If this is true, how could she?! " But, a few weren’t surprised: “This happens all the time.”

Sadly, if you’re a creative, you’re regularly exposed to unsavory tales of work being stolen, copied, used without permission, used with permission but in an unapproved way… the list goes on.

In fact, look closely, and you’ll find examples everywhere.

My friend, James Katsipis, is an incredibly talented fine art photographer in Montauk, NY, and just found out his images are being used without his permission to promote a book he’s not associated with:

letstaukgrams

A post shared by @letstaukgrams

This LinkedIn post from a 3rd+ connection popped up on my feed a few days ago detailing how design work was taken without payment:

And this example was Page Six news:

These are reminders of how traumatizing it can be to 1. find out your work has been taken and 2. confront an unreasonable offender. Stern emails can turn into litigation fairly quickly when feelings of violation are at play, which is a costly and stressful road that no one wants to go down. Not even Shakira.

Unfortunately, you bear the burden of protecting your work to prevent such situations in the first place, but the process isn’t as complex as it seems.

Below are all the ways you can go about safeguarding your creative portfolio. It applies to your original works that are NOT for hire or completed under a contract or agreement with a client or company (in those cases, you should have a written contract or agreement that clearly states who has ownership of the material and how each party can use it); these are the works you’re putting out there on your own platforms to share with the world.

Next, I’ll share tips on what you can do if someone still violates your ownership (hoping that never happens!), and finally, how to make sure you get paid for completing creative projects.