Basics of Copyright and Licensing.

 Our Survey Data has been consistently indicating that there is a lack of clarity about copyrights and licensing among artists. We hope our cheat cards above help in demystifying these aspects. A basic understanding of these is a huge confidence booster when talking to potential clients and ensuring you are paid well, and your rights protected.

Here are some useful resources and links to some extra reading -

-This government handbook on copyrights and licensing is quite comprehensive and worded simply without too much legalese.

-We found this article on www.mondaq.com/India quite handy as well. The Mondaq website itself has a lot of other useful articles on copyrights and licensing.

-This is a quick and useful read on Licensing on the Association of Illustrators website.

Here is a ready reckoner to  Creative Commons Licenses - a downloadable resource on the Artistik License website.

Similar to the altruistic spirit of Creative Commons, The free art license grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without infringing the author’s rights.

Beyond these is work that in the public domain- work that is not protected by copyright laws -you read more about public domain here (A small part is specific to the US- the rest applicable everywhere)

Regardless of what rights the artist gives away, they retain the Moral Rights to their work- That is Rights to attribution and Integrity of their work.

We hope this helped!

Do check out our handy tips for contracts and licenses as well.