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I have a question for those of you that create art or write stories or even make games and share them on the internet, I'm curious how you get past the fear that someone will steal your idea? Like, I'm not a great writer but I've thought about posting some of my writing in a blog or something of that nature but I'm concerned that I'll write something epic that someone will steal....how does one get over this fear or what can you do to protect against that?

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Chewbekah ^_^

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You can try using watermarks, particularly those invisible kinds where thieves won't be able to spot them easily. Or put autographs over your work.

Two words: Fanarts! Fanfics!

It's already stealing so who gives a shit!

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 24th September 2010 03:54

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Arts

Farts

Twarts

I've just always assumed that no one wants to steal my writing, heh. Though if i comes down to it, I guess you have, say, the file on your computer with a timestamp as to when it was created, so you can prove that it was made by you and not some ne'er-do-well. Alternately, if you manage to get something published, whether it be online or a magazine or something, you have that to prove yourself with as well. This is all assuming that the unscrupulous character is trying to get your work published under their name, I suppose; if they're just plagiarizing it to show their friends or something, don't worry about it, some school kid tried to say he wrote "The Times, They Are A-Changin'" in '65 but eventually I think the guilt did him in.

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"If art doesn't risk upsetting expectations and challenging its audience, it can only stagnate."

I think most blogs copyright automatically for the owner, and I know that fanfics on this site do.

Just so, I HOPE people steal my ideas. It's flattering for one, and two, nothing is original anyway. "There's nothing new under the sun", and I stole that from Ecclesiastes. Third, I like to think I do my ideas better than anyone else anyway- a cheap imitation is never the real McCoy.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

As both an aspiring author and an attorney, the simplest and sometimes most effective protection is one word - copyright.

If you are worried about people stealing your work, federally register your copyright with the United States Copyright Office before you post it. It's true that you own a copyright in your work as soon as you create it, but there are many benefits to a federal registration that justifies the small registration fee. It creates evidence that you are the author of the work, it entitles you to statutory damages, you can collect attorney's fees, etc.

Edit

I should add that the above is based on U.S. copyright laws. I'm not sure what benefits registering in other countries will get you, but I imagine it's to your benefit to at least register your work in whatever country you reside.

This post has been edited by MetroidMorphBall on 2nd October 2010 03:34

I'm glad MMB posted. His knowledge of copyright law obviously trumps my layman's interest in it.

From the perspective of someone who has been putting out creative content to the web for a decade (Lord, that sounds pretentious), it's really pretty simple. Most of the stuff that we produce, all of us, on the internet, is not specifically of great value. Even were we to take the steps that MMB mentions, I suspect that most of our creative output would not be taken to the point of courtroom drama, because as important as it is to us, a lot of it would be less important than not having the hassle of dealing with it.

The only certain way to make sure that your work isn't stolen is to simply never put it on the internet. While it can be quite easy to prove that your work was stolen by any number of ways already mentioned in this thread, the thing is, you're not necessarily ever going to KNOW that your work was stolen in the first place. The web's a big place, and the odds of you stumbling across the blog of someone who stole your writing, or the DeviantArt page of the guy stealing your photos, etc. is relatively small.

Of course, that's in no way meant to say that you should never share your effort with whatever community of like-minded people you can. It's more to say that in doing so, you need to accept that a completely foolproof solution is unlikely at best, and to understand that going in. With that base level of knowledge, you can then take the steps necessary to protect your content at a level that makes you comfortable. It could be as simple as a watermarked image, or perhaps a locked-for-editing PDF of your text, it could be putting your content behind login so you can monitor who accesses it and when, it could be registering at the copyright office, or it could be simply deciding that the work is too important to your portfolio or livelihood to risk having it out on an open forum like the internet.

All things considered, there's no one solution, it's just a matter of knowing your options so you can choose the best one for you in every situation.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Rangers51 is right that the only surefire way to avoid having your work stolen online is not to post it. That being the sort of 'abstinence is the only surefire way to prevent pregnancy' argument, I was going for the sort of 'yeah, but kids are gonna have sex anyway so what are some other preventive measures we can take' angle.

He also raises a good point about the hassle. I'm a lawyer, so naturally I think about these things from a legal standpoint. But there are practical concerns people (including me) have to consider. Copyrightinging everything can start to become expensive and burdensome. You have to do what we in the legal profession call a cost/benefit analysis...ask yourself if what you are putting out there is valuable enough to you that you're willing to take those extra steps necessary to protect your work.