The "Official" Copyright.

Is it all worth it? I don't know. But what's done is done, and hopefully my work over the years is now rightly protected by law. I read a while back about a new law that was pending called the Orphan Law, which I may have made mention to in an earlier post.

I believe this law hadn't been passed by Congress, thankfully. For powerhouse companies it wouldn't have been as much of an issue to fluff up their ownership, but for smaller venturers not so beneficial, because its seemingly more diffult to locate an individual versus a corporation and takes more work.

So it almost forces artists to legitimately copyright all important work for fear of not being able to be located. Because if the owner of the work cannot be located, they are no longer considered "owners" and therefore allow their work to be used by others.

If I have it right, which I may have some cocoons to be unraveled out of my cobwebs, it seemed very unfair. For the unabashed and legit story:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_7449210_orphan-works-copyright-law.html

I believe the law flopped.

In the end, this industry knows who is genuine and who is corrupt, who works on what and for how long, how hard everyone works, styles and mediums, hats-off skills and imperfections. This industry has blasted out people through social medias for stealing work and claiming it as their own as I've read of late... I commend it. Very awesome. Between the artists' community, A blacklist is satisfying enough to me, if it holds 100% absolute validity.

Its hurtful to know that all of the time and passion invested in creativity whether personal or professional could be compromised through another person's laziness or insecurity of abilities... At very least honor the artist by giving due credit, if not by getting the proper granted permission.

So building a blacklist within our own pool might by the more 'street' approach while copyrighting might be a lengthier option but more standard. And what do you do when the person using your artwork isn't even an artist? So all in all, protect the artwork. Theivery happens all the time and the ones who do ripping off don't consider it to be as big of a deal as it is obviously...

But it is to me, as it is to many of us.