Protecting Your Art Against Theft

"Cover Story" Reception September 8

I am excited to share an upcoming art show that features my book cover art along with some of the originals that I displayed at my Press Coffee show, "Whimsey Wanderings". This show is in collaboration with an Iowa City community art group, Artifactory. Save the date and come to the beginning where I will give a little shpeel about the art on display. The reception is one night only on September 8, but the display will be up from August 22 to October 23 in case you can't make it.

 

Protecting Your Art

Lets talk about what has been on creative's mind recently from writers to actors, musicians to visual artists: art theft. Art theft refers to using copyrighted creative content without the permission and/or credit of the creator. The content is typically stolen for commercial gain, but claiming another's art under your name or a different name is also art theft regardless of money being made. Art theft has been present since the beginning, but it is seeing an increase due to new technology that makes it easy to steal.

The most sophisticated form of plagiarism has entered the scene in the form of generative AI. AI has had a huge presence in the media with the popularity of ChatGPT and Midjourney. I first want to make a distinction that AI alone is a neutral technology, like fire. It has an equally great propensity for good as it does harm. There are some amazing and positive uses for AI that I am seeing in applications like the medical field where it is helping doctors diagnose faster and more accurately. We are mostly talking about the harmful side in this article because at the moment, generative AI is posing a greater threat than boon to creatives. Like fire, AI can be very, very harmful.

We will not go into all of the ways that generative AI is unethical in its current state. Our focus will be on the steps you can take now for protecting your art (specifically visual art). For more information on the legal and ethical issues with generative AI, check out this petition trying to bring about conversation and change on the subject. It also has useful links to organizations that focus on rights for creatives.

Here are a few ways that can help with preventing AI theft and general art theft. They are in no particular order and most can be easily managed with some vigilance.

Digitally Cloak with Glaze

This is a brand new software that you download and run your images through that makes it hard for AI to replicate. It creates a little bit of a pixelly pattern overlay that is noticeable on close inspection, but is good enough for the average viewer's attention span. In the end, the visual differences are worth the protection. It does take a looooong time to process one image (it's almost two hours on my computer for the default setting), so make plans to run it at night or when you have some down time. Glaze continues to improve and may become speedier with future updates.

Here you have the glazed version on the left. The pattern of the glaze overlay can be seen most noticeably on the gold scales which have broad areas of smooth gradation. Some areas actually look nice with the extra texture, like the background which has old painted wood panels.

File for Copyright

To be clear, an artist owns the rights to their work upon its creation in the US, but if you want to be able to take infringers to court and be awarded damages, filing for copyright gives you that extra protection. It's relatively cheap, you can file online, and you can register a body of work at the same time.

Opt-Out of Uncompensated AI Training

Many apps are by default use the data you give them (personal info, social media posts, images) to train AI or in some cases sell to third parties. Only now are we seeing some small changes pushing companies to be more transparent about data use. Some of that data, especially on art websites like DeviantArt and ArtStation, is being used to train generative AI. ArtStation and DeviantArt just as they disclosed the use of user's images being used as training data this year followed with the option to opt-out. This may be a moot point for artwork existing on the website that was already scraped before those options materialized, but you can still be proactive for newly uploaded art. Take a look at the data collection policies on the websites you upload images to and take steps to prevent feeding into AI training models. Opt-out if you have the option.

Here is the opt-out option on Art Station in the account settings. Data sharing settings can be found in your account section across different apps/platforms.

Mark Your Images

Putting your name on your artwork is not a big deterrent for AI, but it is going to make people think twice when it comes to traditional methods of art theft. If they take your art images and erase your name, they will knowingly commit art theft and that will deter some. There are also genuine art appreciators who may be not familiar with best practices for crediting and don't put your name in captions or posts. Having your name on the image ensures that people know who the artist is wherever it goes. More great information about watermarks and signatures can be found on one of my favorite blogs for illustration, Muddy Colors.

This is my approach to marking my art with my website in the lower left.

Display Low-Res Versions Only

Never put your full resolution images on your website. It is not necessary for viewing, creates lag for your website, and gives art thieves more options for printing your stolen art at a high quality. Images for social media needn't be more than 1200px-1500px on the longest side at 72dpi. That's a good limit for your portfolio images as well.

Add A Copyright Disclaimer to Your Website

Giving potential art thieves a warning can be an effective deterrant. Your website should have a copyright disclaimer, which you can add visibly without being overbearing. The disclaimer I use in my website footer, which you are welcome to copy-paste is: 

ALL IMAGES CONTAINED HEREIN © FIRSTNAME LASTNAME, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED. NO IMAGE MAY BE USED IN PART OR ENTIRETY WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Expose Art Theft When it Happens

Public shaming is an affective deterrent for art theft. If you see a company selling pirated art, spreading the word online through your social circles can have a great influence on their reputation and pressure them to remove the pirated art. When it comes to AI images, it can be hard for some people to spot the signs and there is no obligation for a company or individual to mark images as AI generated. Encourage your art-appreciating friends to research the artist they are buying from to see their process images. That can help with identifying ethically-made art.

Support Ethical AI

There is a world where artists benefit from generative AI. As it currently stands, there are no generative AI tools that compensate creatives for their data, to my knowledge. It is important to define what AI developers can do to make their products ethical towards creatives, which is to train AI with data that has been obtained with explicit permission and fairly compensate the copyright owners (artists or to those who purchased the copyright) for it. This is no different than the concept behind art licensing, a common practice for companies paying an artist to use existing artwork for a new commercial purpose under a defined contract.

Browsing through some "centaurs" on Midjourney presents us with nightmare fuel or accurate, but uninspired herculean types. Midjourney trains their AI on artist's work without consent and is not a source for ethical art.

As a final note, if you are an aspiring artist who has been dispirited by the advent of generative AI, remember that you have a unique voice both in the messages you illustrate and the style you craft. For all its wonders, generative AI still has its limitations for creating complex art that is cohesive and depicts imaginative content (it fails at centaurs pretty hard and things that don't exist in general). Also, many companies will not purchase AI-generated images because they need to purchase art with legal protections (not granted to AI images). There is still a market for your art and so many people who want to buy beautiful things made by human hands.