Pros and Joes

I heard someone say, “Oh sure he tells us all about where to find the copyright symbol, but not a word about how, and where to use it.”

That’s true, I did skip right over that, and there are a lot of things about the Copyright notice, and where, and how it should be placed, and they have changed, and you are more interested in the work itself, and not in all of that silly legal gobbled-gook so maybe you really don’t have a clue, and I should have told you in the first place.

So, I will.

The correct form for a work of visual art is:

© 2011 Roland Miranda

Now that was easy wasn’t it? You can use the whole word Copyright or the abbreviation COPR or just the symbol which was why I told you about where to find it in the first place. Anything else is just overkill.

Yes, I know, I’ve seen it too, Copyright © 2011 Roland Mixon Miranda All rights reserved.

If it makes you feel better go ahead and do it that way, but you won’t be one bit more protected than you would be with just the simple © 2011 Roland Miranda (No, not a word about my middle name.)

Now I did it wrong for a bunch of years because when I was just starting out I was scared spitless that someone would steal my brilliant work. Yeah, right, you should be so lucky. So I copied the form of a guy who wrote the first murder mystery play I ever saw a script for. He was wrong! That’s right, the guy didn’t know one thing more than I did, and by copying him I did it wrong too and worse, I looked like an idiot, and an amateur.

After I had written three or four plays, and seen a bit more of the world, and the way things work, I finally looked it up and got it done the right way.

Did it keep people from stealing my scripts? I honestly don’t know. The truth is by that time I had made a great and wonderful discovery; I’m the only one who knows how they work. So if you steal a script from me you won’t have a clue how to stage it, and cast it, and direct it, and that is why I no longer worry about thieves.

Now I’m doing art and I have to say I’m still not worried about someone stealing my art. Fortunately I live in a community where there are many artists much more gifted than moi and if someone is going to steal they’ll likely do it from one of those guys and not me.

So, no, I don’t do copyright notices. I hold the copyright anyway. And I am smug enough to think that if anyone with a commercial flair wants to use one of my images, they’ll have to come looking for me anyway. I’m still the only guy who knows exactly how to do whatever it is that I do, and you might just be able to reverse engineer the thing, but that would take a lot of time, and time is money, and money is what commercialism is all about, so why not come to the horse’s… Let’s just leave what part of the horse you’d have to come to a mystery and say that it would be a lot cheaper to call me.

So if you feel threatened and want to use the Copyright notice, do it the right way and look like a real pro. And if you have an ego the size of one of those Diva guys, and don’t worry so much, then don’t worry.