Is Your Digital Art Work Secured?

We are in an age where digitalization is the key that has unlocked vistas and changed the dynamics on different landscapes. Whether it is business, education, politics, sports or entertainment, the digital age is here to stay.

Digital artwork is an example of the interaction between digitalization, art and photography. Digital technology has elevated these fields beyond the bounds of traditional modes and has opened up new and better ways of creating digital artworks.

That’s not all, the internet has made marketing these artworks so much easier that all you have to do is to upload your artwork to the internet where a teeming market awaits. But before you do this, we recommend you read our NordVPN Review

There is a catch, however. The catch is that once you upload your work online, there is nothing to stop such work from being copied, stolen or used without your permission. Well, not exactly. We have a few suggestions that could help you negotiate this challenge.

Use A VPN:

Transferring data or information online (in this case your artwork) on an unsecured network exposes your private information and browsing habit. Hackers who are worth their salt will make mincemeat of this opportunity. In fact, this is one way which a lot of photographers lose their artworks to hackers.

Enter VPN. VPN (Virtual Private Network) offers services that provide secure and encrypted connections that ensure greater privacy than even secured WiFi hotspots. VPNs create data tunnels between your local network and an exit node in another location. Thereby giving the impression that you are, somewhere else.

So when you use a VPN service to upload your artwork, your data (artwork) is encrypted when it is sent over a WiFi network. This makes your data unreadable thus, protecting your uploaded artwork. Beyond this, you also enjoy a lot of privacy as your online activities remain private.

Harness Your Metadata

When you create digital copies of your work, you create metadata. These are information about your data. They range from the secondary information of the photo when the photos were made to the information you add to the metadata file.

Metadata is essentially a secondary layer of descriptive information embedded into a digital file. It warns intending infringers by showing them all the necessary information about the photographer and the copyright. Should you choose this option, be sure to add as much information about you and your artwork to the metadata file.

The only snag with this option is that metadata does not actually prevent the artwork from being stolen. However, it provides vital information that could work in your favour in the event of copyright infringement.

Add Watermarks

This is a very easy option. Adding a personalized, digital watermark warns potential infringers to steer clear. Since the watermarks are obvious and easily recognizable, anyone who attempts to use your work without your permission will have to remove the marks. This willful removal will help you establish a case against the infringer should you choose to go to court.

Your watermark may be a name or a simple logo. Either way, it should be almost transparent, covering most of the image. Since watermarks are obvious, they might subtract from the beauty of the images because when not properly managed, the image might be defaced. Thus, making it less marketable, and less useful.

Tiling

This is the process of slicing a digital photo into multiple pieces using photograph software. You then upload these pieces to a webpage (using a VPN service) where you piece them back again.

Although it is time-consuming, the protection it offers your artwork more than makes up for the time spent. The good part is that it does not subtract from the visual quality of the artwork that is tiled. Better still, it is also stressful for whoever wants to steal your work.

This is because the process of undoing the tiling you may choose to do is intricate, error-prone and time-consuming. Not many infringers have the skills set or time to undo tiling

Resize and Post

You can also resize and post whatever you want to post on the internet. The idea behind resizing is to reduce the size and resolution of the images to small, low-resolution images.

These kinds of images are not attractive enough to be stolen in most cases so they are relatively safe.

There is an abundance of image-editing software that can do this, so it could easily be done without much stress. The downside is that the images may not be of marketable quality. The main reason why you are posting them online in the first place is to market yourself. If you are ok with this, then posting low-resolution images may work for you.