Robert Indiana and copyrighting your work

Another dog photo, yes. I think this one is framed well and the verticals are good – the window pane frames parallel the frame of the photo. I did a little post-processing, heightening the contrast, but aside from that, it’s the original photo… Except it’s scaled down.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to post completely original content, no matter how “bad” the images are. So I scale my photos down, just in case they ever do have any value to someone else besides me. It’s important to protect your work, even if you don’t think much of it.

Which brings me to Robert Indiana, one of the pop artists, who died, today. Robert Indiana is best known for his iconic LOVE image, which I’ve posted below. Everyone knows this image. Unfortunately, when the LOVE was first published, the artist didn’t copyright it, and the image fell into the public domain. The US Postal Service only paid him $1000 for the rights to use the image on a stamp. You can read more about Robert Indiana and the copyright issue in his New York Times obituary.

The moral of the story is copyright your work. It’s easy to do. Just put that copyright notice on your work, like I do in this blog.