Hi

My daughter has just designed an album cover for a fellow student at uni, who is in a band. She put a lot of work into it- it's all been her original artwork scanned and digitized for commercial printing. On the back of that she has been asked to do more. She has just texted me

(quote)

"I kinda got a job at a record label based in norwich, iv designed two bands logos n a poster, n been asked to do (another) band's album art- front,back n insides n stuff, so cool, do u know if i have to join sumthin to protect my artwork?"

do any of you professionals know how to advise her?

 

I can give some advice even though I'm not a professional yet, tell her to get them to write up something legal before she gives them ANYTHING its okay giving portfolio pieces etc. to show them what she's capable of but if they're actually making her do work for them for free unless they plan on giving her a job she needs a legal contract written up otherwise if things go south and they screw her over it won't hold up in court.

Ok thanks Lethn. Sounds a bit more than she was expecting, I'm not sure what she has agreed to -the text is all I know .

I thought (maybe naively) that intellectual copyright counted for something if she added  c 2009 with her name, to the artwork.

Is there an artists' equivalent of the MCPS/PRS/PPL.?

 

There isn't an art equivalent of MCPS as far as I'm aware. Legally (in the UK at least), as soon as you create a piece of artwork, the copyright belongs to you. So she will own copyright on the work unless she actively signs those rights over to somebody else. Of course, owning copyright, and proving ownership are two different things, so she would be better off putting everything in writing before doing the work via a simple contract. That way both parties know what they are getting, who owns what, and how much one party is paying the other for doing the work.

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Thanks Banj. I'll pass the message on

I do covers for bands and varrious stuff like that. Get her to type up a contract and get the bands and the label to sign it. basicly say that she still owns the copyright and they can only have limited use.

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visit my website at mitchellnelson.deviantart.com

Thanks mitchell. Have you got the cover(s) you did in your gallery? would love to see it.(I love album artwork)

As soon as you create a work, you own the copyright, but can license use of the image-- which is essentially what she's doing by allowing the band to use her artwork to promote themselves. However, if she's been hired to do work on a larger scale you need to make sure she has a contract that clearly states what uses the band is allowed to make of her designs-- are they just for album covers? Could they use them for a t-shirt? etc. Also note that if she sells them rights for one use (album cover) and they later want to make a t-shirt of it, they need to pay her again for those rights. Which is another important point-- payment. Any work at all should be paid for. She shouldn't work for free. That should be in the contract too-- it's much easier to go after people for not paying if you've got a legal document writing everything out. You can find sample artist contracts online that should help you in working one out.

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"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."

Yumeki Studios

Thanks for your advice, Viridis. You're right of course. It can be easy to be altruistic, especially with fellow students.