![\"(c)](\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/hazel-dooney-selfvself7-380-165x250.jpg\" "\\"hazel-dooney-selfvself7-380\\"")
<\/a>(c) Hazel Dooney<\/p><\/div>\n
Do you worry about your art being stolen? \u00a0Some creative types worry about this incessantly.<\/p>\n
The progressive, successful ones don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
THE OLD WAY OF THINKING: <\/span><\/strong> The old way was to fiercely guard your images from any possible unauthorized use, even if it meant not letting many people see them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I had an older gentleman tell me that he was afraid to put his paintings on the internet, for fear of someone stealing his ideas!<\/p>\n I told him that was the least of his worries; he should be more worried about the fact that no one is seeing his paintings.<\/strong><\/p>\n A NEW WAY OF THINKING:<\/span><\/strong> You can hang onto your copyrights and control your artwork while at the same time being generous.<\/p>\n You can do this by easing up a little.<\/p>\n Look into using a Creative Commons License<\/a>, like the wildly successful, famous and progressive artist, Hazel Dooney<\/a>.<\/p>\n She uses the Creative Commons “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative” License\u00a0to hold onto her copyrights and have control over her art, but at the same time allow others to use it for non-commercial use. \u00a0(That’s how I was able to legally “grab” her image for this blog post)<\/p>\n THE JPG THEIVES (ILLEGAL FRAME GRABS):<\/strong><\/span> A concern from the old way of thinking was that if you post images on the internet, people will \u201cgrab\u201d those images and use them for themselves.<\/p>\n I say, welcome the frame grabs!<\/p>\n ALLOWING JPG GRABS:<\/span><\/strong> Over a decade ago, our www.drewbrophy.com<\/a> web-guy suggested that we set up Drew\u2019s art images so that they cannot be \u201cillegally\u201d grabbed and printed out.<\/p>\n Drew said, \u201cLet them do it.\u00a0 I want fans all over the world to be able to print out my art.\u201d\u00a0 And this generosity has worked to build Drew\u2019s fan base.<\/p>\n Just recently a new art collector came to pick up a rather large, expensive Drew Brophy painting.\u00a0 He was excited to meet Drew in person.\u00a0 He confessed that when he was just 15 years old, he had grabbed images off of drewbrophy.com and taped them to his bedroom wall.\u00a0 He spent his teenage years looking at those images.\u00a0 Now he\u2019s all grown up and can afford the real thing.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be a collector for life.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Tattoo of Drew's Sunsplash Painting<\/p><\/div>\n THE TATTOO GENERATION:<\/span><\/strong> There\u2019s no greater, lasting branding platform than having your art tattooed on someone\u2019s back.<\/p>\n This is another form of \u201cthievery\u201d that Drew and I approve of.\u00a0 Hundreds of people are walking around in the world with Drew\u2019s art tattooed on their bodies, without his consent.<\/p>\n They are walking billboards.\u00a0 And we see the value in that.<\/p>\n STYLE THIEVES:<\/span><\/strong> Sometimes I get bummed out when I see Drew\u2019s paintings being copied.\u00a0 I especially get stung when I see that someone has chosen to paint entirely in his style \u2013 and the reason this bothers me is that I don\u2019t want anyone getting that persons art confused with Drew\u2019s.<\/p>\n But Drew, being the wise sage that he is, has no problem with this.<\/p>\n Drew claims that the more people that copy his style, the more it\u2019s apparent that he\u2019s made an impact on the art world.<\/strong><\/span> And this is an idea I can buy.\u00a0 Reluctantly.<\/p>\n WHAT ABOUT A COMPANY MAKING MONEY OFF OF ART THEY\u2019VE STOLEN: <\/span>We\u2019ve had many infringements over the years from companies, and here\u2019s how I handle it:<\/p>\n IF YOU\u2019RE GOOD, INFRINGEMENT WILL HAPPEN: <\/span><\/strong> People will steal your art, if it\u2019s making an impact.\u00a0 Accept that.<\/p>\n Go after the companies that steal it and are making money off of it.<\/p>\n But for everyone else, see it as a way to share your art and ideas with the world.\u00a0 After all, isn\u2019t that one of the reasons you\u2019re an artist?<\/p>\n![\"Tattoo](\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tattoo-of-drews-sunsplash-painting-150x112.jpg\" "\\"tattoo-of-drews-sunsplash-painting\\"")
<\/a>\n
![\"Spunk](\"https:\/\/drewbrophy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/maria-brophy-looking-hot-150x100.jpg\" "\\"Spunk")
<\/a>Maria \u201cSpunk\u201d Brophy<\/p>\n