Answers - Legal

Many artists have asked me recently about protecting their images from online theft. Downloading photos from websites is as easy as 1-2-3 so… what can you do to protect your work, and more importantly, should yo

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

u be worried about it?

1. Why is your work online?

Let’s start by examining the reasons you have put your work online in the first place. As an artist, having a website means that millions of people and

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

potential collectors are able to see images of your work for free. A digital portfolio can reach potential galleries, collectors, art critics, curators, museums, friends and family. To ensure your site will be s

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

en by as many people as possible, it needs to be easily accessed, should be easy to navigate, with clear images that are large enough to be seen properly on most monitors, yet not too big that they will take too

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

long to download .

Making it easy for everyone to see your work of course makes the images vulnerable to theft. What tools are available to prevent theft and are they effective?

2. Are the tools to protect

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

images effective?

There have been many attempts to prevent theft from websites, from disabling right-click to putting watermarks on images. Unfortunately, most of those have simple work-arounds that any tec

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

-savvy thief will know:
- Flash site: though you cannot download an image from a flash site, anyone can use the print screen function to get an image. Get a flash site because you like the look, not becau

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

e you are told it will protect your work from copyright infringement
- Disabling right-click: this will annoy anyone who legitimately wants to promote your work (a blog reviewer trying to post an image of y

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

ur work for example) yet is easily circumvented.
- Watermarks: to be effective, the watermarks would have to be so big that no one (including potential collectors!) would be able to see the image properly.

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

But, a watermark which allows the image to be seen unscathed can easily be removed by anyone with some Photoshop expertise. Watermarks, then, seem to be a doomed proposition.

3. Who are the thieves anyway?<

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

b>

Let’s stop for a minute and think about the purposes of our potential thieves. Possibly the most threatening would be someone stealing images for mass printing and distribution. Imagine walking into a Bed an

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

Bath, and seeing your paintings on shower curtains!

Here, your best defense is the web itself: images prepared for the web are usually not suitable for printing, because they are at a low resolution (72 dot-pe

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

-inch) and are typically fairly small (on average about 500 pixels or less than seven inches).

A licensing company usually has large pools of artists doing work for them, and basically do not need to steal art

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

that will reproduce poorly on their products, and lower their quality.

4. Can nothing be done?

If you are truly worried about copyright infringement, you can register your images with the government (se

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

the government site at www.copyright.gov). The current cost to register is $45. You do not need to register to obtain copyright. According to the law: Your work is under copyright protection the moment it i

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. You only need to have the copyright registered if you wish to take legal actions against

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

omeone: Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. Beware that an actual lawsuit against an

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

yone can be quite expensive, and you probably should be comfortable spending up to $5, 000 and risk not recovering any monies.

In conclusion, though the risks of copyright infringement do exist, artists should

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

robably not spend too much time worrying about their images being stolen for nefarious purposes. Most people who will download your images will do so with or without your permission, and usually will not have an

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

criminal intents (bloggers, galleries, friends, students). For those who do, bringing any legal action against them will be costly, time-consuming, and in the end, may not bring any reparations or compensations

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

Tags

Links

Answers - Copyrighting Infringement - Is The Threat Real For Artists?

Related Articles: