Creator Know-How

How to Protect Your Content from Copyright Infringement

April 23, 2022
  •  
3 min read
Harvel
Toucan

It’s a question that every content creator and developer asks themselves – “how can I protect my content?”. For every original creator online, there’s a dozen waiting in the wings to steal your content and use it for their own gain. It might be to boost their online following or even cash in on your expertise and knowledge.

There are active steps that every designer and content creator should be taking to protect their content against copyright infringement. Adopting these steps can limit the chances of your content being stolen and give you extra peace of mind.

Put Your Name on Your Content

Every photographer has a watermark – and all content creators should have the same. You want to mark your work as your own, whether it’s a graphic design or a pdf course. Be smart and think about where you place your name or logo. You don’t want it to be somewhere that a thief could easily crop out with a basic PDF editor.

Make sure your name or logo appears throughout your content. If you’re selling a course that is available in a multi-page PDF, ensure that your name appears on every page. It’s also a good idea to naturally work your name into the content, making it harder for an online pirate to alter your content for re-seller or redistribution.Putting your name or logo onto your content is not only a part of your efforts to prevent copyright infringement - it’s part of your branding. It’s an easy way to protect your content and is something you should already be doing.

Watermark Example by @bearbrickija

Make a Plan for Content Distribution

You want to be thinking about potential copyright infringement before you even upload your content online. The more prepared you are, the less likely you are to fall victim to infringement. You need to plan and consider which platforms you’re going to upload your content to. Some websites are easier to steal content from than others. YouTube is one of the most popular, yet it takes only a few clicks for a copyright thief to gain an exact copy of your content.

Look out for platforms that come with an extra layer of security to protect your content from being stolen by a thief. These platforms prevent things like screen recording. They have mechanisms to put you in control of who can download your content. Doing this due diligence early can save you a headache in the long run.


Utilize Digital Rights Tools

As a content creator, you have rights over your original content. Take proactive steps and utilize these digital rights through innovative tools or the help of a third party to track your content and its usage online. At Harvel, our mission is to offer content protection for next-generation content creators. We crawl the internet for illegal copies of your content, and through DMCA Takedowns, we effectively de-index the links from Google, as well as the hosting site.

If you are selling some sort of content online, chances are it is already out there for free. Question is, why aren't you preventing all this revenue leak? Sign up with Harvel today!

Harvel
Toucan
On behalf of the whole team who takes part in writing blogs essential to creators and the creator economy.

More news

Creator Know-How

Manually File a DMCA Takedown to Protect Your Intellectual Property & Reputation - FREE

Regardless of how you slice it, piracy is a criminal offense. There are many people, young and old, who believe that sharing artworks, assets, games or music is merely a way to save money or help the community. But that’s easy to say when they aren’t the original creators of the content and aren’t affected by the significant economic harm digital piracy brings.

Read Article
Creator Know-How

How Do Digital Pirates Make Money

Regardless of how you slice it, piracy is a criminal offense. There are many people, young and old, who believe that sharing artworks, assets, games or music is merely a way to save money or help the community. But that’s easy to say when they aren’t the original creators of the content and aren’t affected by the significant economic harm digital piracy brings.

Read Article
Creator Know-How

What Impact Do Pirates Have on The Creator Economy?

Most content creators like to put their heads in the sand. They think that copyright infringement and online piracy don’t have a major impact on their day-to-day operations.

Read Article