You did it. You have created a digital work of art! The hard part is now done and there is only one thing left to do. Share it online! And that’s exactly what you do. You click the upload button so your fans can like, share, and subscribe. And that’s the end of the story, right? Well, not quite.
As fans of independent digital artists, we can no longer remain silent. Your ownership is under threat. It’s happening every time you share your work on one of the many popular creator platforms out there. So if you want to stop this from happening and make a splash as a digital artist, read on!
So what is content ownership?
Having content ownership means you are able to legally create, distribute, monetize, and earn royalties from what is essentially your intellectual property.
For creators, having this level of ownership is creatively freeing because unscrupulous people can’t take your work and use it without your express permission in the first place. Sure, there’ll always be the smaller bandits who can’t help but copy and paste your cool things to their blog, but the bigger platforms hands are effectively tied if you own your work.
The dirty secret: Ownership may not be what it seems
So do you own your work when sharing it on Facebook, Instagram, DeviantArt, etc.? Well, the terms and conditions for these platforms do say that the copyright belongs to the person who created it — that’s you.
But that doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax, because these platforms still take away your ownership through royalty-free licensing agreements and permission to monetize that allow them to use your content without restriction and profit from your assets by placing ads anywhere they see fit.
This even goes as far as allowing them to copy, modify, reformat and distribute your content for marketing purposes without your consent. All you have to do is agree to the terms and conditions — you know, the big text dump we all tend to overlook when signing up for a website!
License to shill: So what do they want?
As a creator, you are a commodity that can bring so many benefits. You can be a success story for the brand to champion, appear in a company highlight reel, be featured in UGC hero posts, or simply bump up their business revenue by having ads peppered into your content.
By inserting a simple licensing agreement in your terms of service, these platforms can use your content without having to ask you for permission while also cutting you out of profitable business earnings if needed!
There are also rights to remove agreements that allow platforms to cover themselves in case you suddenly go rogue and post unwanted content. That’s just one more thing to consider if you’re worried about your content being deleted for any number of unmentioned reasons.
The future is decentralized
For creators that want to maintain control over their content, the best way to do so is by creating and managing their own website. However, if this is too costly or the reach would be smaller by going it alone, choosing a decentralized platform is the next best thing.
They’re the perfect solution because they allow creators to retain control over their work while also having complete authority over access, monetization, and partnership opportunities related to the creator content. What a creator uploads on the platform is theirs to own, there are no hidden licenses or agreements that will take the power away from creator rights.
As a creator, this means you have control over how your content is licensed by the platform, while also benefiting from the size of its audience, which is typically larger than if you were to go it alone with a personal website.
By joining a decentralized platform designed for creators, all rights to the content you create stays with you — not theoretically, but for real!
