How to Copyright Artwork

How to Copyright Artwork (Digital & Physical)

Whether it's a painting, an illustration, or a digital piece, your artwork is copyrighted the moment you create it. Here's how to register it and how to keep dated proof — which matters more than ever for digital art.

Automatic protection for original art

Original visual art — paintings, drawings, illustrations, digital art, sculpture — is protected by copyright on creation. You hold the rights without doing anything.

Registering visual art

Register on Form VA (Visual Arts) at copyright.gov. Registration is what enables an infringement lawsuit and statutory damages, and it creates a public record of your claim.

Digital art and NFTs

Digital art is the most copied medium on the internet, and minting an NFT does not by itself register or transfer copyright — it records a token, not authorship. That makes independent, dated proof of creation especially valuable for digital artists.

Timestamp the file you actually made

Before you post a piece, sell a print, or mint a token, timestamp it. BlockchainSign computes a SHA-256 fingerprint of your file in your browser and writes it to Ethereum, giving you a lifetime certificate that your exact artwork existed on that date. If your work is reposted or claimed, you have tamper-proof evidence you created it first.

Frequently asked questions

Does minting an NFT copyright my art?

No. An NFT records ownership of a token on a blockchain; it does not register copyright or prove you authored the underlying art. A blockchain timestamp of your original file is what gives you dated proof of creation.

How do digital artists prove they made a piece first?

Timestamp the source file before publishing. A blockchain timestamp records that your exact file existed on a specific date — strong evidence if the work is reposted or claimed by someone else.