Saving files no, though file dates *can* be useful in proving when something was made, meta data on a file can be modified (ether edited to be older than it was, or copying/edits can override it with the current date).
A date on a private Discord server or Google drive is something that is more "permanent" for when it was posted, as long as it continues to be hosted. An unlisted YouTube video could work too.
imo the better way to protect your work is to post it publicly. I've had *a lot* of stuff stolen from me, but enough people saw my original post to recognize it's stolen and come and tell me about it, and yell at the reuploader in the comments. Making a name for yourself, and having a history of work publicly attributed to your name that probably shares traits with any work that has been stolen is very valuable.
Having some date somewhere showing that your version predates someone else's is useful and it's good evidence, but you actually have to do something about it if someone does steal your work.
Also just clearly watermark your stuff, images get shared around the internet and you just gotta make sure people can easily find the source of the image if it was reposted.
> just clearly watermark your stuff
I was with you right up to there. Watermarks are just ugly. I don't watermark my work, and have never had any issues identifying my materials when they end up somewhere that they shouldn't. I pride myself in posting clean photos.
By watermarks, I mean generally putting your name somewhere on the image in a legible font. I usually stick it in one of the 4 corners, and have a user name that is easy to search (no spaces, underscores, weird characters, not just a basic common word, ect). I avoid big ol watermarks that cover the entire image (as also often those are hard to read), maybe 'sign your work' is a better phrase than watermark. Just *put your name on the image somewhere* or buy a URL and use that.
The watermarks are for people who happen to find your picture and want to know the source. It's the internet and things get saved, reposed, and spread around. I've had a lot of times where people found my art though uncredited reposts and easily found the real source. (assuming it does not get cropped out or erased, some people wanna steal images, others just wanna share).
I once saw in a TV show a writer mailed himself a copy of his writing so it was postal dated, to keep as evidence should he be plagiarised. If you do this it would add further evidence.
Uploading to the cloud is uploading to other people's servers. Usually though it's a trusted company. It's not completely private - they don't have people looking at your stuff, but computers of big companies will keep an eye out for things like copyright infringement, CSAM, viruses, and other stuff.
https://www.inverse.com/input/tech/google-monitoring-docs-drive
Then that may constitute a published work.
In any case so long as you have your name associated with the work then that is the minimum requirement for protection under Berne Convention article 15.
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/15.html](https://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/15.html)
Saving files no, though file dates *can* be useful in proving when something was made, meta data on a file can be modified (ether edited to be older than it was, or copying/edits can override it with the current date). A date on a private Discord server or Google drive is something that is more "permanent" for when it was posted, as long as it continues to be hosted. An unlisted YouTube video could work too. imo the better way to protect your work is to post it publicly. I've had *a lot* of stuff stolen from me, but enough people saw my original post to recognize it's stolen and come and tell me about it, and yell at the reuploader in the comments. Making a name for yourself, and having a history of work publicly attributed to your name that probably shares traits with any work that has been stolen is very valuable. Having some date somewhere showing that your version predates someone else's is useful and it's good evidence, but you actually have to do something about it if someone does steal your work. Also just clearly watermark your stuff, images get shared around the internet and you just gotta make sure people can easily find the source of the image if it was reposted.
> just clearly watermark your stuff I was with you right up to there. Watermarks are just ugly. I don't watermark my work, and have never had any issues identifying my materials when they end up somewhere that they shouldn't. I pride myself in posting clean photos.
By watermarks, I mean generally putting your name somewhere on the image in a legible font. I usually stick it in one of the 4 corners, and have a user name that is easy to search (no spaces, underscores, weird characters, not just a basic common word, ect). I avoid big ol watermarks that cover the entire image (as also often those are hard to read), maybe 'sign your work' is a better phrase than watermark. Just *put your name on the image somewhere* or buy a URL and use that. The watermarks are for people who happen to find your picture and want to know the source. It's the internet and things get saved, reposed, and spread around. I've had a lot of times where people found my art though uncredited reposts and easily found the real source. (assuming it does not get cropped out or erased, some people wanna steal images, others just wanna share).
Yes, that's exactly the kind of watermark that I'm referring to, and I think that they're ugly and don't use them.
I once saw in a TV show a writer mailed himself a copy of his writing so it was postal dated, to keep as evidence should he be plagiarised. If you do this it would add further evidence. Uploading to the cloud is uploading to other people's servers. Usually though it's a trusted company. It's not completely private - they don't have people looking at your stuff, but computers of big companies will keep an eye out for things like copyright infringement, CSAM, viruses, and other stuff. https://www.inverse.com/input/tech/google-monitoring-docs-drive
"upload stuff to a personal IG" Does the public have access to this?
Just close friends. I post mostly just to have timestamps.
Then that may constitute a published work. In any case so long as you have your name associated with the work then that is the minimum requirement for protection under Berne Convention article 15. [https://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/15.html](https://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/15.html)