Author: José Jiménez Vega
My name is José Jiménez Vega, better known as «The Captain» and I’m a Freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer. My Illustration Project is called «Nos Gusta el Mar» a Tailored Art Studio based in Panama City, where between paper and ink, I give birth to my stories inspired by the Sea and I am a Creative Commons user.
One year ago, I took the most important decision in my life; resigning to my 8-5pm, comfortable and well paid job, to do what my heart wanted: to be an artist.
The first step was to share my illustrations and artworks to the masses, for what the social media accounts are best for. In that moment I was not sure about the impact, I just begun to upload pictures of all my drawings to Facebook and Instagram, until one day I saw one of my pictures posted in a recognized account of Artist Pens Distributor. Even though they mentioned my account, I was a little bit worry about my web page, which is my portfolio at the same time.
I’m generating content all the time, so it turned a little bit difficult for me to decide not to post a picture with high potential, due to the fact that copycats may be using my work to promote themselves or making money from me, without me. Hiding myself behind a «Copyrights Reserved» titles, was not a complete solution, because that word is kind of «scary» for people who pay comissions or your fans, who could share your photos and generate traffic to your accounts or web page.
I heard then about Creative Commons, and assisted to a Talk that some members of the Team prepared in Panama City. It seemed at the beginning like «How is this going to stop copycats?» however, it was not a matter of protection at no risk, but a way to share your talents with agreed conditions, perfectly adjusted to our realities.
I decided then to license my webpages Nos Gusta el Mar and José Jiménez Vega under Attribution-Non Commercial-Non Derivatives License, to protect my artwork on the internet. Later on, I saw the same type of licenses on important web sites like Behance, and that was a proof to me, of the high impact it has.
So instead of dealing with Lawyers and Government Intellectual Property offices, I decided to upload my artworks in my web page licensed by Creative Commons, in order to feel save. This is not a threat, but a warning to viewers of what they are allowed to do with your intellectual property, and a polite way to establish a win-win relationships between you and your followers/customers.
At the end, nobody can copy your talent. They may copy your images and illustrations, but believe me, if you are an artist at heart, you’ll be a thousand steps ahead by the time somebody wants to copy or imitate you, and your followers will definitely recognize what’s yours and what’s not.
