Did you know that on top of it being April Fool’s Day, it’s also Don’t Be A Fool Day? While I think tasteful jokes are a whole lotta fun, one thing I take very seriously is copyright infringement. There seems to be a lot of it going around lately and it’s the artists who suffer. Using other people’s creations/work for your own profit without asking them + licensing their work + paying them, is poor form and it’s illegal. Unfortunately, there are either a lot of people out there that don’t know this, or a lot that just don’t care.

We put blood, sweat, and tears into our work. It’s our livelihood. Let’s face it, many artists struggle to make a living, so taking (a.k.a., stealing) our work without compensation hurts big time. Heck, even if we were rich, it’s still flat out wrong.

Today, us artists are taking a stand by protecting our creative copyright. At Oh My! Handmade Goodness, we are declaring it “Don’t Be A Fool Day.”  While an artist’s work is technically protected by copyright the moment they create it, enforcing an infringement is a much smoother process if you have actually registered your work with the United States Copyright Office.

So let’s get some copyright action going on today! You can register one piece of work for $35 and here is a tutorial on how to do that. Plus, visit the Don’t Be A Fool Day post for more information about protecting your work and also to spread the word!

You can grab that lovely badge created by Abigail Page from up above too and proudly display it on your website or blog. Have a happy day because you ain’t no fool!