something to remember when you put an artist’s images on Pinterest or some other site and do not include proper attribution.

Read The Oatmeal and copyright bullshit he went through. Get it?

Copyright Registration
for Works of
the Visual Arts
Copyright is a form of protection provided by U.S. law to authors of “original
works of authorship,” including “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.” The
owner of copyright in a work has the exclusive right to make copies, prepare
derivative works, sell or distribute copies, and display the work publicly.
Anyone else wishing to use the work in these ways must have the permission of
the author or someone who has derived rights through the author.
A work is automatically protected by copyright when it is created, that is,
“fixed” in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. Neither registration in the
Copyright Office nor publication is required for copyright protection. There
are, however, certain advantages to registration, including establishment of a
public record of the copyright claim.

Copyright Notice
Before March 1, 1989, the use of a copyright notice was mandatory on all
published works, and any work first published before that date should have
carried a notice. For works first published on or after March 1, 1989, use of a
copyright notice is optional. For more information about copyright notice,
see Circular 3, Copyright Notice, available on the Copyright Office website at
http://www.copyright.gov.
Publication
Copyright law defines “publication” as the distribution of copies of a work to
the public by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease, or lending.
Offering to distribute copies to a group of people for purposes of further distribution
or public display also constitutes publication. A public display does not
in itself constitute publication.
A work of art that exists in only one copy, such as a painting or a statue, is
not regarded as published when the single existing copy is sold or offered for
sale in the traditional way, such as through an art dealer, gallery, or auction
house. A statue erected in a public place is not necessarily published.
When the work is reproduced in multiple copies, such as in reproductions of
a painting or castings of a statue, the work is published when the reproductions
are publicly distributed or offered to a group for further distribution or public
display.