Someone copied my work. How do I prove it is mine?

You search for your own work and find it somewhere else. A shop uses your photo. A print site sells your design. Somebody posted your painting as their own.

The first feeling is anger. The useful next step is calm: collect the facts while they are still there. This page explains which records help, in what order to act, and what a record can and cannot do.

This page is general information about the law in the United Kingdom. It is not legal advice. If the copy is costing you money, or the other side argues, ask a solicitor.

How Bernard helps

Bernard's job here is to keep the records for you, before you need them.

• Today, your website is a dated record. Publish new work on your Bernard site first, and the first public appearance is yours, at your address.
• Today, each photo's record card keeps the facts. Your media library records who owns each photo, its licence and every page that uses it, plus any credit or copyright line the file carried when it arrived (am I allowed to use this photo?).
• Today, the original is kept. Bernard keeps a private, untouched original of every new photo you add, with a fingerprint of the file and the date it arrived. Ask your assistant to show you the record for a photo (how do I prove it is mine?).
• Today, your name goes in. For the photos you say are yours, Bernard writes your name and copyright line into the copies it stores from then on (your name stays with your photos).
• Later: an evidence pack you can download in one go, to send to a platform or a solicitor if you find a copy.

Bernard supplies the record. A platform or a court decides what it proves. The rest of this page explains which records help and what to do first.

First, save the copy

Pages change and disappear. Before you contact anyone, record what you found:

• the full web address of the page;
• a screenshot of the whole page, with the date and time;
• the image file from that page, if you can save it; and
• any price, seller name or shop name on the page.

Write down when you found it and how. Keep everything in one folder.

Then, collect your own records

In the UK you do not need to register a work to own the copyright. GOV.UK says there is no register of copyright works in the UK. So when you need to show the work is yours, you show the facts around it. These records help:

• Your original file. The full-size photo straight from your camera or phone, or the high-resolution scan of your artwork. A copier usually has a smaller, compressed version.
• The versions before it. Other shots from the same session, sketches, drafts and work-in-progress photos. A person who copied one picture rarely has the pictures around it.
• Dates. When you made the work, when you first published it and where. Your own website, a dated social post, a newsletter or an invoice can all show this.
• The rights information in the file. Your name and copyright line, if they were written into the file. UK law protects this kind of information: a person who knowingly and without authority removes or changes electronic rights management information can face action from the copyright owner, where they know or have reason to believe this helps or hides an infringement.

No single record wins a dispute. Together they tell a clear story: you had the original, you had it first, and your name was on it.

What a "fingerprint" is

A fingerprint of a file is a short code calculated from every byte in it. If one byte changes, the code changes. If you keep the fingerprint of your original with the date you recorded it, you can later show that you held exactly that file on that date.

A fingerprint does not show who made the picture. It shows which file you had and when. That is still useful, because it stops an argument about whether your original is the real one.

Then, act in order

1. Check the copy is not licensed. Perhaps a client, a stock library or a past licence allows it. Licences, credit lines and "all rights reserved": what they really do explains what common permissions allow.
2. Ask politely. Many copies are mistakes. A short message can work: this is my work, here is where I first published it, please remove it or agree a licence.
3. Report it to the platform. Marketplaces and social networks usually have a form to report a copyright problem. Look for it in their help pages. Send your records with the report.
4. Ask a solicitor. If the copy is commercial, or the other side refuses, get advice. The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has a small claims track for the most straightforward cases, and its focus is mainly on claims about copyright, designs, passing off and trade marks. A solicitor can tell you if it suits your case.

Start the records before you need them

Most people look for records only after they find a copy. It is easier to keep them as you go:

• keep your full-size originals, and do not upload only the edited version (Bernard's private original does this for every new photo you add);
• put your name and copyright line in the file (Bernard does this for the photos you say are yours);
• publish new work on your own website first, so the first public date is yours; and
• keep the dates of your posts and newsletters.

Bernard also removes the hidden location, camera serial number and camera owner name from every photo you add, so the public copy gives away nothing private. What your photos say about you explains why.

Your next step in Bernard

Ask your assistant: "Record that I own these photos," and name your most important pieces of work. Their record cards then say they are yours, and Bernard writes your name into the copies it stores from then on. Keep your full-size originals somewhere safe as well.

Bernard is an AI-assisted website and marketing platform for small businesses. He builds a new site or moves an existing one, keeps it fast and readable to search and AI tools, and looks after it. Once measuring is on, he reads your numbers each week and suggests what to do next, with a button that does it. On the Nautilus Medium and Nautilus Large plans he also plans your marketing every six weeks and drafts your posts, emails and pages. Everything lands on a draft you approve. One flat price per site.

---

See what Bernard would do with your business. Already have a website? Paste its address and he measures it up, free, and shows you the new place before you decide anything. Starting from nothing? Tell him what you are building.