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Protect your music and videos

Your work is precious. These habits protect it from loss, theft and accidents.

1. Back up before anything else

The simplest rule is 3-2-1: three copies of anything precious, on two different kinds of storage (for example your computer and an external drive), with one copy somewhere else (another building, or an encrypted cloud copy). A website, including this one, is a place to share your work, not your only copy. Keep your own originals.

• Back up the project files, stems and samples, not just the finished track.
• Test restoring a backup once. A backup you have never opened is a hope, not a backup.
• Unplug or lock one backup so a virus or mistake cannot reach it.

2. Keep proof that you made it

If someone ever copies your work, dated evidence helps. Keep your project files, early drafts, recordings and exports, and keep the dates intact. Emailing yourself a copy or storing it in a cloud service adds an independent date. Consider joining a rights or collecting society in your country, and registering your work through your distributor, so your authorship is on record.

3. Credit and licence clearly

Put your name in the file's title or tags and on the page where you share it. If you want to allow reuse, say exactly how, for example with a Creative Commons licence. If you use other people's samples or loops, check their licence first, and keep a note of where each came from.

4. Know what a link does

On DarkDeck, an upload gets a link that is private by default: only people who have the link can listen or watch, unless you choose to make it public. That link works like a key. Anyone you give it to can pass it on. Share it only with people you are happy for it to reach, and do not post it where you would not post the work itself.

5. What hides inside your files

• Photos and videos can carry your location in their hidden details (metadata). Remove it before posting anything taken at home or somewhere private.
• Audio files can carry tags such as artist name, software used and comments. Check them before you share.
• The backgrounds of videos and photos can show addresses, screens, documents and other people. Look at the whole frame.
• Do not share unreleased work, stems or session files with people you do not know and trust.

6. Your name and handles

Claim the same name on the main places you plan to use, even if you are not ready to use them yet. It stops others taking it and makes you easier to find. Use a different strong password on each one, with two-step sign-in.

7. If someone copies your work

1. Take screenshots with the date visible, and save the address.
2. Use the platform's own copyright report form. Platforms act on proper reports.
3. Keep it polite and factual. Many cases are a misunderstanding.
4. For serious cases, get advice from a rights body or an adviser. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.

General guidance, kept up to date as best we can. It is not legal or professional advice.

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