I would like to post some of my designs on photo sharing networks like flickr, in order to promote my shop.

What are some recommended ways to do this without risking the designs being stolen?

There is no safe way to post designs, especially on social networks. You can reduce the risks a bit by making the image as small as practical, and by having your copyright on the image itself. There is a really big difference in the rights to enforce unregistered copyright, and registered copyright. Making sure you have actually registered the image (bulk registration makes this affordable) gives some bite if you have to enforce your rights.

quote:

Originally posted by Tanith:
There is no safe way to post designs, especially on social networks. You can reduce the risks a bit by making the image as small as practical, and by having your copyright on the image itself. There is a really big difference in the rights to enforce unregistered copyright, and registered copyright. Making sure you have actually registered the image (bulk registration makes this affordable) gives some bite if you have to enforce your rights.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/elmarb...ds-up-as-czech-a-7ve

Nothing is "safe"

I've had designs stolen and sold at a local event (I am sure the person had no idea I actually live in the same city). They clearly just right-clicked and saved the image, upsized it and slapped it on a cheap white tshirt. I will find out this weekend if they're back at this year's event (ie was last year profitable for them).

So what I do now is, post the design on the t-shirt. I usually grab a screenshot of the product itself. Visit http://www.cafepress.com/lesbianfunworld to see what I mean.

Makes it harder to steal the actual design.

Since I work primarily with public domain images, I post sample pics at no more than 400 pixels high.
I also modify the art a bit (change logo color, delete text or a background element), so if it shows up elsewhere, I can prove it was duped off my source material, not a scan of their copy of the book or poster as they might claim.