The Act contains changes to UK copyright law which permit the commercial exploitation of images where information identifying the owner is missing, so-called “orphan works”, by placing the work into what’s known as “extended collective licensing” schemes. Since most digital images on the internet today are orphans – the metadata is missing or has been stripped by a large organisation – millions of photographs and illustrations are swept into such schemes.
The Act also fails to prohibit sub-licensing, meaning that once somebody has your work, they can wholesale it. This gives the green light to a new content-scraping industry, an industry that doesn’t have to pay the originator a penny.
The following comment is sort of cute in its naivete. You can’t remove your work from the internet entirely, and any wahoo with a scanner can orphan your work in two seconds by altering it, or scanning it from a book, original drawing, or photo, and uploading it for you. No pesky metadata to remove!
In practice, you’ll have two stark choices to prevent being ripped off: remove your work from the internet entirely, or opt-out by registering it. And registration will be on a work-by-work basis.
The original Orphan Works legislation did not make it through the Senate here, but you can bet it will be back. I blogged about it extensively
My old blog was shut down in January 2009, but I was able to recover the original content of my Orphan Works Bill post, dated September 2008. Here it is in its entirety, after the cut. I love you, O My People, but not enough to take the time to restore the links. I’m on deadline.
So, many years ago, I hired some poor fan on the skids to help me out around the house and office, and what did I get for my pains? Nearly two decades later, he’s claiming he was never paid, which is a big fat lying liars who lie Lie, and that he was SEEEEKRITLY my inker. And for awhile he was also claiming he was SEEEEKRITLY my boyfriend. Ugh. Schmuck. I whinedblogged about it here.
Now that we have social media, we can share these creeptastic stories with our peeps on our private pages. I feel so much better when I know I’m not the only eye in the center of the Stupidstorm.
LEVEL BLACK: The Delusional Jerk
These people are either lying or exaggerating level green or yellow stories to make them much more interesting than they actually are. They consider themselves in a higher caste than the people they hang out with, and they will drop names like its no tomorrow in order to illustrate just how much better they are from you. However, the secret is out: these folks are full of shit.
Several of my pro peeps shared their tales of woe with me, of jerkasaurus assistants, and other minor functionaries, whose conflations caused drama where’er they did tred.
Thanks to the delightful Cully Hamner, I now share with you this tale of the Art Assistant From Hell, He Who Thinks Spotting Blacks makes him…An INKER.
It’s amazing to have to explain to an assistant that filling in blacks *isn’t* actually inking. I have a similar story with a guy who was interning at Gaijin, filling in the backs and such. He was telling people on some message board that he was my inker on BLUE BEETLE. So I sat him down, poured the pressure on him. He kept trying to tell me that since he was filling in my blacks– putting ink on a page, in other words– that he was actually the inker. He would not hear any logic otherwise.
At a con sometime later, after he was no longer our assistant, he told me he was working for “DC Animation.” When I questioned further, he admitted that he had simply done some unpaid designs for a group of people trying to PITCH a show to WB Animation using DC characters. When I told him this didn’t mean he was “working for DC,” he said that he WAS– he simply hadn’t been hired yet.
Still later, I caught him on another board telling people he was writing the next Superman movie “for DC Comics.” So, I called him out again: DC Comics doesn’t produce the movies, I said. It’s for a different part of DC, he said. Who are you working for, I asked. He gave me a bogus name. When I told him how many DC people I had contact with, and that no one seemed to know the name he gave up, he freaked out, and said he didn’t owe anyone an explanation. Weird thing is that the other posters on this board defended him…!
It was just stunning that this little asshole thought he could bullshit someone who *actually* does many of the things he *claims* to do…
Alas, Cully, I’m sorry you had to endure that. It is almost exactly like what I went through with Doctor Lizardo, and we know many pro peeps who share similar stories. Thanks for sharing yours.
And remember kids: spotting blacks is not inking. You have to earn those chops. You don’t get the pro bucks and the pro respect unless you have the pro skills. There is an order of magnitude between what you are doing as piece work, and actual creative work. The fact that you don’t know that is why you are where you are, and why Cully Hamner is where he is.
On Wednesday, March 13th, join copyright, trademark, and art law attorney Linda Joy Kattwinkel as she answers some of the most common yet complex questions that surface for creatives almost daily. In fact, you are invited to submit your questions prior to the event to help guide the dialogue.
Submit your question for Linda Joy Kattwinkel by emailing us at [email protected]
Currently planned topics of discussion for this live webinar include:
Dealing with late payments from clients
Publicity rights when working with the likeness of someone famous
Copyright issues, infringement and fair use
Agreements and contracts
Difference between common sense and the law
Dealing with unauthorized copying of your work online (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Learn more about this webinar and register here.
About Linda Joy Kattwinkel
Linda Joy Kattwinkel is a visual artist as well as an attorney. She practices primarily copyright, trademark, and arts law. Ms. Kattwinkel received her arts training at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she graduated cum laude in 1975 with a B.F.A. in communication arts. Thereafter she worked for thirteen years as a graphic artist in editorial, corporate and advertising design and typography. She has designed many corporate and product logos, and has produced illustrations for educational books and other publications. Today she paints in plein air and at her studio in San Francisco, where she sometimes participates in Open Studios. Her artwork has been shown in more than twenty-five museum and gallery exhibitions.
Ms. Kattwinkel received her law degree cum laude from Hastings College of the Law in 1991. At Hastings, she co-founded, edited, and designed the logo for the Hastings Women’s Law Journal. Ms. Kattwinkel published an article and artwork in the journal, On Motherhood and Working, 3 Hastings Women’s LJ1 (1992). During law school Ms. Kattwinkel externed with the Honorable Marilyn Hall Patel, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California. Ms. Kattwinkel was admitted to the California Bar in 1992. Before joining Owen, Wickersham & Erickson, Ms. Kattwinkel served as a long-term judicial clerk to the Honorable Claudia Wilken, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California. Ms. Kattwinkel received her alternate dispute resolution training from California Lawyers for the Arts and The Center for Mediation and Law. She has been mediating and arbitrating intellectual property and arts related disputes since 1987.
An excellent outcome and major kudos to Archie McPhee for do-right in this situation. Apparently, a freelancer did the dead with the art director none the wiser. Miss Monster posted this in her FB page: “So good news on the Archie McPhee/ Krampus thing! The art director immediately emailed me the same day i posted that link. Not only will they be compensating me, there may be plans for us to work together on some goodies next year. They were extremely attentive and understanding with that situation and im pretty impressed. A great ending! ”
Well done!
UPDATE! While Archie McPhee does the do-right, Enchanted Witchery, not so much. Check out this stone cold lift of Miss Monster’s art, appearing on several products at this shop, which claims all work is created in house. I’m thinking…not.
Archie McPhee and Co like her work so much, it appears they have appropriated her designs for a holiday line of product featuring Miss Monster’s illo of Krampus, a traditional European boogieman who delivers bummer gifts, bad tidings, and a sound thrashing to bad boys and girls at Christmas.
Krampus gets his big day on December 6, when grownups drink a lot and dress as this icky devil to scare the goodness into children.
I think the internet needs to pay a visit to the folks at Archie McPhee and Co, and convince them to fork over some dough to Miss Monster to pay her for the illegal use of her work.
Because creator rights didn’t evaporate the day they invented the internet.
Studio insurance is something a lot of artists go without. I am both under-insured, and unprepared for emergencies, so I’ve been online mucking about. Here’s what I found.
The Craft Emergency Relief Fund is a great resource for artists. You hear about this or that creator losing everything in a flood or fire, but never hear of cartoonists availing themselves of public services like this. We all need to be more aware of our rights and resources.
The site is offering a free series of webinars for teaching artists, trainers, and other professionals. CLICK HERE.
The organization also offers a handy studio preparedness reference kit called The Studio Protector Guide for Emergencies. This wall guide holds all your important resources and contact information. Proceeds go to benefit The Craft Emergency Relief Fund.
Here’s a handy video:
I’m of the opinion that keeping this in your studio is not necessarily the best idea. Maybe you should get two: one for the studio, and another for a safe place. If the studio burns down, you’ve lost your resources guide.
My medical costs have skyrocketed since I first wrote this post a few years ago on health insurance for artists.
I’ve restored some data, but the most important link is the Artists Health Insurance Resource Network, which has been folded back into The Actors Fund website.
This is the most comprehensive directory for creators of all kinds on the internet. You do not need to be an actor to avail yourself of The Actors Fund benefits. If you work in entertainment, you are eligible. New Yorkers who work in the entertainment industry have access to the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic. This may include artists who have Warner or Marvel Entertainment on their resume. Check it out.
I am baffled, perplexed, yea and verily, utterly flummoxed when I hear of poor, starving artists going up against big bad corporations and nefarious industry individuals, and these poor creators are utterly unable to afford legal advice or representation, when I REPEATEDLY RECOMMEND THE VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS to them AS IF I AM CHANTING A FREAKING MANTRA!!!
By the way, I would like to point out that the person who first directed me to the VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS was Bill Mantlo, a former comics creator who took up the law as a public defender. Mantlo was badly injured in a freak accident while rollerblading and has been living with brain damage ever since.
Mantlo did me a great service, spent hours with me going over my case, helped secure me a link up with the VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS, and kept in touch with me until the matter was resolved. My total financial outlay over several year’s worth of legal struggles was only $1,000. I call that a bargain. It saved my project A Distant Soil.
I am eternally grateful to Bill Mantlo. Thank you for your kindness, your decency, and for giving me the information that I was able to pass along to other creators who also had very satisfactory results with the VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS.
In fact, the next time I donate to a legal fund, my money is going to the VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS.
VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOR THE ARTS SERVICES, all right there online for anyone to read, any day, any time, for months and months and months:
Legal Services
VLA delivers legal services and legal information to over 10,000 members of the arts community each year. For more information call The Art Law Line : 212·319·ARTS (2787), ext.1
Education
VLA plays an important role in educating individual artists, arts professionals within arts and cultural institutions, attorneys, students and the general public about legal and business issues that affect artistic and creative endeavors. For more information on our classes, workshops, and panels, please click here, or call our Art Law Line at at 212.319. (ARTS) 2787 x1.
Advocacy
From its inception, VLA has played an important role as an advocate on behalf of the arts community in different ways, ranging from participation in litigation, making public statements about matters of interest to the arts community, and making recommendations about pending legislation.
Art & Law Residency
As legal and judicial issues now permeate every aspect of social, political and cultural life, artistic production is no longer immune. The Art & Law Residency provides an intellectual and artistic setting for participants to engage in ongoing discussions and debates that examine the overlap and disconnect between artistic production and the law from historical, social, ethical and intellectual standpoints. Using law as both a discourse and medium, new visual artwork and critical writing will come into being through the Program. All the participants will also gain experience and knowledge they can carry into the future beyond the Program.
MediateArt
MediateArt pairs artists with mediators to mediate or resolve arts-related disputes outside the traditional legal framework. Through MediateArt, qualifying clients may elect to use this service for negotiation counseling as well as contract negotiations.
But wait! there’s more!
VLA serves artists and arts organizations in every discipline, including: acting, animation, architecture, book making, choreography, composition, three-dimensional design, costume design, craft and folk arts, dance, directing, fashion, film, graphic design, installation art, literary arts, modeling, multi-media, music, photography, playwriting, poetry, printmaking, screenwriting, sculpture, songwriting, theater, video arts, video game design, visual arts, and web design.
Access to VLA’s pro bono legal services is available to low-income artists and nonprofit arts organizations. VLA’s other services and programs are open to the entire arts community. For more information about VLA’s services, please call the Art Law Line at 212·319·ARTS (2787), ext. 1.
Wow. Look. Real money. Real lawyers. Real power. Real experience.
”
