coyleart

time for action on the Orphan Works bill

Visit this website for an easy and fast way to make a statement about the new proposed "orphan works" legislation to your members of congress.

I have read the bill myself and made sure that I've taken a thorough look at both sides of the issue, because as someone who appreciates the cause of librarians, documentarians, and education; as a musician and someone who benefits from some of the free and open exchange of creativity on the web and as someone who benefits greatly from new technology, I want to be sure that I'm not contributing to an overly clamped-down copyright minefield for people who have legitimate need for using truly orphaned works.

As an illustrator though, I make my living from licensing the usage rights to my artwork - and after reading the new legislation, it's obvious to me that there is no specific language that does nearly enough to protect visual works that are created specifically for commercial purposes. And there are far more burdens placed on individual artists to register and police their work than ever before.

Walk in to any bookstore, retail outlet, home furnishings store, fabric store, open a magazine, you will encounter hundreds even thousands of works of art and photography every day that enhance the commercial value of products for sale. There must be a way to maintain the commercial value of these works for the individuals who created them (who are making a living at it) and still allow for researchers and those who make documentaries to do their work too. The language as it exists now is far too broad and it doesn't serve commercial artists and photographers at all. Please take a look at the website I mentioned above; in 3 minutes you can send a letter to your representatives and get back to work.

orphan works update

There is more is happening on the copyright front, and this is an update to my previous post below. Here's some more information from The Illustrators' Partnership:

PicScout is one of the technologies being developed for locating visual art. On March 13, they touted their capabilities to the House IP subcommittee. They envision a future registry in which...a searcher would feed in a desired image and if there’s a match, get back only the artist’s name and contact information – or be told there is “no match.” Let’s say you haven’t registered a particular image in the system. In that case, the best technology in the world won’t find it there. So unless every picture you’ve ever done is registered, the searcher’s failure to find a match would actually orphan a non-orphaned image.

It seems to me that changing the existing copyright law to require that artists must register every single image in their libraries with a 3rd party, lest they become free game for infringement, is too heavily weighted in favor of users of imagery rather than creators. What was the purpose of copyright law in the first place? To maintain the worth and commercial viability of creative works for people who create. Current law doesn't require artists to register images at all, or even use a copyright symbol (although I do both as much as I possibly can). Under current law, if I don't register an image it is not considered "orphaned," and therefore available for use without permission - users have to assume somebody owns it and they need to get permission before using it, or risk being penalized for infringement.

I am excited about new image-tracking technology that is being developed like the technology at PicScout, I'm just concerned about it raising the bar too high for individual artists to reasonably meet while opening up an unfair advantage for larger entities, who are better staffed and have the resources to exploit newly "orphaned" works of art and imagery. This new law as proposed would remove "the teeth" that would normally compel someone to get permission before using an image. We need our teeth! Stay tuned!!

copyright legislation back on the table

Did you know that new legislation is being discussed and soon to be voted on that actually makes it easier for others to infringe on your copyrights?? And you should know "the other side" is working very hard to make this a reality. They want to set the bar lower for what an individual or organization has to do to prove they made a reasonable search for the artist who created the work they want to use, avoiding getting permission from or paying compensation to the artist.

It's Orphan Works legislation time again, and for all of us who earn our livings selling the usage rights to our artwork, it's time to stand up and be counted. If you aren't already aware of this issue, visit The Illustrators' Partnership website for more information and links.

Here's an exerpt from a statement by Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner to The Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property at the U.S. House of Representatives, March 20, 2008

Under this legislation, as we understand it, effective copyright control to a work, including works of visual art, would require submission of a copy or copies of the work to as yet-to-be created private registration companies that would use untested technologies to scan images submitted by unlicensed users. These users would then be excused from any liability for infringement unless the legitimate rights holder responded within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use the copyrighted work. This is a radical departure from any existing business models or practices in the field of copyright.

Further, it radically abridges the fundamental principal of exclusive rights granted to creators under the copyright law, and creates a sweeping compulsory license permitting large scale unauthorized use of not only older works, the provenance of which may be difficult to determine, but also of the valuable contemporary works that are the economic life blood of those in our profession.

Soon the IPA will be asking for artists to write to their representatives in congress - without the support of individual artists, our representatives will naturally be convinced that we don't really care. So please visit this link to the homepage on the IPA's website and sign up in the box at the bottom of the page to join the email list. This way, you can stay up to date on the progress of the legislation and you will know when to send emails and letters to your representatives.

Back in 2006, when this bill first came before the committee, artists and photographers voiced their concerns and it was tabled for more discussion and work, so it's time for our attention once again. Anyone who draws pictures for a living knows what a great job it is, even when we struggle to make a living - we certainly can't afford new laws that will make it even more difficult! Thanks for reading this, and please pass it along...

Online Copyright!

As I type this, the copyright office is beta-testing a new online system for registering copyrights. You can read all about it here. This should really help artists get their work registered much faster than before. And less expensively too – online registrations will cost $35. (And the old-fashioned way will still be available for a $45 fee.)

Copyright Cleanup Part 3

this is the final part of a multi-entry post on streamlining your copyright registration process. See part 1 or part 2, or click on the copyrights category at the right to see all the entries together.

Here are some things I try to do to keep things rolling along:

Keep a copyright binder. (You could do this with folders in a file cabinet too) My 3 ring binder holds copies of each registration group I submit, with copies of the forms and b&w copies of the art (I put my check stub and FedEx airbill copy in there too). When the certificate finally arrives from the copyright office, I put it with it’s group (see part 1 on registering groups of art). I keep a log page at the front of the binder for quick reference. Tabs separate the groups and the whole binder can contain a year or two’s worth of art.

Make a step by step list. I’ve made a pages file (or word doc) of my procedure, so I have the instructions handy when I’m ready to work on copyrights. It's too easy to forget the details of anything systematic like this. Now I have it all written down and don’t have to waste any time thinking, I just move through the steps. I keep this procedure list in the folder with my copyright forms.

Folder system. On my hard drive, I have a “copyrights” folder that contains 3 subfolders:

“forms/procedures” (see above and part 1)

“to be registered” - in this folder I drop art as I finish it, so it can accumulate for a future group registration.

“current registrations” - I drop my finished group of art files here, but only after I have mailed it off to the copyright office. Eventually I will delete these folders, once I have my registration certificate arrives, because this is just a redundant set of art files, but it’s good to have them in case the copyright office calls or mails me with a question and I need to look something up.

The trick to keeping things from piling up: When I have 10 minutes to spare during the week, I just visit the "to be registered" folder and start labeling the artwork with titles, or print out deposit copies. I like to keep a fed ex envelope somewhere near my desk, so I can drop the hard copies there.

It’s amazing how much copyright filing work you can get done with a little 10 minute burst here and there. I just pay a visit to my binder, my copyrights folder, or my fedex envelope every once in a while. And it adds up!

I hope this helps to make registering the copyright to your artwork a little easier!

By the way,I’d love to hear from anyone who has a comment or a suggestion from their own copyrighting experience.

Copyright Cleanup Part 2

This is part of a multi-entry post on my copyright registration process. See part 1 here, or click the copyright category to your right, to see all posts in this series.
As I finish a new piece of art, I drop a copy of the file in my “to be registered” folder. Once I’ve accumulated a group of works (before publication) I assign the group a title, usually something like: “Laura Coyle Unpublished Illustrations, July 2007”

As I get ready to register the group, I add a label to each Illustrator file, somewhere below the artwork, that includes the title of the group and the number and title of each individual piece. The label might read something like this:

Laura Coyle Unpublished Illustrations, June 2007
1. Ducks In a Row
©Laura Coyle 2007 www.coyleart.com

(for each subsequent label, I just change the number and title of the piece)

After my files are labeled, I make a color ink jet copy of each piece to send to the copyright office, as well as a b&w copy that I will keep as a record in my copyright binder.

Now I’m ready to fill out the forms (Form VA and Form CON) You can type directly on the pdf form and print copies to save them, or print the forms and fill them out by hand.

Form VA: In space 1 I put the group title (for example: “Laura Coyle Unpublished Illustrations, June 2007”) and "illustrations" in the blank marked "nature of the work." This is unpublished work, so I move to space 2a and fill in my name and other information, checking the box for 2-dimensional artwork. Next I fill in space 3a (skipping 3b for unpublished work), and then I fill in space 4. I skip down to 7b, enter my contact info and then in space 8, I check the author box, fill out the rest of spaces 8 and 9, sign, and I’m done! (almost done, on to Form CON)

Form CON: This is a "continuation form," so it gives you extra room to add to a space you filled out in form VA. In this case, I need to add information to Form VA’s space 1, the title of the work, so now I can include the numbers and titles of all the individual pieces within my group. First, I fill out space A with my title from Form VA (“Laura Coyle Unpublished Illustrations, July 2007”) and my name and address. Then I skip to space C - the big blank area - and check the box marked “space 1.” Next I add my long title, which is the group title followed by the numbers and titles of the individual pieces in the group. Like this:

“Laura Coyle Unpublished Illustrations, July 2007 1. Ducks In a Row 2. Golf, 3. Yodelling, 4. Flip Flops”

Finally I fill in my address at the bottom and done! (almost) I print out 2 sets of the forms. One for me, one for the gov’ment. They like you to clip the VA form to the CON form and fold them together before submitting them.

Then everything goes in a FedEx envelope, my forms, my artwork copies and my check for $45.00. Arrivederci!

That wasn't too bad. I give myself a pat on the back. Months from now, I'll receive a copyright certificate in the mail, but these pieces are considered registered when the copyright office receives them.

To be continued.

Copyright Cleanup Part 1

Yes, It’s a dirty job, but you just got to do it! I used to dread registering copyrights as it is yet another arduous task that forces me to deal with confusing government forms. Meanwhile my unregistered art kept piling up like the laundry. But I found a way to clean up and streamline the process enough to ensure that I actually get this bit of important work done as painlessly as possible. This will be a multi-entry post that takes you through my registration process and I hope it will be helpful to those who haven’t already established the habit of registering your artwork.

For some background information, if you are new to copyright registration, or if you are wondering, “why bother?” check out this pdf on the Illustrators Partnership website. I learned a lot of my process from them, and this group is on top of things of concern to artists like the (scary) proposed orphan works legislation. (note: I've updated this post with a link to current status of the legislation on the ASMP site)

These are the steps I use to make sure I stay on top of my copyrights:

First, I keep a folder on my computer, labeled “copyright©” (option g on the mac = ©)

it contains 3 subfolders: 01forms/procedures, 02current registrations, 03to be registered (the numbers just make the folders fall in the order I want them in). For this post, I’ll start with the forms/procedures folder.

You’ll need 3 pdfs from the a copyright office. Go to this page and get a copy of Form VA, Form CON, Form GR/CP

The key to simplifying the process is registering your work in groups as much as possible. For more information on this, read this circular from the copyright office (page 4, "Registration for 2 or More Works With One Application and Fee")

I register groups of artwork in 2 ways:

1. Throughout the year I register most pieces of art in groups as “unpublished” before they are actually printed by clients. For this I use Form VA (visual arts) plus Form CON (continuation form)

2. Once a year, I register all illustrations I did for magazines and newspapers the previous year in one big group using Form VA plus Form GR/CP (group registration/contribution to periodicals)

Anything that has slipped through my system and has already been published by the time I’m ready to register (and doesn’t qualify as a contribution to periodicals), will need to be registered as an individual work. Since each registration costs $45, I try to avoid this as much as possible. Ouch! That could really add up.

So gather your copyright forms and make some folders on your hard drive! More to come.