Orphaned Works: Yep, there's more

Point:
An audio interview with illustrator Brad Holland.
"If you have never paid attention to copyright law, now is the time"

Counterpoint:
Lawrence Lessig on the U.S. Copyright Office Report on Orphan Works .

"I think this both goes too far, and not far enough."
Note that this refers to the Copyright Office Report; this video predates the 2008 bills. More on his blog here.

(Thanks for the link "Pseudonym")

More on the Orphaned Works Act of 2008

I devote a certain amount of time each day to “research”. Its’ my attempt to stay informed about what is going on in the artworld. This week its ALL about the Orphaned Works Act. I can’t help it. I’m fascinated.

What is this about, really?

It’s been suggested that this all started in 2003 with a NYT op-ed piece by Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig (link here). Lessing contends that the Supreme Court decision to allow Congress to set the length of copyright protection “stifles freedom of expression by preventing the artistic and educational use even of content that no longer has any commercial value”. Lessing doesn’t seem to like the fact that there is a lot of artwork laying around out there that is not being “commercially exploited”. He also brings up the dilemma faced by museums and educational institutions when they want to produce an exhibit which includes sound or images with unknown copyright status. A possible solution he suggests is a database modeled after the US patent registry: Register each piece of artwork at $50 per entry. Registration must be renewed every 3 years*.

Eventually, Senators Leahy & Hatch requested a report from the Copyright office. The copyright office conducted a study and in 2006 released its 217 page report (get your free pdf here!). I’m only partially through it but so far it is very interesting.

The copyright office wanted to know if Orphaned Works was really a problem and if so, how much of a problem. They were pleased with public response: 850 statements were submitted. 722 of those were individuals; the remaining were aggregated comments from institutions/corporations. Later, a group was invited to a roundtable to discuss the issue. [just an observation:850 responses is all they could get? 850 is enough to alter national copyright laws?]

About the museums and educational institutions: These entities would like to display artwork and sounds of unknown copyright status. They would like to post their collection on the internet so that it is accessible to the public. They are willing to perform due diligence to find the copyright owner. In the event that the owner cannot be located, they would like to display the work anyway to educate the public and preserve our cultural heritage. Should a copyright owner surface and object to the usage of their work , these intuitions are perfectly willing to immediately remove the content. In return, they ask not to be sued. This seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable request, and shows respect for the creator. I have no problem with the request or the solution.

Now, what about commercial interests? Not surprisingly, it’s a little different and nowhere near as respectful:

“the proposal would limit the ability of the copyright owner to obtain full injunctive relief in cases where the user has transformed the orphan work into a derivative work like a motion picture or book, preserving the user’s ability to continue to exploit that derivative work. In all other cases, the court would be instructed to minimize the harm to the user that an injunction might impose, to protect the user’s interests in relying on the orphan works provision in making use of the work.” [U.S. Copyright Office Report on Orphan Works pp 11-12]

Boy, those users (vultures) sure are well protected. I wonder how many of the 850 respondents worked for Time Warner, or any other major studio?

Its the commercial usage that I strongly object to. Its that these bills not only open the doors but invite abuse. I dont have a problem with museums, libraries, researchers, art students (or any students), other artists etc. using the artworks as long as it is not for profit. But if the work is taken and reproduced for anothers profit, its theft. Period.

What about that database? Well, it turns out they looked into that as well and it will cost the Copyright Office upwards of $35 million. That’s kinda pricey for their budget right now so they don’t want to do it. Those 850 respondents were concerned about the search costs in finding copyright owners…. Maybe there is a solution on page 200 that doesn’t involve charging artists $50/image renewable every 3 years. I haven’t gotten to that page yet…

So there is a big push to get these two laws into effect quickly. Why? Well, its an election year. We get a brand new president (Yipeeeeeeee!!!) and with that brand new president comes changes. They don't want to risk possible changes to the Sub-Committee.

______________________________________________
* I came up with what I thought was a very high figure: $10/image in my post yesterday. Lessig has since changed his figure substantially. To be fair, his point is not to establish a price but to make copyright owners more active in maintaining their rights. I see too many holes in this method to agree.

Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008

There's an old saying-- "You know a politician is lying if his lips are moving." I try to give them a tiny bit more credit. Not much but a little....

But the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my B.S. detectors go on high alert whenever a politician claims to be inspired to action because of a little old lady in [fill in the blank with vague out of the way location that implies humble origins....]

I'm a bit on the dorky side, so when I get emails that say 'this horrible bill is being introduced to Congress, we must stop it now....' I actually go find the bill and read it. If its a particularly amusing piece of legislature, I'll also try to find transcripts. The statements tend to be equal parts hyperbole, melodrama, and pompous posturing (even if they happen to have good intentions, I still find it amusing).

This is a particularly good one from Senator Leahy, in reference to the Shawn Bently Orphan Works act of 2008:

"In practical terms, then, what does this mean? It means that a woman in Vermont can restore a wedding photograph of her grandparents, even if she cannot locate the photographer to get permission to do so. It means that a library can display letters of American soldiers wrote during World War II, even if the library cannot contact the soldiers or their descendents. It means that museums can exhibit Depression-era photographs, even if they cannot determine the name of the photographer. "

Yes, please, lets talk about this in practical terms..... I would love to see the statistics on how many people have been threatened with copyright infringement for restoring personal family photos. While we're at it, how many have actually gone to trial, much less won?

Shouldn't these "concerned" Senators be working on something more important, like I don't know, something that is costing us a lot more money and actual lives... perhaps healthcare, or possibly a war? When a senator moves, its typically in response to money or an election (yes, I am being cynical but this is my soap box....). What lobbyist could possibly be interested in "Orphaned" works of art?

Whether or not the intent of the bill is to protect our "cultural heritage", the way it is written opens a massive loophole that I think is extremely harmful to artists.

Just for a moment, I'm going to put myself in the fantasyland of the authors. I'm going to pretend that this really is about that poor scared lady in Vermont who is afraid to fix grandma's torn wedding photo. I'm also going to suspend disbelief and pretend that a database of every piece of artwork by every artist in the United States is not only feasible but is easily searchable with keywords. I have a photo of my grandparents that was taken on their wedding day in 1930. I'm really worried that if I scan it and photoshop the tear out, the photographer will find out, be angry, and sue me. I think Ill use this handy government database to find the photographer and ask if it is ok to fix his damaged work of art. Hmmmmm... what keywords shall I use? "Grandma's wedding photo" oops, I got over 6,000,000,000,000 hits for that, maybe I should narrow it down. How about "White satin dress, black tuxedo, man standing, woman seated, wedding, 1930 " This should be easy, how many photos could possibly fit that description?

The reality: This opens a giant loophole. With this bill, it would now be legal to find a piece of artwork/logo/photo/whatever and use it for a book cover/t-shirt/movie prop/ coffee mug/whatever. All they have to do is "try" to find the artist when they presumably dont know the title of the work or the author. "can, red, white, label" Darn, didn't find it.... let me try this database.... don't see it! Guess that means its mine!! Andy Warhol's soup cans? Never heard of it.

A private enterprise will more than likely be enlisted to create the databases. Obviously they will charge for its use. Do they charge the artist or the user? Nothing personal, but now this is a business. The artist is a built in customer base with no choice in the matter if they want to protect their property. The artist will continue to create and thereby bring in more revenue. Let's say its $10/image. I'm a relatively young artist at the beginning of my career. Even so, I have a couple thousand paintings and drawings. Lets say I have 2,000. Thats about $20k. For a person to prove they have performed due diligence in finding an artist, they need to search two databases. The cost to protect my work just doubled (unless the government approves more than 2 databases....then it goes up). But hey, its worth it right? This will prevent someone from stealing my work (wave the magic wand that makes me forget that my work was already protected by law for free, without registering and with much stronger penalties for infringement).

By the way, who is Shawn Bentley anyway? Shawn Bentley worked with Senators Hatch and Leahy to author this bill. Sadly, Shawn Bentley passed away so they named the bill after him.

Very sad. So is it rude to ask? Seriously... who is this guy? He was a lobbyist for Time Warner.

If the authors were really concerned about protecting family photos and ensuring that museums and non-profits were able to "preserve our cultural heritage", I would think there would be more written in the bill specifically mentioning these issues.

Instead there is a lot written that insures that the onus is shifted from the copyright infringer to the copyright owner. It also takes away an artists right to define how their work is used after the infringer tries to find the artist.

Instead they provide a laughable definition of "Reasonable Compensation"

(4) REASONABLE COMPENSATION- The term `reasonable compensation' means, with respect to a claim for infringement, the amount on which a willing buyer and willing seller in the positions of the infringer and the owner of the infringed copyright would have agreed with respect to the infringing use of the work immediately before the infringement began.

A willing seller? What if I never would have sold my work to be used in that manner? There must be something in there to protect the creators of the original work right? Something to protect the integrity of the art?

Um... no actually:

`(1) MONETARY RELIEF-

`(A) GENERAL RULE- Subject to subparagraph (B), an award for monetary relief (including actual damages, statutory damages, costs, and attorney's fees) may not be made other than an order requiring the infringer to pay reasonable compensation to the legal or beneficial owner of the exclusive right under the infringed copyright for the use of the infringed work.

For added smoke and mirrors, there is a second, nearly identical bill as well. One is going to Congress, the other to the Senate. The devil is in the details, my friends....

The Bills:
Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008
Orphan Works Act of 2008

Want to say something about it?
write your senator and congressman, if you don't know who they are, you can look it up here:
Senators
Congressmen

Or there are some online petitions, here is one:
Illustrators Partnership

More info in case my rant wasn't enough already...
Articles/ Blogs:
Animation World magazine
BOP

[UPDATED:]
David Rhodes commencement speech.
Leahy is "disappointed" :o(

8/22:
Association of Research Libraries reports bill is stalled

Quantae

6 x 8 oil on canvas board:

CAST!

Last night I went down to the Mint to check out CAST! .The Mint has a great monday night scene-- with the added bonus of no cover charge. Loved it; CAST were absolutely fantastic. I'm really glad I went (almost didnt). I talked to Nick (bass) & Karma (drums) a little afterwards, both very cool guys.

I did a few little sketches while I was there and then today did quick paintings off the sketches. A nice little challenge... the paintings are mostly from memory so the likeness isn't there but I had fun with them (I wanted to play around with acrylic on paper.). The sketches are about 2" mostly looking to capture the gestures, the paintings are about 20 x 24",


Nick




Karma
(they had a great set up: I could actually see the drummer!)


Julian

When paintings go bad....

I did these a month or so ago (maybe more). Underneath these paintings of 3 of the guys from Stampead are 3 landscapes that did not turn out as planned (they are euphemistically called "learning experiences" ). I dont like to throw out paintings so they get recycled/reused. Seems much more environmentally conscious than having a bonfire. So to make it fun for myself, I set up some "rules". In this case, 20 minutes each; no drawing on the canvas, no getting caught up in "likeness" and except for one accent color each, its all mud (all the left over paint on my palette from a previous painting mixed together) ... oh yeah, no paintbrushes either, just a palette knife 'cause I have a hard time painting with them. Yep thats what I do for fun..... But I really like the way they turned out. Much better than what's underneath them. Some of the landscapes show through; its probably most obvious in the bottom one.

Plagerism & Copyright Infringement

The double edged sword of posting your work on the internet and making it accessible to anyone: on the one hand its a method to promote your work and to participate in community dialog; on the other, it leaves you open to theft of your work.

It happens often, to writers & artists whose work is taken to build websites, presumably with a goal of generating cash by using other peoples' work and names to entice traffic that turns a profit (advertising that pays by the number of hits to a site).

Some infringement is by people who don't know any better. Most is by people who convince themselves that there is a grey area* the size of the Sahara when it comes to "referencing", "borrowing from" or "paying homage to" an artist.

If the offender is in the U.S., there is a chance to do something about it. An example is House Industries, a font house whose illustrations were stolen and reproduced (I think it was on t-shirts or glasses). They found out (a lot of the scum bags think no one will notice) and sued. The happy ending is that up until that point, House was a couple of guys working out of an apartment. The settlement provided the cash flow that helped turn them into the successful company they are today.

Unfortunately, not everyone gets the happy ending. This morning I read about a blatant theft that even the most self delusional person could not convince themselves was "OK" or "in the grey area": a publisher took the interviews of Darren Di Lieto, along with the work of dozens of other artists from a website and published a book which is being sold for $100. The book even includes a CD of the artwork. Unfortunately, the publisher is in Hong Kong (presumably-- the contact info on their site is fake).

Scumbags.

More info:
Some artists whose work was stolen by Azurebook's Colorful Illustrations 93°C:
Luc Latulippe
Jeff Miracola

*The "grey area" is actually a three part calculation:

1. Can I make money off of this?
2. What are the odds of the artist finding out?
3. Can the artist afford to hire an attorney to come after me?

What is art?

Some great quotes/references:

• "I love it the fact that theres that Elephant at the zoo painting..."
• "Now the monkey that throws poo, hes making art...cause he's living in the experience" (gotta admit Im unfamiliar with this one)
  
• "The gorilla* don't know what he's doing. That's a monkey painting, dude."
• "Some of that modern art sometimes getting waaaay out of context man, they trying to push the limit, trying to be the next Van Gogh or whatever..."
  
• "I hate how people don't think that Dogs playing poker is high art..."
• "It's Pop Art, isn't it?"
• "Just because you say its art doesnt mean its art. For instance, in central park? that moron with the flags? That was not art."
• "Look at that painting on our wall over there, by Jackson Pollock**" -"It's hideous!"
• "My biggest pet peave in the whole world, is dolphin art I reeeeaaaaaly don't like that...."
  
• "Oh!, Who's the guy on TV? Hi, the happy squirrel, lets make some happy clouds, we're gonna get the big fanning brush...."
• "I think modern 20th century art, if you don't discuss comic books, you're just a snob or a fool."
  
• "My face looks kinda lika a Picasso ..."
  (this clip of Picasso painting is in French but you dont need a translation...deal with it)
• "I consider ballet or interpretive dance, ala Matha Graham or something like that, yeah, that's artistic..." (and a cut off video)

*much was made about the subsequent auction....and sale prices)
** a fun site where you can (Make your own art)

More Chantry Flats...

(along the stream)



Sturtevant Falls



view from the cabin



the cabin (Thanks Greg! ;o)

Chantry Flats

A friend of mine lent me his cabin up in Chantry Flats; a few sketches:

Brewery Artwalk

The Brewery Artwalk is this
Saturday and Sunday, April 5 & 6th, 11AM - 6PM.
642 Moulton Ave. # E26, Los Angeles, CA
(directions to the loft are on my website: www.antrese.com)

The Brewery is the largest Artists colony in Los Angeles. Twice a year, the Brewery opens its doors to the public, and yes, its that time again. I will be showing with Chris Tellez and Daniel Brooks. Please come by, and say hello!

More Musicians

Earlier this week, I got to hang out with the band Stampead at their studio while they rehearsed for their next album. Very cool guys and it was really nice of them to be so accommodating; especially considering they were only a few days away from going into recording. Thanks to Jill for setting it up.

A few sketches:




Judd


Sean



Ivan



Sean


Eric

And a Good Time was had by all (I Hope!)

Four Lovely Ladies....







With Rene, Gale's husband:


I'm not sure I ever made it over to the food...


Jim with the "girls"


Whatever I'm saying I'm sure its very enlightening & quite profound...




The artist with mom & two very dear friends...

Opening Night at Gale's

There was a fantastic turn-out tonight at Gale's. It was a lot of fun & great to meet so many new & interesting people. I even got to catch up a little with some old friends I hadn't seen in a while (wish I had more time to talk).

Thank you all for taking the time to come out to see my work, I know many of you drove far to get there. To those of you who purchased pieces, I am very happy to know that my paintings have a good home. I am humbled by the compliments I received and very grateful for your support. I hope you enjoyed the show!

My friend Brian played the part of the "official" photographer-- I'll post some photos soon.

I could not have pulled this off without the help of others and for that I owe thanks. To Jim and Fernanda for recommending my work & introducing me to Gale; to Gale and Rene for providing a wonderful space and incredible food; to the "girls" for framing, hauling, hanging, etc. lots of pep talks and the occasional (much needed) kick in the butt. To mom for a lifetime of love and support as well as a stunningly beautiful bouquet of flowers.

The show will be up through March 21. I will be by in the next few days to add some more paintings to replace the ones that sold, so if you couldn't make it tonight and want to pop by later, you will still see a full show.

Get out and VOTE!

I love, love, love this time in our political process. Even if I'm disappointed by the results, I still get very excited about the prospect of change.

I refrain from using this blog to spout off on politics/current events. Not because I don't have an opinion or don't pay attention (SO not true) but there are enough political blogs out there and I'd much rather debate people in person. Its a lot more fun (I get to watch your face turn red and wonder if the vein on your forehead could, in fact, pop....).

I will say this though: If you are in a state that is holding its primary elections today-- GET OUT AND VOTE! (please).

Think of it this way: By not voting you renounce your right to complain. No complaining for 4 (actually closer to 5) years.

Especially in front of me. If you do, regardless of where we are, I will cover my ears and sing la la la la--very loudly. Trust me, no one wants that. There's a reason I'm a painter and not a singer. Its not pretty.

So please... vote.

Hanging the Show

Yesterday I hung my show over at Gale's Restaurant in Pasadena. I have to admit it feels really good to have it done and not hanging over my head anymore. Now I can relax and enjoy it. I ended up with 40 pieces in the show. Yeah. 40.

A few lessons learned/ observations about this whole process just in case you ever need to hang a show. Especially if you need to finish in two hours:

• If a friend calls to ask if you need help framing before a show... do not say "no". Do not try to talk her out of it.
• Its really good to have friends who know you better than you know yourself. That way, if you do say "no, I think it will be fine" they know to say "yeah well, I don't have anything to do on Thursday, how about I just come over and hang out anyway?"*
  
• While I worked at Disney, a colleague or two (O.K. fine, more like 10 or 20) opined that I can be quite...um..."detail oriented" or "thorough", I think is the polite way to say it**. I am much much worse when it comes to my own work. Occasionally this is a good thing.
  
• Be "thorough": swing by the place to photograph the rooms and each wall. Those photos will really come in handy later.
• Embrace your "detail oriented" nature: Lay out all of your paintings on the floor-- arrange and rearrange them to your hearts delight.
• Laugh at the fact that you've been stressing about not having enough paintings and now have to cut 10 or so out.
  
• Since you've already embraced your "detail oriented-ness", go the extra mile and use your favorite software program to draw a map of each wall, where each painting goes and label it.
• Put post- it notes on the outside of each carefully wrapped painting with numbers corresponding to your map (you have SO embraced that detail-oriented nature!).
  
• Box up the paintings according to each wall.
• Day before the hanging: Call the place to confirm when you can start hanging and when you need to finish. If the finish time is much less than you expected, call friend #2 and ask for help.
  
• When friend #3 comes by to help the night before the show, do not get cocky and think that you are almost done (after all, you only have to make the labels) so lets sit on the front porch with a bottle of wine and gab for two (maybe three) hours.
  
• Do not leave the naming of the paintings to the night before you have to hang the show. This is a really dumb idea. This makes the whole labeling process take much longer.
• Triple check that all your paintings are, in fact, signed and that the signature still shows after you have framed it.
  
• That careful wrapping and boxing of your paintings? Do it after you have named and checked the paintings for signatures.....
• Be grateful that friend #3 had such a stressful week at work doing strategic planning and all sorts of left brain activities that staying up until 5:30AM with you getting an art show together is actually fun to her†.
• Be grateful that friend #2 is a morning person and is always on time, as she will be the only coherent person at the hanging. ††
• When all is said and done, take your friends' advice, step back and be proud of what you've accomplished.
  

* Thank you Kelly!

**After researching the answer to a technical problem and then calling the developer to report my findings, the developer exclaimed "Jesus, Joseph and Mary!! You are so... thorough!!!" Aside from the incongruity of hearing that from a Buddhist, I had never heard anyone use the term "Jesus Joseph and Mary" in real life; so whatever she was trying to tell me was completely drowned out by my subsequent laughter. Anyway, she was right.

†This is where I would say thank you Natalia, if I hadn't already promised to stop thanking her. So I am NOT using this opportunity to thank Natalia.

†† Thanks Jeannie!!

Road to Nowhere

More Thick Paint

Landscapes

I've been having a lot of fun with my landscape painting lately: using a lot more paint and much bigger brushes. I've been trying to lay a brushstroke down and leave it; to loosen up & resist the temptation to go back in and "fix" stuff.

I really like the way this one turned out:




(click images to enlarge)

Dwight Harmon

Strange how random things will trigger a memory & make you think about someone.

I just framed the piece below for a show I'm hanging on Saturday. As I was pulling off the plastic that protects the plexiglass, I remembered that Dwight loved that stuff. I couldn't remember exactly why but I remember him being absolutely giddy about it. It was a long time ago.

Dwight was one of my teachers at Art Center. He was one of my favorite instructors and had the best sense of humor by far. In a nutshell, Dwight's thing was getting students to experiment, have fun and hopefully make some really cool art (that's a very simplistic summary). He was killed a few years after I graduated (murdered, actually, but I won't talk about that or the rat bastards who did it). I just haven't thought about him in a while so it was a strange sensation to be ripping plastic off a sheet of plexiglass, thinking about all the things I need to finish when suddenly Dwight pops into my head.

Just about every available surface in my house is covered with paintings in various states of "almost" ready to be framed. While I waited for the varnish to dry on a few of them, I decided to do some surface prep in case I have time to knock out a few more before Saturday. I grabbed the plastic out of the trash to protect my kitchen table, then slathered on a few good coats of acrylic medium onto my painting surface. After it dried, I picked up the piece. Thats when I remembered why Dwight loved that stuff so much. Acrylic wont stick to it. It just slides right off .

Dwight used to pour acrylic over the plastic, swirl it around, draw in it with the back end of a paintbrush, his fingers, or whatever else was lying around. After it was dry, he'd throw another layer on and play around with different pigments adjusting the opacity with gloss medium. When he was finished, and it had dried, he would peel it off and have a painting without a "surface". With a huge smile, he would hold it up for everyone to see. "LOOK AT THIS! This stuff is amazing!"

Just the thought of that cherubic face and his gleeful smile made me laugh.

So Dwight, wherever you are, we still think about you, we still love you, we still miss you...and you still make me laugh.