This just in from the Illustrator’s Partnership:

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

White House Seeks Artists’ Comments to Improve Copyright Protection

3.18.10

New Copyright Czar begins Joint Strategic Plan to Protect Intellectual Property

Victoria Espinel is the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), also known as the Copyright Czar. Congress created IPEC by an Act of Congress. Ms. Espinel serves within the Executive Office of the President to coordinate with all the federal agencies that fight the infringement of intellectual property.

Ms. Espinel and her team are specifically tasked with formulating and implementing a Joint Strategic Plan to help protect the ingenuity and creativity of Americans by improving the U.S. Government’s protection of the rights of intellectual property owners.

Your input is requested.

The White House is inviting your public input and participation to shape an effective intellectual property enforcement strategy. Please respond with your written submissions regarding the costs to you, your business and the U.S. economy resulting from infringement of your intellectual property rights, both direct and indirect.

This will be a 2-part process. The first is to gather public recommendations by March 24. IPEC will then gather your input on the formulated plan.

Please be precise. Include your name, city, state, and what type of artist you are. Explain why copyright is critical to you as a commercial artist, how infringement affects you, and what the U.S. government can do to better protect the rights of American artists. If your submission is about your economic loss due to infringement of your copyrights you must clearly identify the methodology used to calculate your losses or otherwise validate your infringement and enforcement costs.

Your submission will be publicly posted. For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information.

Confidential disclosures- If you have confidential business information that would support your recommendation or that you believe would help the Government formulate an effective enforcement strategy, please let them know by contacting:

Thomas L. Stoll
Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
(202) 395-1808

Deadline: Submissions must be received by Wednesday, March 24, 2010, at 5 p.m. EST.
Address: All submissions should be sent electronically via intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov

Additional Background Reading:
White House Blog
Federal Register Notice Request

- Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership

Yikes, that deadline is this coming Wednesday. The gist of this message is here is a chance to get your voice heard over how copyright infringement can damage your ability to earn a living as a creator of intellectual property, and the concerns you have. Considering the shady and misguided Orphan Works legislation some members of congress have been trying to sneak through the last few years, this is a chance to get the concerns of artists, writers and other creators out to people who might listen.

One last post on the Orphan Works / Illustrator’s Partnership front, then no more for a while, I promise.

It’s hard to believe, but the Graphic Artist’s Guild, that venerable organization that is supposed to be looking out for the needs and rights of artists everywhere, is actually suing the Illustrator’s Partnership of America and five specific defendants for damages of a million dollars for what they call “defamatory public comments about GAG’s activities and use of industry reprographic royalties”.

I have tried to read up on the issue, which involved funds the GAG has apparently been collecting for years for “reprographic royalties”, which are royalties derived from the “photocopying of the material of published authors.” Apparently in many countries illustrators receive royalty payments from collecting societies for the photocopying of their work. In the US they do not… no idea why.

Nothing I have read, either from the GAG or the IPA or other parties explains to me why the GAG is getting any money at all from these royalties, or why they have any rights to any money from such. Nor can I find any explanation or details as to what the defendants in the lawsuit said to defame the GAG, or what their beef over these royalties is. Therefore I cannot formulate an opinion one way or another as to the actual lawsuit is warranted or not.

I am however of the opinion that any organization that professes to fight for and uphold the rights of visual artists should not be suing any other organizations with the same goals. Therefore I have signed a petition to respectfully request the GAG drop it’s lawsuit and pursue more amicable means of settling the dispute.

Used with permission

Regular readers of my blog know I have been very vocal in opposing the Orphan Works Act in it’s various forms. It’s my opinion that only someone with another agenda to serve would believe this law is a good thing for anyone but those seeking to use intellectual property without paying the creator for the right to use it, or those who want to profit by forcing those creators to pay to register all their work in private databases. The poor excuse of being able to legally copy great grandma’s wedding pictures and to archive deteriorating creative works is not enough to justify opening the door to wholesale copyright infringement without fear of legal repercussions. Simple changes to the “Fair Use” exemption from copyright can easily address those archiving issues. You can read all my past rants at your leisure.

I know that many people might be sick of hearing about the Orphan Works debacle, but it is too important not to keep on top of. Sometimes lobbyists for some heinous piece of legislation get their laws passed just by wearing down the opposition… they get sick of hearing about and let their indignation go from full boil to a simmer, and eventually a cold pot of water. Don’t let that happen.

One of the sources I often quote is the one I posted from yesterday, the Illustrator’s Partnership. They are at the forefront of the fight against the Orphan Works Act. The IPA now has it’s own blog, where the formerly mass emailed articles I’ve reposted here are now accessible. Right now they are posting a daily series with background information on the origins of the Orphan Works Acts, who is behind it, and who is going to benefit from it if the law gets passed. Rather than reposting the IPA’s articles, I will let my reader’s know when new ones are posted and provide a link. I will also continue to comment and add my thoughts on any new developments as they happen. You can find a permanent link to the IPA blog on the blogroll on the right.