License to Steal

A Message to all Artists!

Orphan Works Acts- IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT LAW INFORMATION

The Orphan Works Acts, if enacted would change copyright law in such a way that it would be too costly (time and money) to make a living as a visual artist. There would be less of a need for new art because all one’s existing and new work would be open for others to use for free. Today we call those people- who use art without asking- infringers, those who steal art for their own profit

The Orphan Works Acts would affect visual artists who do not make a living from their art (create just for the joy of it). Someone, an infringer, would be able to use your art anywhere they like to make a buck and potentially in ways you would object.

The Orphan Works Acts would also affect anyone who takes snapshot photos and shares them through email or on the web. Your personal family memories could be used by unscrupulous people or in ways you may object – again just to make a buck. The Orphan Works Acts also opens up privacy issues- by allowing others to distribute and sell pictures of your family members and friends.

The Copyright Act of 1976 was created to allow artists to profit from their work thereby encouraging artists to create- a priceless gift that we presently are able to give to the world.

There may be a desire for libraries, museums, etc to acquire truly orphaned works – those in which the author will never be located. Most visual artists would support this cause for the greater good. But these Orphan Works Acts being pushed through congress are written so broadly, they do not take into account the devastating impact they will have on living and available (who can be located) artists.

Please ask your congressmen to vote in opposition to this act- in both house and senate.

Here’s a link to a web tool that allows you to do so effortlessly: http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

Select the letter that best represents you and edit it as you see fit. Then click to submit – and your letter will be sent immediately electronically to all your congressmen. Please forward and crosspost widely. Thank you.

(this letter was composed by Dena Matthews who has given permission to pass this information along. It is important to reach students at universities, art schools, colleges, etc., it is important to reach as many professors and teachers of art, design, illustration, and imaging as possible. It is also helpful to enlist the help of friends and family.)

How to Make the Copyright Symbol

© How to Make Copyright Symbol ©

1. Make sure to use your numeric keypad, not the numbers on the top of the keyboard.

2. NumLock needs to be ON.

3. Using the numeric keypad, hold down the Alt key

4. Hit the numbers 0, 1, 6, 9 (in succession) for © Copyright. Then you can let up the Alt key.

If you are using Microsoft Office, ALT+CTRL+C does it.

MacOS- option – g

Windows- Alt + 0169

Some Keyboards (such as the DELL Laptop have a key to the left of the space bar that has an “Fn” written on it In order to get the copyright symbol, try holding down this button at the same time as ALT+0169. So it’s Fn+ALT+0169

HTML Name Code- “&copy”

HTML number code- ” &#169″

Websites with more symbols.

http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html

http://dwight.clickthesky.com/internettips/specialcharacters.shtml

If all else fails you can just copy and paste them.

How to make © in Photoshop

Remember: Not all fonts are capable of creating the © symbol. Try turning the Num Lock off, then change your font to Arial, Times New Roman, or another standerd font type. Hold ALT+0169 (numeric keypad). (with Num Lock off worked for me)

One other other option in Photoshop is to use a custom shape (which contains the copyright symbol) that comes with the program.

Or you can always draw the symbol by hand with a “c” and the circle tool as another option. Although I wouldn’t recommend it because it takes longer and it will get really frustrating if you have to do this method every time you want a © symbol.

If you are using a Mac, I’m not sure the keyboard shortcut for Photoshop, but you can easily make the symbol in Word (option-G), copy, and then paste it as text into Photoshop.

What is a Copyright – The Basic Idea

What is a Copyright? ©

A copyright is a series of exclusive rights that govern the use of a particular expression of an idea or of information. At its most general, a copyright is the right to copy and exploit an original work

Who Owns the Copyright? ©

You as the creator own the copyright unless you created the work during the scope of your employment. In that circumstance, the work is one for hire, and the copyright is usually owned by your employer.

What Works of Authorship can be Copyrighted? ©

Original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression, including literary, musical, and artistic creations such as;

books / magazines / music / poems / photographs / paintings / motion pictures / sound recordings / graphs / sculptures / architectural drawings / maps/ choreography / websites / programming codes

Originality requires independent creation, not novelty; A work can be protected even if it is substantially similar to another.

Introduction

Let’s face it, every artist isn’t a lawyer, nor should they have to be. I also understand that artists are visual people, and sometimes reading text can be quite boring for those who are more hands-on. Getting access to a lawyer can be tough too, and people without much experience can also be taken advantage of. We sometimes forget or ignore our rights simply because we don’t want to put in the time to doing any “boring” research, or we might not even know where to begin. But without these laws no artist would ever be able to get fairly compensated for their work. Knowing the law can also avoid unnecessary dilemmas before “it’s too late” too.

My name is Cynthia Schroeder, a second year graduate student of the biomedical visualization program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I have been studying art professionally for about eight years. Copyright laws are obviously very important, unfortunately the amount of time dedicated to studying them is quite limited if not-existent unless you are in law school. I decided to start a blog pertaining to copyright laws for the medical art community. The blog is designed with the purpose of sharing experiences or exchanging information amongst other artists so we are all better aware of how to protect ourselves against infringement, laws, and contracts.