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.
