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     Graphic Artists Guild

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     New York, NY 10038-3202

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The following is an edited version of the Graphic Artists Guild's quarterly newsletter, Guild News, for the Spring of 1997. Anyone wishing a complete version should see the Join page for further information.

Current News and Past News Archives

for Spring of 1997

United Media's Web site, www.unitedmedia.com, is one of the most highly profitable sites on the World Wide Web. Home to the Internet's largest collection of internationally syndicated daily comics, it also offers "The Inkwell," the Web's only portfolio of award-winning editorial cartoons, and the National Cartoonist Society's Internet presence, "The Online Cartoonist." With 3.5 to 4 million page views per week, which have tripled since its launch in April 1995, viewers read the site's comics, which include "The Dilbert Zone" and "Snoopy's Dog House," play games, send e-mail messages to their favorite cartoonists and purchase merchandise, such as Peanuts memorabilia, through the site's online store. It's estimated that 3.9 percent of all Web users have visited the site. United Media reports that major advertisers are vying for time, and monthly ad sales have jumped 500 percent since the fall of 1995. (PRNewswire)

With 1 billion valentines sent each year, Valentine's Day has become the second most lucrative greeting card market. How to take advantage of this burgeoning industry? Heed the following trends reported by American Greetings, the world's largest publicly owned manufacturer of greeting cards:
* Ethnic cards for African Americans and Latinos.
* Victorian reproductions that say romance and nostalgia with cupids, hearts,
scalloped edges, opalescent finishings, faux lace trim, and elegant paper
stocks.
* Humorous cards, especially for men, baby boomers and teens, with cartoon
artwork and goofy, off-the-wall humor.
* Calligraphic and hand-written messages.
* Flashy foil hot-stamping, embossing, and glossy and crystalline finishings.
(PRNewswire)

It's About Time: Digital Protection

Infosafe Systems, Inc. and Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), the largest licenser of photocopy reproduction rights in the United States, announced in January that Infosafe will run copyright permission vending systems at U.S. commercial printers and copy centers. An international nonprofit organization, CCC is the centralized licensing agent for over 9,200 publishers worldwide, with over 1.75 million registered titles of newspapers, newsletters, magazines, periodicals, and books under its protection.

The release announcing this valuable protective service read in part:

"The new copyright permission vending system will provide customers of commercial copy centers with the ability to obtain permission to make copies of copyrighted materials in CCC's database through automated access to this convenient, one-step compliance mechanism. Under the terms of the

agreement, Infosafe will provide a proprietary, turn-key hardware/software system, and CCC will provide immediate photocopy permission and the royaltypayment mechanism."

Prominent members of the Screen Actors Guild - such as Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Denzel Washington - issued a statement in December 1996 on behalf of 86,000 union colleagues, urging active U.S. government support for comprehensive performers' rights at the World

Intellectual Property Organization talks, which took place Dec. 2-20 in Geneva, Switzerland. (PRNewswire)

Beware Simon & Schuster's "Super Site"

Simon & Schuster (S&S), the world's largest English-language book publishing company, is planning to publish more than 500,000 pages on the Internet and generate more than $100 million in Web-related revenues in 1997 through its "Super Site." S&S's plans more than 100 World Wide Web sites in education, business, professional, computer book, reference, and trade publishing. S&S's Super Site, located at http://www.simonandschuster.com, will offer free multiple-media materials, the full text of many books, downloadable software, a variety of subscription-based services, and the ability to order Simon & Schuster books online. Average daily Super Site traffic is expected to exceed one million hits per day. When the Super Site was announced this winter, Simon & Schuster President & CEO Jonathan Newcomb noted, "The online possibilities for a global publisher with 350,000 copyrights are extraordinary. . . . Because the Internet was originally created to deliver content, it is truly redefining the publishing business. Our Super Site updates both the printed word and our multiple-media content." (PRNewswire)

Copyright Crackdown

The Microsoft Corp., the world's software giant, is taking a Canadian computer company, Dentec Corp., to court for infringing on its copyright, reports the Feb. 7 Journal of Commerce. Dentec is charged with allegedly distributing counterfeit Microsoft products, including Windows 95. After a six-month investigation, Microsoft conducted a surprise search of Dentec's warehouse in Scarborough, Ontario, where it seized more than 400 copies of Windows 95 and Microsoft Works 3.0. Dentec is charged with distributing its counterfeit products to retailers, who then sold them to consumers. The International Intellectual Property Alliance in Washington estimates that "44 out 100 business software applications in Canada are illegally copied." That accounts for an estimates $270 million of lost sales. Don't you wish GAG had the same clout with U.S. publishers who daily try to steal artists and designers' rights?

Did You Know?

* Industry losses from pirated software are now pegged at $3.5 billion in Western Europe, $3.9 billion in Asia, $2.9 billion in America, and $1.6 billion in Japan. Twenty-six percent of all software now in use in the U.S. was pirated. (Board Report for Graphic Artists) * The future is strong for the graphic design business in 1997, with ad spending predicted to rise nearly 6 percent. Robert J. Coen, senior VP at McCann-Erickson in New York, predicts worldwide ad spending will top $400 billion mark for the first time in 1997. (Board Report For Graphic Artists)

* Forty-six companies from the list of 100 Leading National Advertisers now

advertise on the Web. (Board Report for Graphic Artists)

* The Advertising Research Foundation has begun discussions on how to develop an infrastructure for Web measurement. This will be the first ever study that compares the effectiveness of Internet ads with other media. (Board Report For Graphic Artists)

* PhotoDisc offers scanned photos on floppy discs, CD-ROM, and the Internet

(with 10 percent growth rate each month!). Their products come already scanned and color-corrected in a digit format and with unlimited rights. What traditionally cost $400 can now be had for $80! PhotoDisc reports sales of $250,000 a month. Is illustration next? (Board Report For Graphic Artists)

TNYT Posts Surge in Profits: What Role Work-For-Hire?

In February The New York Times Company reported a whopping 80 percent increase in earnings for its fourth quarter. Overall, its earnings for 1996 were up by 35 percent over 1995. The huge hike in shareholders' earning was attributed to "improved operations in the Newspaper and Broadcast Groups and

higher earnings from the Company's investments in paper mills." In fact, the newspaper group, which includes 21 regional newspapers, The Boston Globe, and TNYT, contributed the lion's share, accounting for 89 percent of all revenues.

The report attributes the sudden surge in profits to "higher advertising and circulation revenues as a result of higher rates." Yet, it's insistence on work-for-hire clauses for freelance artists and writers must be leveraged into those numbers. As TNYT plays hard ball with freelancers, its shareholders smile. What is wrong with this picture? (PRNewswire)

Beware: Parenting Revises Contract

Parenting magazine, which had earned praise from writers for its fairly decent contract that editors were free to make even better, has moved from San Francisco to New York to be near parent Time Inc.'s headquarters. The nearly all-new Parenting editorial staff has been handed a revised

contract for freelancers. What was one of the fairest warranty clauses in the industry has become unreasonably tough. Worse, the electronic rights clause has become unacceptably broad. The old

agreement offered a small fee for broad e-rights for a limited time; editors were free to narrow the license considerably. The new version wants nearly all e-rights forever for the same small fee, and editors

say they're no longer free to fix things. Back in San Francisco, Parenting's sister magazine, Health, continues to use the old contract. The moral of this story is that it isn't good for a grown child to live too close to home.

Canadian efforts to stop a "cultural onslaught" by U.S. magazines suffered a major setback in February when the World Trade Organization issued a confidential ruling against the Canadian government's protectionist laws. The WTO decision said Canada's attempts to protect its domestic magazine industry

by heavily taxing Canadian editions of U.S. magazines as well as setting up preferential postal rates for Canadian magazines and tariff restrictions on U.S. magazines violated world trade rules. This move jeopardizes the survival of some Canadian magazines. Art Eggleton, International Trade Minister, estimates that 90 percent of Canada's cultural industries are already dominated by U.S. films and publications. If there's an open door to U.S. magazines, he predicted that many Canadian publications will surely be driven out of business. (Reuters)

© copyright 1997 - Graphic Artists Guild