New York, NY
September 9, 1999
Contact: PR: 212-791-3400, ext. 104
The Graphic Artists Guild will commit up to $30,000 from its Legal Defense Fund to support two significant copyright lawsuits. The Guild's Executive Committee has approved $20,000 to support a group of medical illustrators in their suit against Advanstar Communications, Inc., an international business information company. The eighteen illustrators allege that Advanstar reused artwork without permission in numerous foreign publications over a 15-year period. Almost 2,000 reuses have been documented, and it is anticipated that the discovery process will document many more uses of work originally produced on a First North American Reproduction Rights basis. The UAW Legal Department will also assist the Guild in writing an amicus curiae brief in support of the lawsuit. Illustrator William Westwood, one of the plaintiffs, noted that "the Guild's specific and tangible support is invaluable in buttressing our efforts to enforce copyright and other artists' rights in court."
The Guild will also commit $10,000 to a lawsuit brought by California photographer Leslie Kelly against Arriba Soft Corporation, operators of the ArribaVista website. Kelly alleges that the ArribaVista search engine "vacuumed" copies of images from his website and posted them on their own website. Not was this done without his permission, but Kelly's name and copyright notice were deleted from the images. As a result, users were able to download, edit, organize and re-use the images without permission from, or compensation to Kelly. "I'm delighted to have the support of the Guild and its members in this important copyright infringement case," said Kelly.
"These cases are examples of two kinds of classic copyright infringement, one in the print and the other in the digital medium," says Guild Executive Director Paul Basista. "In the Advanstar case, a publisher abuses an existing limited use contract. And the ArribaVista case is an example of an artist's work being vacuumed off the web and re-used without his knowledge, a widespread fear in today's digital environment. If the creators prevail in these cases, it could change industry practice in our favor."
In the event that either party prevails and receives either a monetary settlement or an award, the money contributed by the Guild is to be returned to the Guild's Legal Defense Fund to support future significant cases.
