In the Exe-Comm September Minutes there were three motions in regards to the Guild signing on to Amicus. Below are summaries of the issues, by John Schmelzer, Exe-Comm At-Large:

First, as an introduction, a description of amicus curiae, straight from the dictionary: "amicus curiae, Law. A person invited to advise a court on a matter of law in a case to which he is not a party. [ Latin, "friend of the court"]."

A person involved in a suit would seek this advice to help strengthen their position before the court, it adds weight to their argument. The Guild would be interested in giving this advice if said case might result in a decision that might impact the membership of the guild.

Publica VS. Decarlo

This case involves an artist, Mr. Decarlo who drew the Archie comic book characters since the 70's. He claims he drew prototypes for Josie and the Pussycats and Sabrina the Teenaged Witch prior to working for Publica, the publisher of Archie Comics.

Mr. Decarlo, and his two sons, who all drew the Archie characters have died, the widow of Mr. Decarlo is still alive as is this suit.

The point of this suit that is of interest to creators is that basically a judge has ruled against the Decarlo claim. The publisher is claiming all rights because they can, the artist is of course at a disadvantage because records of what transpired are fuzzy for both parties, and the publisher is using time and money to win this action.

This is another example of a working partnership gone bad, the artist does his job and when his work results in unexpected rewards, the publisher decides not to share those rewards with the artist. Chalk one up for work for hire and corporate greed if this ruling stands.

Amicus on Imageline

This case involves electronic images owned by Imageline being stolen online.

The issue of interest to creators here is the fact that when illustrated images are registered for copyright as a collection, the individual images only receive protection as a part of the collection and therefore are afforded only a portion of the protection that an individually registered illustration receives. Protection for Individual photographic images registered as a collection exists now, but apparently photographers had a better lobby than we illustrators.

I personally think this case is problematic as it seeks protection for an image bank, not unlike a clip art service or Creatas or Getty. I would like to see the stock houses have to protect their images at $30 a head, I'm sure it would make stock art less profitable for the big players, or possibly even raise the price of artwork in general, but we as illustrators would have to do the same to actually protect our output.

Grokster Amica Brief

This case involves a software that makes it possible to copy music, movies, and art on the internet. The software maker maintains the software is for archiving purposes but directs people to a site that tells how to use the software for copying and sharing purposes.

The issue is pretty clear here for creators, this type of software encourages and facilitates intellectual property theft. This suit has many supporters on the intellectual property side, including major motion picture and music groups. Joining this effort costs us nothing and is a good show of support against those who attempt to steal intellectual property.

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