President's Message February '06

Happy Valentine's Day! Another card and flower day is upon us. If you're wondering how this one came about, Google up St. Valentine and you will get a variety of theories and postulations on the celebration of February 14.

Using Google for this purpose is a lot better use of search technology than Google's latest assault on intellectual property ownership. In case you haven't read about the Google plan to scan books owned by libraries, who by the way, own the books and not the rights to copy said books, then you are probably not paying attention to the news media. The Guild is looking at this development and you will be reading about it in the Guild news.

And speaking about intellectual property, this time of the year is an important one for you and for the Guild. This week you will receive a questionnaire from the Guild National office. Please take a couple of minutes to fill it out and mail it back. This is an important questionnaire because it determines our ability to receive a share of reprographic royalties collected for American works photocopied in countries outside the U.S.. These are non-specific royalties, i.e., they are not traceable to an individual author.

Collecting this money is important for two reasons. First, the funds we receive go for educational, advocacy and international copyright efforts. That is specifically, the publishing of the Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, the writing of amicus briefs in support of graphic artists' causes, and the support of our position as graphic artists in legal issues that will directly affect our profession.

Secondly, we need to set a pattern of seeking funds that are due to creators. There is plenty of work that needs to be done to make sure that creators receive money collected in their behalf. The Guild is committed to this effort and to the ongoing effort to improving the collecting and reporting of copying. World collecting organizations are currently taking up the issue of online copying and scanning. As you can imagine, this is not an easy issue to deal with. We need to make sure that whatever is proposed is fair and equitable. As technology progresses the ability to track usage will hopefully become more precise and creators will get their true share of monies collected.

None of this will happen unless we remain a player in this effort and being a player is as simple as filling out this questionnaire and sending it in.

Lastly, Copyright Awareness Week is on the horizon from March 6-10, 2006. The coming issue of the Guild News is devoted to the subject. Chapters are a great place to discuss this subject. Get the word out to everyone you know about the importance of copyright protection, especially those clients. The more your clients know about copyright, the more valuable your work becomes. Go to the Copyright Society web site, http://www.csusa.org/caw/caw_2006_home.htm, for information and materials to download and use.

Click here to visit John's June 05 President's Message.

Click here to visit John's March 05 President's Message.

Click here to visit John's December 04 President's Message.

Click here to visit John's November 04 President's Message.

President's Message February, 2006

President's Message
February, 2006