wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Coincidence: Orphan Works: A License To Infringe
Kathy Wheeler 2008-Jun-15 00:29:00
On 15/06/2008, at 7:19 AM, Tamas D.Varga wrote:
> "...an Internet culture of disregard for the rights of copyright
> holders, results in rampant Internet infringements of digital images.
> Because they are prominently featured in online databases,
> professional stock images are particularly vulnerable to such abuse."
>
> This is what happened to the images of many of the WWP artists just
> recently and this is what we should not allow to happen again.
As much as I do not like the idea, there are quite a number of
organisations now that will hunt down and collect fees for use of
copyright material. One in Oz has been in touch with us recently as
they have already collected funds on our behalf (for non-WWP
material) - although they had no specific authority from us to do it,
and we didn't even know it was happening!
For Australians:
http://www.copyright.com.au/
"Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) is an Australian copyright management
company whose role is to provide a bridge between creators and users
of copyright material. CAL represents authors, journalists, visual
artists, surveyors, photographers and newspaper, magazine and book
publishers as their non-exclusive agent to license the copying of
their works to the general community."
While I personally have some reservations, the actions of people like
ZKM may leave artists no choice but to join these sorts of
organisations. Who amongst us has the time to constantly trawl the
web on the off-chance someone is using our copyright material? Most
copyright infringements are found by (un)lucky accident. Perhaps that
has to change.
We may not be able to stop others using our material within the
limits of the "law", there are all sorts of wriggle-loop-holes they
can duck and dive into, but we can damn well get paid for it! And if
a use has exceeded what is legally available, having a collection
agency constantly monitoring on-line (and off line) content gives us
a better chance of discovering abuse.
With some reservations,
KathyW.