I am presently speaking with LRG and they are doing the right thing so far. They have extended a hand and we are working on something that spins this in a positive light for both parties involved. I can’t and won’t get into any details at this point, but when I am ready to share the entire story I will make sure you hear about it first. The great thing is that LRG has expressed real concern over this and want to collaborate to show that an unfortunate situation like this can be turned into something positive. In order to be true to the message and story of Changethethought, I would much rather there be a positive story that comes from this to serve as an example that we are a new generation capable of shaping a new creative landscape where we can work together and spread positive messages rather than fight and spread hate. That is really the true power of what the internet can help bring to our profession.
It has been an interesting week receiving emails from some very intelligent and wonderful people who read this blog. It has meant a lot to me and has strengthened my resolve to grow this site and push it to become something bigger than myself. Thank you for spreading the word this week and for the support. It’s given me new motivation and I can’t express how much I appreciate it.
I will let you know when this lands, how and where things end up.
So a local artist and designer, Josh Holland, was kind enough to bring this to my attention yesterday and I can’t say I was all that happy about it.
Apparently an Illustrator thought it was O.K. to steal one of the posters from my Obama download section and sell it back to Newsweek for the above article. I would never have known about this had it not been for Josh contacting me. So far, I have been unable to get my hands on a copy of this particular issue of Newsweek since this is the prior issue (marked October 20th) to this weeks November 2nd issue.
Yes, the posters are available for free download on the site, but there is clear copy before every download declaring that downloading the images and files does not pass on copyright ownership or distribution for point of sale rights. I can’t believe an illustrator would have the gall to just steal something like that and use it without even annotating where they got the image from. Furthermore, I can’t believe a publication like Newsweek would not even check to see where the image had come from. If you would like to send an email to Newsweek letting them know it’s not alright to use other artist’s and designer’s work without permission you can do so at this email address or just click on the image above this post.
I am trying to contact Newsweek now to let them know I am not o.k. with them using my imagery without permission. I’ll let you all know how it turns out. Yes, I created the posters because I wanted people to have free access to signage and I do realize that I am of course using Obama’s image for this. That goes with the territory, all I am asking from Newsweek is a proper credit.
A coworker sent news of this to me this morning and I was shocked. Apparently a bill is pending in Congress that would virtually strip all rights to creative works from artists, designers, musicians, you name it. The bill has been referred to as the ‘end of copyright’. Currently and since 1976, in order to be more compatible with international copyright laws, if you have created something you do not have to pay to protect it. It is automatically considered so. Under this new bill apparently, this would change, whereas if you wanted your work legally protected, you would have to pay to do so. If you could not pay or afford to pay, then your work would be up for grabs by (most likely) people with more money than you. Nothing you create would be protected and putting anything online would be placing your work directly in harms way. You would have to pay to own your own work or that work would be deemed an ‘orphan’ and available for use by anyone willing to pay the government the right to license. The scariest part is that this also encompasses anything you release online, which for many of us is our best work because we use the internet to promote ourselves to potential employers and contractors.
The legislation was introduced about 3 years ago and, rightly so, has been difficult to pass. The bill is being reviewed today and could pass very soon. My question is how do bills like this even get introduced into legislation when they fly in the face of working Americans? How broken is our system?
