Mind Your Business: Who is Keeping Your Royalties?
She continues: "I have received three travel stipends from GRAFILL for…approx. $10,000. I have also received a travel stipend from the Norwegian Illustrators Society for $5,800. I would highly recommend that artists allow ASIP to represent them as U.S. rights holders so they can gain access to the money that is rightfully theirs."
I found out through the ASIP that since 1980, KOPINOR in Norway has collected more than NOK 3.5 billion (US $570 million) in reprographic fees. I can only account for slightly more than $1 billion (US) collected domestically. That's right. Norway, which only has 4.7 million people (about the size of Houston) collects more than half as much for artists and authors as the U.S. does, even though Norway's population is 1/74 of the U.S.
In addition to the money collected through blanket licenses, some reprographic royalties can be traced to specific artists. These are called title-specific royalties and in some cases, it means that there are checks with artists' names waiting for them overseas.
Lynn Reznick, licensing manager for syndicated cartoonist Mark Parisi, learned about reprographic royalties through her association with ASIP. In a recent letter to the ASIP board, she wrote, "In June of 2009, we were contacted by the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL, an Australian rights company) regarding potential copyright payments that were allocated to Mark...We registered with CAL and now are paid directly to our bank account." She adds that to date they have received a total of $4,687.16.
Other countries pay illustrators for photocopying their work, and I'm tired of it! I joined the ASIP because I want my royalties!
Heard enough? Are you tired of other people keeping your money? Then do something about it!
Join the ASIP at www.asip-repro.org/join.html.
What's the catch? Not much. There's no cost to join but there is a HUGE cost if you don't.
The ASIP will be funded by taking an administrative fee from royalties it collects for you, so there is no cash out of your pocket. It is also run by illustrators: very smart illustrators. Many of these people are responsible for defeating the Orphan Works bill, so you know they are on your side.
Will you get huge checks after you join? No, probably not. First we need to prove to the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO) that we should be recognized as one voice of illustrators. Then royalties should start to flow to the ASIP and then to the people who deserve it instead of large organizations and publishers who get rich off of our talent.
According to the WIPO National Seminar on Copyright, Related Rights, and Collective Management, organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the IFRRO links together all the RROs as well as national and international associations of rights holders. "To collect fees, the RROs enter into bilateral agreements with each other."
But is there a lot of money out there just waiting for us to eventually receive? Hell, yes!
The CCC's website states, "In the last 15 years, we've distributed more than $1 billion in royalties to the rights holders we represent." Their site also states, "Today, we represent tens of thousands of authors, publishers and creators from nearly every country in the world…" That means they've paid royalties to authors, publishers and creators.
The folks at ASIP directed me an official IFRRO publication online, The Art of Copying. According to this booklet, reprographic royalties due to visual artists (illustrators and photographers) average 15% of total reprographic revenues. (See the footnote on page 18.)
According to IFRRO's booklet, The Art of Copying, "Research shows that copying of visual material increases significantly when it can be done digitally. Digital copying offers the user a much better quality copy and provides numerous options for manipulation and storing the copy. These advantages pose opportunities as well as obvious risks for creators of visual material."
Printer-friendly version
Hi, I am the living example that was quoted in the article who lives in Oslo, Norway. I just came back from attending the international conference for the Association of Medical Illustrators in Portland, OR. I was able to attend this meeting since I was awarded this spring a $ 5800 travel stipend from reprographic rights money collected here in Norway. I can not emphasize enough to illustrators the importance of letting ASIP be your collecting society. Sign up today. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
Sincerely, Kari C. Toverud
Mark,
Thanks again for taking such an interest in the subject of reprographic rights and thanks for taking so much time with the article. You did the art business a great service in 08, when you helped us get the Orphan Works story out. Now you’ve performed a similar public service with this piece.
We started ASIP for one reason: nobody else was doing it and unless somebody does it, it won’t get done.
In the last several months, over 500 of us have signed reprographic rights mandates. We invite any artist to join who’s had at least two published works in publications with ISBN or ISSN numbers. The form’s easy to fil out and membership is free.
Reprographic licensing is a multi-million dollar business. The money comes from the secondary licensing of our work by publishers. But it’s like jukebox money: we can never get a fair share of it until we come together as a copyright society. The distribution has to be done in a legally-accountable manner.
Other countries have pioneered the statistical means to determine how payments should be made. A good example is Great Britain’s Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS). Read about their Payback system here: dacs.org.uk
The second goal of a copyright society is just as important: to give artists an effective voice in the future management of our secondary rights.This is critical because of the way our business is changing.
When I started as an artist, we made our living doing commissioned work. Back then it was considered unethical to license art to one client that we had done for another. But the Internet has changed all that. Now many clients commission work only when they can’t find stock.
Stock and royalty-free sales, reprographic licensing, orphan works infringements: these are all part of the same rights picture.
They’re all efforts by opportunists to control our secondary rights. But unless artists come together as a market force, sooner or later the opportunists will win.
Two years ago we beat the odds. We stopped the Orphan Works Bill. We did it despite warnings from everyone that it couldn’t be done. We did it, but we had to rally like Minutemen in our nightshirts to the bridge at Concord. How many times can we keep doing that and expect to win?
The anti-copyright lobby didn’t go home when the last Congress adjourned. They’re a permanent presence in Washington. A copyright society – if properly funded – could give artists a permanent voice in Washington to protect and advance our rights. That’s why we started ASIP and that’s why I’ve signed the ASIP mandate myself.
The 12 groups that came together as ASIP include editorial, book and advertising artists, magazine and editorial cartoonists, medical and general science illustrators and architectural and aviation artists. It also includes regional arts organizations. These groups formed the nucleus of the 85 groups that united to fight orphan works.
Two years ago we showed what artists can do by coming together. Joining ASIP could be the first step of the next step toward protecting our rights in the Internet age.
On behalf of the board of ASIP, we invite you to join us.
– Brad Holland
For the Board of ASIP
Is it true that the Graphic Artists Guild has been collecting reprographic fees for years on behalf of artists in the U.S.?
If you're a professional artist, follow Mark's advice and sign the ASIP membership form. It's easy, free, and might even result in you getting a small check some day.
I've signed for my cartoons.
Stu Rees
stu@stus.com
Kuldeep,
If you are asking about our Hit Makers Summit, that is not a festival. It's a TV conference where we work with our members on the development, packaging and how to pitch their TV concepts.
Mark
hello sir
i am a student of animation doing from delhi (INDIA). i want to ask something for this great event. please send me a reply.
1. can student's can show their artwork in this festival.
2. is any charge will taken from student / if any how much..??
i will be very obliged to you if you send me the reply.
thanking you sir
kuldeep singh rathore
Post new comment