Representative
Judy Chu
Representative
Howard Coble
Co-Chairs, Congressional Creative
Rights Caucus
Committee on the Judiciary
Subcomittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet
Dear Representatives Chu and Coble,
Thank you for your
leadership in founding the Congressional Creative Rights Caucus earlier this
year. We applaud your insights into the need for such an important
group of Members during this critical time for America's creative community.
We understand that this
week Chairman Goodlatte has scheduled a hearing before the House Judiciary
Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet entitled “A
Case Study for Consensus Building: The Copyright Principles Project.”
Although we are not aware
of any visual artists being included in the “Copyright Principles Project,” we
applaud the Committee’s inquiry into – and the Creative Caucus’s interest in –
the effects of the Internet on copyright; and we would like to take this
occasion to introduce you to our
organization and to state our interest in this issue.
An Overview of the
American Society of Illustrators Partnership
The
American Society of Illustrators Partnership (ASIP) is a grassroots coalition
of twelve visual artists organizations, founded and funded entirely by working
artists. ASIP was founded in 2007, as an initiative of the Illustrators’
Partnership of America (IPA), although many of
our member organizations have distinguished histories dating back more than 50
years.
Together
we make up a broad spectrum of creative artists, ranging from the nation's
editorial cartoonists to medical illustrators, architectural and science
illustrators, aviation artists, magazine, book and advertising illustrators.
Combined, we create much of the visual material in American contemporary
culture.
Our
14-person board includes a Pulitzer Prize winner, a muralist for the
Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum and two members of the Illustrators Hall of
Fame; as well as artists who have received the top awards for achievement in
their respective fields. We are fortunate to count the Honorable Bruce A.
Lehman, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office among our closest advisors.
We,
and most of the thousands of artists we represent, are freelance creators or small
business owners and all of us make our livings licensing the
copyrighted work we create.
We
therefore have a compelling interest in the continued effectiveness of
copyright law in the field of visual art. We believe we have unique insights
and unparalleled experience in how art is created, licensed and managed by the
people who actually create it, as well as what it is like to live and work
under the U.S. Copyright Act and related international treaties.
Support from the U.S.
Small Business Administration
In
2006 and 2008 our twelve organizations formed the nucleus of an even broader
informal coalition of 84 organizations, representing artists, photographers, writers,
songwriters, independent music labels and other small business owners in the
multibillion-dollar craft, greeting card and licensing industries.
At
the invitation of the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business
Administration, we came together on August 8, 2008 for a copyright roundtable
hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBA roundtable addressed
the issue of “orphan works.” The lively session was videotaped and
is available online at http://vimeo.com/channels/artistsrights
ASIP’s Copyright Office
Filings
In
addition, the panelists who attended the Small Business Administration
roundtable – and scores of those and who could not attend – submitted papers to
the SBA addressing the subject. We have collected and organized
those papers. On February 3, 2013, the Illustrators’ Partnership
submitted them to the Copyright Office as an appendix to our submission to its
Notice of Inquiry regarding potential orphan works legislation (Notice of
Inquiry, Copyright Office, Library of Congress Orphan Works and Mass Digitization
(77 FR 64555)). IPA’s comments were endorsed in a separate paper by the full
ASIP board: http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/noi_10222012/American-Society-Illustrators-Partnership-ASIP.pdf
The
appendix of SBA roundtable material is now online at the Copyright Office
website, and we welcome this opportunity to call your attention to it. To
the best of our knowledge, it remains the only effort so far by any agency of
the U.S. government to ascertain how creators as small business owners are
already adapting to the changes in the new digital environment.
Although
our February 14, 2013 initial comments, as well as our March 6, 2013
Reply Comments, both address the specific subject of “orphan works,” we chose
to place those comments in the larger context of copyright “reform.” As such,
we think these comments are a useful contribution to this important debate for
Members of the Creative Rights Caucus to consider and discuss in the coming
months.
Our
initial comments are available at: http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/noi_10222012/Illustrators-Partnership-America.pdf
Our
reply comments are available at: http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/noi_11302012/IPA.pdf
Endorsement of the
Illustrators’ Partnership by the National Writers Union
In
addition to the endorsement of the member organizations of ASIP, we are
fortunate to have the support of a wide variety of other
creators. For example,
our Copyright Office filings were endorsed and commended to the attention of Congress by the National
Writers Union, which stated in the NWU’s
own comments to the Copyright Office:
“In particular, the NWU endorses and commends to
the attention of the Copyright Office and Congress the objections to
“orphan works” legislation raised by Mr. Bruce A. Lehman; [and] the extensive
submissions of the Illustrators Partnership of America.”
Mr.
Lehman’s comments are available at: http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/noi_10222012/Lehman-Bruce.pdf
The
NWU comments are available at: http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/noi_11302012/National-Writers-Union.pdf
We
respectfully submit that the Creative Rights Caucus may wish to review our
Copyright Office filings and the Small Business Administration roundtable
materials in order to get a richer view of the thoughts of independent visual
artists/small business owners regarding copyright reform in general and orphan
works issues in particular.
We
invite the Caucus to call upon us if we can expand on our comments or be of any
assistance as this critical process moves forward.
Respectfully,
Brad
Holland
Co-chair
of the American Society of Illustrators Partnership
Representative
of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America
Cynthia
Turner
Co-chair
of the American Society of Illustrators Partnership
Representative
of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America
And on behalf of the
Board of Directors, American Society of Illustrators Partnership
Frank Costantino, ASAI, FSAI, JARA
1st Vice-President
Representative for American Society of
Architectural Illustrators (ASAI)
Michel Bohbot
Treasurer
Representative for San Francisco Society of
Illustrators (SFSI)
Dolores R. Santoliquido
Secretary
Representative for Guild of Natural Science
Illustrators (GNSI)
Joe Azar, Esq.
Director
Representative for Illustrators Club of
Washington DC, MD, VA (IC)
Dena Matthews
Director
Representative for Association of Medical
Illustrators (AMI)
Ilene Winn-Lederer
Director
Representative for Pittsburgh Society of
Illustrators (PSI)
Ken Joudrey
Director
Representative for Society of Illustrators San
Diego (SISD)
C.F. Payne
Director
Representative for the National Cartoonists
Society (NCS)
Nick Anderson
Director
Representative for the Association of American
Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC)
Keith Ferris
Director
Representative for the American Society of Aviation Artists (ASAA)
Joe Cepeda
Director
Society of Illlustrators Los Angles (SILA)
Don Kilpatrick
Director
Unaffiliated Illustrators at Large
