Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Graphic Artists Guild, Illustration and the Law



Last week the NY Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit against the Illustrators Partnership of America and five of us based on the fact that we spoke the truth. 

This announcement from Judge Debra James was the first time many artists learned that GAG had taken over 1.5 million in reprographics royalties without their knowledge and consent.
In the lawsuit GAG asserted claims for defamation and interference with contractual relations, alleging that IPA had interfered with a “business relationship” GAG had entered into that enabled GAG to collect orphaned reprographic royalties derived from the licensing of illustrators’ work. 


Many artists had been  afraid to speak out publicly on this issue, pointing to the fact that websites and personal blogs were used as "evidence" by GAG in their lawsuit.

 The link below is from an article on Brad Holland by Steve Heller and should be read by the artists who are upset about GAG's lawsuit and have a stake in how their royalties are being used. The question I have is what will artists do about it ?


Illustration by Brad Holland from DailyHeller blog.
http://imprint.printmag.com/daily-heller/illustration-and-the-law/Post image for Illustration and the Law

No comments: