Tea Party Protests

The Tea Party campaign has shown over the past few weeks what it really is preaching and many like Sarah Palin extort it to their advantage.

White House Seeks Artists' Comments to Improve Copyright Protection

Dear Ms. Espinel

I am writing to you concerning the issue of copyright protection and how a loss of this protection will affect artists like myself.

Over the last decade, freelance writers, artists and photographers have seen significant attempts by some to take possession of our copyrights. These corporations wish to dismantle copyright or to find ways to profit from the ownership of images at the expense of the actual owners.

Many artists are fighting to protect artist’s rights on the national level as copyrights and intellectual property become commerce, but they do not have the financial resources to compete against corporate involvement or organizational corruption.

One such example is the current debate over the attempt to pass an Orphan Works bill. This bill, which is an effort to overthrow copyright protection under the guise of freeing up intellectual property for the general public is a real financial threat to artists and their copyrights. If this bill were to pass, artists would be forced to register their works in several for-profit Orphan Works registries in order to prove that the work is not abandoned. Much like existing domain name registries, artists would have to pay all scanning and registries fees on their entire body of work on an annual basis. I myself have over 1000 images and countless more sketches.

This financial burden just to provide proof that artist’s copyrights are not abandoned, even though existing copyright law already protects their work would become so cost prohibited that many artists would fall into noncompliance and risk losing ownership of their work. Their work would then be purchased and appear on the internet forcing artists to compete against their own works.

Many for profit businesses have seen the financial benefit of having artist’s works deemed work for hire or orphaned so they can be used without further compensation. These for profit businesses and even several artists’ organizations that once protected copyrights have seen that by supporting the Orphan Works bill, they can participate in an annual revenue stream with the creation of their own version of an Orphan Works registry. Artists do not have the resources in place to fight to protect what is already theirs if such a bill were to pass.

Artists can no longer turn to those organizations that once protected artist’s rights. Organizations that are collecting these royalties and should be distributing them to their rightful owners are instead keeping these fees to support their own activities or worse yet, support bills that further hurt the artist community.

For years, a small group of artists have tried to find a way to get foreign reprographics fees, which is earned income that freelancers make but do not receive, distributed back to the rightful owners. These are overseas royalties rightfully earned by the copyrighted work of artists but because there is no distribution system in place, these royalties are being diverted away from the owner.

Since there is no government run or independent system in place, this money can be used any way an artist’s organization or society deems fit. Already these funds have been used to prevent continued efforts to successfully return these royalties to artists. And there is no accountability in place as to how these royalties are being used.

I fear these once respected groups and for-profit businesses will continue to pursue venues in which they solely profit off of artists at the expense of artist’s copyrights. If we continue to allow our copyrights to be weakened in this manner, the financial costs to protect our works or to prevent our own royalties from being used against us will only increase.

There are ways to protect copyright law without allowing for the dismantlement of existing law. We need to ensure the public that the administration will instead move forward to prevent the loss of income to artists, help return royalties earned to artists and the continued protection of their copyrights by offering a fair Orphan Works bill.

In order to do this correctly more attention and public debate is needed with artists who have shown a willingness to defend artist’s rights and not profit from them.

I thank you for your attention on this matter.

Ken Dubrowski

Freelance Illustrator
Director of Operations Illustrator’s Partnership of America
845 Moraine Street
Marshfield MA 02050

Current Woodworking Project

My current woodworking project for a couple in MA. This custom designed cabinet is a two piece cherry entertainment center with pull out shelves and a hand rubbed finish...

Just getting ready to finish the top part.

New York Yankees painted on the walls

As baseball season nears, I am spending some free time doing something I wanted to do for a long time and not get in trouble for. I am painting the retired New York Yankee legends in Black and white all around the trim part of our bathroom.
It takes about four hours to get each player right.

Once that is done I will start building the Yankee facade that goes around the top of the room and finish it off with a few other hand made pieces I am working on.

HB 1844 Testimony

Chairman Senator Thomas McGee
Chairwoman Representative Cheryl Coakley-Rivera
Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development
Room 39 and Room 112
Massachusetts State House
Boston MA 02133

I would like to thank the members of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development for taking the time to listen to my testimony. My name is Ken Dubrowski and I am a nationally known freelance illustrator working in Massachusetts since 1989. I am also the Director of Operations and a founding member of the Illustrator’s Partnership of America.

I am here today to testify in support of HB 1844 An Act Relative to Independent Contractors. As a freelance illustrator I work from my home studio competing for assignments with other illustrators from around the country. Most of my clients also employ on-staff artists. These clients hire freelance artists, like myself, not to compete or replace on- staff artists but to work with them to bring my unique style to their publication. As a freelancer, I am not afforded the same benefits as a staffed artist who receives paid healthcare and office expenses, but given current U.S. and international copyright law, I am afforded the protection of the ownership of my copyrights. This allows me to control the usage of my images and how I wish to resell those images to other clients.

Under the Massachusetts Independent Contractor 2004 Law, I am not afforded those protections, as I will no longer be considered a freelance independent contractor but an employee of my client thus losing the ownership of my copyright. Once a company owns my work it can be sold or resold without my consent.

The unintended consequence of this law hurts Massachusetts-based freelancers in several ways. First, outside companies may seek to ignore using artists from our state for fear of having to pay penalties. This puts Massachusetts’s artists at an unfair competitive disadvantage, as our trade industry is restricted from open and fair competition with artists outside of our area. The outcome of this law will be a loss of taxable income as Massachusetts based artists see commissioned work going to artists outside the state. This will have a disastrous effect on the Massachusetts economy, as artists will be forced to either transfer their residencies out of state or consider other more drastic measures.

Second, as companies begin to collect the rights of these works, artists would be forced to ironically compete against their own images. In addition, companies would be able to package these newly owned images into collections without having to pay artists any further fee for the usage of their work.

Third and most importantly, this law as it is written will only continue to erode an artist’s protection to his or her own copyright. This law allows those who wish to rewrite copyright law to gain a foothold in our industry by declaring independent contractors as employees.

Over the last decade freelance artists and photographers have seen significant attempts to take possession of our copyrights. During this time, many groups have been trying to dismantle copyright or to find ways to profit from the ownership of images on the web.

The Illustrator’s Partnership of America has been fighting to protect artist’s rights on the national level as copyrights and intellectual property become commerce. Bills such as the Orphan Works Bill are an attempt to overthrow copyright protection under the guise of freeing up intellectual property for the general public. Many for profit businesses have seen the economic benefit of having artist’s works deemed work for hire or orphaned. Thus forcing artists to protect what little control they still have of their own work. Even our own clients have been exploiting our secondary rights without permission or compensation to us for many years.

I ask that you amend the 2004 law to protect our ability to work and earn an income in the state of Massachusetts by adopting the Independent Contractor Bill 1844 as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Ken Dubrowski
845 Moraine Street
Marshfield MA 02050 781-837-3457
Ken Dubrowski Artisan’s Studio
Director of Operations Illustrator’s Partnership of America

Robert Kaufman Passes Away

I write with great sorrow to inform you of the death of Robert Kaufman,
Illustrator, and faculty at The Art Institute of Boston. I understand from
Susan LeVan that many of you knew him well (and often served on illustration
juries here), and I wanted to be sure you knew of the funeral services for
him this coming Friday, January 15th, 3:00pm, at Levine Chapels, 470 Harvard
Street in Brookline, MA.

There is additional information at the AIB Illustration blog:
http://aiboston.typepad.com/illustration/2010/01/robert.html

Robert was wonderful colleague and friend, and is much missed by all of us
here.

Geoffry Fried
Senior Associate Dean
The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University
700 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215
617 585-6682
gfried@aiboston.edu

Rush Limbaugh : For the Love of Money

This spring and fall I am having several art exhibits that will showcase both my illustration and personal paintings.
Here is one of my new pieces that I am showing so if you have a comment on the work please feel free to let me know what you think. If you wish to be included in am email of the dates of the show drop me an email.

For Socialdesignzine

Illustration for Socialdesignzine poster for a green Iran.
Website with the complete works of others: http://sdz.aiap.it/gallerie/11538

David Levine, Biting Caricaturist, Dies at 83

(From the New York Times Yesterday)
]David Levine, whose macro-headed, somberly expressive, astringently probing and hardly ever flattering caricatures of intellectuals and athletes, politicians and potentates were the visual trademark of The New York Review of Books for nearly half a century, died Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 83 and lived in Brooklyn.
Rest of the story...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/arts/design/30levine.html?_r=1

Christmas Gift Holiday House Portraits

Below is an example of one of the house portraits I did for a client this holiday season.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
May you have a great New Year.
Ken

French court decision against Google

On Friday, 18 December 2009, a Paris court has ruled against Google in a lengthy copyright infringement case filed by a French publisher, La Martinière, and later joined by the French Publishers Association and French authors group SGDL.

The French court ordered Google to pay 300,000 EUR in damages and interest to the French company. The court stated that Google was infringing the copyright of the publishers' books by scanning excerpts (‘snippets’) and including these in its Google Book Search results. As part of the ruling, Google is further requested to pay 10,000 EUR each day until it removes the snippets.

Unhappy with the verdict, Google, reportedly, has plans to appeal the ruling.

Custom Designed and Built Kitchen Cabinets

Here is a photo of the recently completed Kitchen cabinet work. I designed, built and installed these just before Thanksgiving.
They are white paint with aging glaze and a beaded edge. My Facebook page shows the entire collection of cabinets and my website will show all of the cabinet work I have done in the next few weeks.
Album

Cherry Corner Bookcase

Here is a custom cabinet project for a corner of a living room that I designed and built in Cherry. It goes with a second piece that holds a large screen TV. The room has high ceilings and the large size allows for plenty of storage.

Orphan Works Panel at The Artist's Congress

Sitting on the panel for the Artist's Congress, I was surprised to find how many people were unaware of the issue or complexity of the Orphan Works Bill. Many in attendance were shocked to learn that one artist's organization in particular had paid over $210,000 the past three years for lobbyists to support the Orphan Works Bill while claiming they opposed it.

These types of conferences on artist's issues are needed more than ever, if only to expose the issues and create transparency to the problems we all face. If you are a creative artist consider joining MALC which is free to everyone.

Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition (MALC) ensures that Massachusetts artists of all disciplines have a voice in dialogs, decisions, and key public policy initiatives that impact the artists community and the creative economy. MALC works to ensure that artists have a permanent place at the policy making table.

Membership in MALC is FREE and open to Massachusetts individual artists of all disciplines, and to Massachusetts artist(s) run organizations, businesses, and initiatives.

“Artist(s) run” means the following:

for an organization with a board structure, the majority of the governing board must be comprised of working artists;
for an organization without a governing board structure, it must be operated by an individual artist or group of artists.

PHOTO CREDIT © 2009 Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo

Steele v. Turner Broadcasting, Major League Baseball, The Boston Red Sox, Bon Jovi

( I sat on a panel discussing Orphan Works last month and listed those "organizations" that support the passing of the bill. Bart Steele joined the panel midway to talk about his case. While those of us on the panel outlined what Orphan Works is and how easy it will become to borrow and create derivative works, Bart Steele's example also highlights how hard it is today, given current copyright law to protect your work. Ken)



Bart Steele, a songwriter living in Chelsea, MA, has filed an appeal in his lawsuit against Turner Broadcasting, Major League Baseball, The Boston Red Sox, the rock band Bon Jovi, and other defendants. The case is Steele v. Turner Broadcasting et al, case #08-11727, and is pending in federal court in Boston. Steele argues that his song and an MLB/TBS commercial, which he believes was created using his work as a "temp track," are similar enough to support his claim that the commercial infringes upon his copyright.

"Basically, the District Court believed the defendants' argument that this was all a bunch of coincidences," Steele says. "But it wasn't. It was copyright infringement, pure and simple. In 2004, I wrote my Boston Red Sox-based country baseball anthem entitled 'Man I Really Love This Team.'

"I emailed my song and also mailed the song with lyric sheets to the Red Sox and Major League Baseball several times, including in October 2004, June 2005, and June 2006. I also told them I had another version called 'Man I Really Love This Town' that could be used for any team in any town. To this day, neither the Red Sox nor Major League Baseball has denied receiving my letters, song, and lyric sheets. I never heard back from them.

"Three years later, MLB's "I Love This Town" commercial aired on TBS, with Bon Jovi providing the audio. And I started getting phone calls asking me when I had sold my song. The answer was - and is - never.

"I was never asked for permission to use my work, much less paid or even given credit for it. Defendants admit, in Court documents, receiving my song in October 2004. Defendants have not denied receiving my letters informing them I had created a derivative work, which replaced "team" with "town."

"Defendants admit "access," which is a big part of any copyright claim. It is hard to believe TBS and MLB when they say their commercial's similarities to my song were all a series of unbelievable 'coincidences.'

Steele elaborates, "A close analysis of the MLB/TBS commercial proves that it, and the Bon Jovi audio, was derived from my work," says Steele. "They left a pretty blatant trail of evidence behind,"

"There are just too many places where the visuals match up exactly with my lyrics to be coincidence. For example, at the exact time I am singing "Yawkey Way," the video shows a Yawkey Way street sign, and Bon Jovi is singing "this street." Another obvious example, at the exact time I sing "Tigers," the video shows a Detroit Tigers player."

"As for the lyrics, at the end of my song's bridge I sing "come on and let 'em know say here we go;" the Bon Jovi audio's bridge ends "come on now here we go again." Compare my song to the MLB commercial and see if you can find all the other 'coincidences.'

"In fact, over 50% of the commercial's lyrics are identical to, or paraphrased from my song, according to a number of professional musicians and video experts.

"96% of the commercial's frame-cut edits (149 of 155 video sequences) are in perfect synchronization with my song's tempo, beat, and measure. And the commercial and my song are exactly the same length, both fading out at 2:38.

Steele says the Court failed to properly consider his experts' statements, and that is a major reason why he is appealing.

"I registered 3 titles as both writer & publisher with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP): 1) 'Man I Really Love This Team' 2) 'Man I Really Love This Town' and 3) 'Man I Love This Team,' and this can easily be confirmed at www.ascap.com by title search.

"Everyone tells me that this kind of thing happens all the time in the music business even though it's illegal. The big corporations think musicians will just give up if they have to face a big law firm hired to wear them out. But I'm not giving up.

"When ASCAP saw my evidence, their exact words to me were: "We find it very hard to believe this was independent creation on their (Bon Jovi's) part with the whole baseball and video thing."

"ASCAP subsequently opened a "Discrepancy" case file and requested statements from me and from Bon Jovi. In fact, an ASCAP title search for "I Love This Town" returns only an ASCAP request to call the "Clearance Line" with respect to the "Discrepancy" on that title code (392590937). I replied immediately to ASCAP's request.

"Bon Jovi never replied to ASCAP's request.

"ASCAP eventually froze all royalties on Bon Jovi's audio, "I Love This Town," from the MLB/TBS commercial.

"Amazingly, Bon Jovi never questioned or challenged ASCAP's royalty freeze. Actually, since MLBAM (MLB's non-baseball media/marketing arm) - and not Bon Jovi - owns the copyright to the TBS/MLB commercial, including the audio, maybe it's not that amazing."

Steele concludes, "Bon Jovi is a major client of MLBAM and has been for years. In fact, Bon Jovi, TBS, and MLB teamed up yet again just this fall to promote baseball on TBS. Please check for yourself, this is all public record."

To view and listen to the MLB commercial with Steele's song, go to www.myspace.com/chelseacitycouncil

To view and listen to the MLB commercial with the Bon Jovi audio, go tohttp://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070827&content_id=2173003&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Butter churn plans

I'm looking for details or woodworking plans to make this type of shaker style butter churn. Please email me if you know where I could find them Thanks, Ken