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Another important point
A number who have contributed to the discussion on the list, in particular
those who are not themselves directly involved in paleoillustrations, have
expressed a disturbingly casual attitude to the concept of originality of
work and violating the artist's rights. This caused me to remember a vital
point.
Every contract between a contractor and an artist providing art contains a
standard clause that basically says the artist assures that what they are
providing is original and does not violate someone else's copyright. This is
intended to deter copyright violations and especially to give the contractor
some protection from later problems.
But the protection for the contractor is not absolute. Book publishers use
the same clause. But because they remain vulnerable to suits if it can be
shown they did not take adequate steps to prevent copyright violations they go
to some effort to vet what they publish.
To claim that truly original paleoartists automatically lose much control
of the usage of their copyrighted images simply by publishing them is
nonsensical in view of the standard originality clauses. Unfortunately in the
paleoart business the clause has become proforma in all too many cases, with
both
participants doing some level of nod and wink. What needs to be done is to
get the system back to taking this stuff seriously, while boosting the
prospects of paleoartists overall.
That will be the subject of my next postings.
G Paul</HTML>