[Scriptoris] International theft

[Hillary Greenslade]

Got the following off an artisan e-list, not from the SCA, but as some of you guys are
professional artisans, you maybe interested.  It looks like most of the images this chinese
company is printing are from 'dead' masters, some are not.  

I did a quick scan to see if there were any names recognized as being SCA, but didn't see any.  
Maybe food for thought, and some interested international legal issues on
theft/plagarism/piracy/whathaveyou.  

Cheers, Hillary / Ansteorra

> >From: "Robert Genn Twice Weekly Letter" <robert at theodigitalgallery.com>
> >To: <mel001 at earthlink.net>
> >Subject: International theft
> >Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 02:24:27 -0600
> >International theft
> >
> >December 2, 2005
> >
> >Dear Marie,
> >
> >Last week Marjorie Turnbull wrote to tell me that replicas of
> >her paintings and mine were for sale on a Chinese website
> >called Arch-World. Andrew and I went to have a look right away.
> >It turned out to be a big site that 'represented' more than
> >2800 artists, living and dead. These folks have been simply
> >'lifting' images from dealer and public gallery websites, and
> >other online pages. While the quality must be fairly poor, they
> >are offering them as giclees or photocopies in several sizes.
> >You can fill up your shopping-cart for peanuts. Smaller sizes
> >are 129 Yuan --379 for larger. That's about US$16 and $46. They
> >also frame and ship. Quite a deal. I made a few phone calls and
> >none of the artists I contacted were aware their work was on
> >this website. So far no one has had any recollection of royalty
> >cheques arriving from China. To find out if you are among the
> >favoured artists please click on the URL below. Andrew has
> >posted the complete list, as well as further contact
> >information for you. We are going to try to close this
> >operation down.
> >
> >A quick estimate suggests there are about 800 Canadian artists
> >on the list. On Monday I contacted Robin Mader, our Canadian
> >Trade Commissioner for Visual Arts. I offered her basic info,
> >some physical printouts of the site, and the potential wrath of
> >Canadian artists. She kindly offered to ask other government
> >people to 'recommend an appropriate course of action to halt
> >this practice.' So far nothing has happened.
> >
> >Through our translator we studied a complex dissertation on
> >'People's Republic of China Copyright Law' on the site. It's
> >difficult to understand but it seems they think they have the
> >right to use our stuff until such time as we ask them not to.
> >In the buying window, the links to "legal consultation" and
> >"customer service" don't seem to work for us. The website
> >states that they cannot contact all the artists. It says that
> >if you come across your own work and would like it to be
> >removed, they will remove it within 24 hours and compensate you
> >'reasonably according to the usage up to the time of removal.'
> >To this end they have an email address and a phone number which
> >we have exercised in order to get my own 120 images removed. We
> >did this on Wednesday afternoon and as of this writing
> >(Thursday night) my stuff is still up there. In the meantime,
> >artists, art dealers and public gallery curators need to follow
> >the links below. 
> >
> >Best regards,
> >
> >Robert
> >
> >Our compiled list of artists on the Chinese website is at:
>
><http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/chinese-list.asp>http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/chinese-list.asp
> >
> >Email addresses, links, and other info that you might need are
> >included here and also at the end of the current clickback.
> >
> >Current clickback: If you would like to see selected responses
> >to the last letter, "The art factory," please go to:
>
><http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/art-factory.asp>http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/art-factory.asp
> >
> >Yes, please go ahead and forward this letter to a friend.
> >
> >If you would like to comment or add your own opinions,
> >information or observations, please do so. Just click "reply"
> >on this letter or write rgenn at saraphina.com 
> >
> >If you think a friend or fellow artist may find value in this
> >material, please feel free to forward it. This does not mean
> >that they will automatically be subscribed to the Twice-Weekly
> >Letter. They have to do it voluntarily and can find out about
> >it by going to <http://www.painterskeys.com>http://www.painterskeys.com
> >
>