Some People Have Nothing Better to Do

Whilst googling myself the other day, I came across this post on the First Person Irregular blog, written John Ochwat. Now, John seems like an intelligent guy and he's entitle to his opinion but . . . he is clearly in need of more interesting pursuits in his life.

In his post, John opins about the evils of the author bio being longer than the text in children's books (yes, he counted them). He uses Good Morning, Garden, written by Barbara Brenner and illustrated by myself as an example. Ouch! He even shows the lovely cover (and thank you for that, if you're going to slam a book, you can at least have it look good and sell a few copies, right? But I digress.) He even complains that there are duplicate bios on the back page and on the jacket flap, making the text to author bio ratio something ridiculous like 1:2.

Here's the point, John: the text and author bios are written for two different audiences. The text is written for the kiddies, or to be read to the kiddies. The bios are written for the adults who buy and read the books to the kiddies. A few adults actually find them interesting. In a small way, it gives additional resources for the teacher using the book in the classroom. So please, take a deep breath. There must be worser evils in the world for you to cast your eye upon.

Do You Post Photos Online? Read This

Okay, I know I've been harping on this orphan works thing, but some people still don't get how serious it is yet. So here's just a taste of what's to come in the future. Read this and this about an illustrator whose image was stolen by a large cigarette company and used to advertise cigarettes to kids. Read this about a blogger whose photo of her pet showed up on Fox TV, and this about a photographer whose image was used by cnet without permission. Read this about a guy whose photos were used by Real Time with Bill Mahr without his permission. Then read this Washington Post article about it happening to others.

Some of these infringements were willful, some an honest accident, blamed on the lowly intern (wink, wink). Regardless, this is just a taste of what is to come.

As scary as that is, it's nothing compared to this. Websites like Google and Flickr are removing metadata—hidden data within the digital file that includes the creator's name, contact info, and copyright info among other things—from digital files. Yikes! These are two companies that stand to benefit financially from orphaned works, and they are willfully orphaning works by removing this information. This is a recipe for wholesale theft!

If you have not already done so, go to Orphan Works Opposition Headquarters and read more there. Sign their petition and write your congressional leaders using the form letters. Some of them are starting to get the message but they need to hear from YOU.

The NY Times linked to Moi! (and by the way, Tasha Tudor died)

You know how you google yourself ocassionally? Well, I hadn't in a while so thought I'd do it today. Imagine my surprise when I found that the NY Times has linked to my Women Children's Book Illustrator website in their obituary for Tasha Tudor.

Here's a picture of Tasha at her work table. With her passing last Wednesday, June 18, 2008, she was the last of the featured living illustrators to die. The others preceding her were Trina Schart Hyman (died November 19, 2004 at age 65), Barbara Cooney (March 10, 2000 at age 83), and Elizabeth Orton 'Twig' Jones (died May 10, 2005 at age 94). Of course, everyone else I've featured is also dead, but these four were living at the time I wrote their bios. I hope that doesn't say something about my writing!

Orphaned Works Update

Members of IPA, and associates working with them, met with congressional leaders in DC last week. It sounds as if a few are starting to get it. But we're not out of the woods yet.

Here's a link to an Op-Ed piece published in the New York Times last week by non-other than Lawrence Lessig. Oddly enough, he is opposed to the current legislation. But I wouldn't let him babysit my kids just yet, if you know what I mean.

And here's an article from the Boston Herald. So the press is starting to listen.

From the IPA's website, a listing of artist groups against passage of this OW legislation.

Post Card Campaign to Oppose Orphan Works

The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed their Orphan Works Act. It is now headed for the full Senate. This from Joanne Fink, President of Lakeside Design:

Urgent: Do this today in order to impact next week's opposition team
meetings in Washington D.C.

Postcard mailings: It was suggested that we get everyone to start sending
postcards to the DISTRICT offices, not the Washington DC office, because mail sent to Washington gets scanned/screened and can take over two weeks to get to the
recipient, while mail sent to the district office gets couriered to the Washington office the next day. Please disseminate this information as soon as possible. We'd like to have thousands of postcards waiting for our legislators before we go to visit them. Please help with this last ditch effort!

Here's what to do:

1. Write "Please vote NO on the Orphan Works bill " (add H.R. 5889 for the
   House; S-2913 for the Senate). No other explanation is necessary.


2. Sign your name and include your contact info.


3. Addres it to your elected official's district office. Click to find your Senator's address or your Representative's address. You will need to click through to their website.


4. Add a stamp—27 cents; 42 cents if your postcard is over 6" x 4 1/4".

Orphaned Works is Back! Act Now!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water!

What's an Orphaned Work?
Any intellectual property that has been abandoned by its creator, either through neglect or death.

What's the Big Deal?
Large corporations (Microsoft, Hearst, Google) have amassed hoards of public domain works and license them for $$$. Now they're after orphaned work.

So what? Your not dead?
This current legislation will change the definition of orphaned work and allow those who claim they can't find me to use my work without permission, thereby giving them incentive not to find me. It will remove any recourse I may have when I discover the infringement, yet does not limit the infringer in a countersuit. It will allow the infringer to make derivatives of my work and copyright them as their own!

It Doesn't Affect Me So I'm Not Interested
Au Contraire! Do you post family photos online? On your BLOG? If you don't register them with one of the as-yet-to-be-in-existance-for-profit-registries, it will become an orphaned-work, and large corporations like Google and Microsoft will harvest and sell it for profit. How will you feel when you see your sweet child's face advertising some unsavory product, and there won't be a darn thing you can do about! Do I have your attention now?

So, Call the Media
Sorry, they're not interested because they stand to profit. Many of them own stock photo or art houses.

That's Bad. How Can I Help?
Go to the Illustrator's Partnership to read about the two similar bills currently sailing through Congress. Then go to their Take Action page. Put in your zip code and they will email your Congressmen of your wishes.

Even if I'm a Writer?
YES! Writer, Plumber, Short Order Cook! You all have power of the pen. Do your civic duty and support Artists and Photographers everywhere! And all you Blogging Writers? I've seen the power you wield when you have your mind set on something. Post the IPA site on your blogs and let the world know.

One more Thing
I hate to be political on my blog; that's not what I'm about. But . . . Laurence Lessig is the lawyer who started this whole assault on intellectual property a few years back. Do a search for Lessig and your favorite candidate to see which candidate Lessig supports. That doesn't necessarily mean that that candidate is FOR this bill, but it might make you think twice.

More on Robert's Snow

A few weeks ago I attended to reception at Child at Heart Gallery for the Robert's Snow display. I met up with old friends Ilene Richard and Mary Newell DePalma. Here they are chatting outside the gallery. Both are very talented and ironically (or not), they both created 3D snowflakes as well. Ilene and I had lunch where she shared with me her latest pb dummy.

Meeting up with old friends is great, but so is meeting new ones. Do you remember my post a few years ago when I said I wanted to grow up to be Alissa Imre Geis? Of course you don't, but I did, and I still do. Even more so now that I've met her. Here she is holding her snowflake. Notice all the other snowflakes in the background.

New at the Gallery

This piece is new for me at the gallery. I hung it the other day in their new Holiday section. It's a piece I did a few years ago for a paper company. They sent me a box full of their shiny, fuzzy, bumpy, see-through, glittery paper and asked me to make them something Christmasy. Oh, and the background is made from their wood paper. It's actual thin slices of wood encased within a thin veneer of plastic.

Do you have trouble keeping your artifical wreaths fresh looking year after year? Are you hard pressed to pick up a fresh wreath or make your own each year? Then this is the answer for you. It's framed with a green velvet matt and gold colored frame. And the red velvet bow is brilliant when the light is shining just right on it. You can see it at Artistic Roots Gallery in Campton, NH.

You can see an interview of me by Cindy Lord (Newbery Honor winning author extraordinaire.) It's part of the whole author-interviewing-artist initiative for Robert's Snow. Thank you, Cindy, for doing a bang-up job! I almost didn't recognize myself!