An Artist Speaks (The Yes Conventions Can Say What You Can Sell Edition)

I have notices that more conventions are enforcing the rules that have been on the books for ages but had been more of a “ nudge nudge wink wink” just so they can keep their legal butts covered. But now with more attention on conventions by the copyright owners, the rules are being enforced more strictly.

The DragonCon Art show has a no fanart clause in their rules and have had for as long as I can remember. There are ways that you can show something that might have a fannish aspect to it without violating the rules of the game. DragonCon will allow someone to display a piece that they have done for Blizzard for World of Warcraft when they have the correct paper work from the copyright holder. It is all in the paperwork.

But, I have heard the cry, in comic artist alley the artists charge to draw copyright characters all the time. Well there are rules there as well. Most of these are done in sketchbooks and are a one -time thing. Also many of the artists do have the permission of the company or companies that they work for to sell prints of their drawing. So they have that legal piece of paper that makes it OK. I have noticed that more and more people in artist alley are selling more original characters and work than ever before, which is totally allowed by the rules.

Yes, there is a lot of grey area in the whole debate and then there is international law which has some variation from the US copyright law. I try to keep within both with what I make. I really don’t understand when one is told NO and given rather clear guidelines, why muddy the waters with “how far can one get away with this before crossing the line”?

I also am rather tired of being told that fan artists are being discriminated against when told that they can’t sell their original Naruto comic book at an anime convention or the fan art buttons that they made. If they made the fan art button and gave it away, then it is within the rules because they are not making a profit off the artwork.

Right now the owners of copyright are turning a pretty blind eye to fan art on the internet except when someone goes over the line and mass produces something. And I hope for people who enjoy drawing and looking at fan art that it stays that way. My concern that if we don’t respect the wishes of the copyright owners (like not having fan art being mass produced and sold at conventions), that they will start shutting down any and all fan art that they find which would be a shame indeed.

If all one can do/sell is fanart, then may be these art shows and artists alleys are not for them. But threatening to disrupt things at a convention in protest or to go ahead and sell what one has been asked not to sell seems rather childish and mean spirited. And getting one’s favorite convention shut down for copyright violations won’t win you any friends in fandom. I don’t care how good your artwork is.

I am grateful to fans and artists that do respect the rules and try to figure out how to get them to work for them rather than just try to break them.

LJ Idol Season 7 Week 8 First World Problems

There was a survey done a while back that I will always remember. It was at the time that cell phones were limited to the rich and the privileged few. A college did a pretty vast survey going through all demographics and income levels. The question was simple, “what do you need to survive?”

For those in the lower income brackets, the answers were rather simple. It broke down to food, shelter, and clothing. But once they got a little further up the income ladder, things started to be added like electricity and certain gadgets that made life more comfortable like tv and other forms of entertainment and their own car. By the time they got to those at the top of the ladder the basic need list got rather long including servants, cars, planes, cell phones, and all kinds of things that if taken away would not have made it impossible to survive just uncomfortable.

Poor in a first world country can be rather wealthy in other parts of the world. The poor in America can, for the most part, find potable water to drink and most have ways of getting rid of the waste that they create without harming others round them. Most the poor inner city neighborhoods have water and sewer systems. They have some form of garbage pick up. They have means to survive that would make them the envy of their neighbors if they lived in a third world country.

There are government systems in first world countries to help those who are poor. In many third world countries there are no such systems and they are lucky to have a government that works at all. The second world countries aren’t doing much better.

Being poor anywhere is no great shakes. But it does explain why so many people from third world countries break the rules to come to one of the first world countries. They see what the poor there have and it is so much better than what they have to deal with. They see a chance to better themselves and their children in a first world country with opportunities that just don’t exist where they live. They are grateful for that which other people complain about as being not enough. They see societies where class structure doesn’t exist anymore. That there is a ladder to climb and systems set up so that they won’t starve or be shot for expressing their thoughts and feelings.

The first world countries need to take a hard look at how they treat the third and second world countries, for they are creating and exacerbating the problems in these other countries by their policies. The problems in a third world nation can be problems back in a first world nation. We are more a global society than we have ever have been and as such we need to look at the world as a whole rather than as first vs. second vs. third world. When one falls, we all are poorer for it.

This has been my entry for this weeks LJ Idol. It was a tough one to crack but due to a conversation I had with one of my neighbors who will finally be able to bring her daughter and her daughter’s children from Haiti through legal means, I felt that this needed to be said.