Today we had a lively discussion about Lawrence Lessig's book Free Culture in Kari Kraus's Research Methodologies class and I was asked how has the internet impacted illustrators? One common experience that most illustrators have had in the last few years is when people find our art work and post it on their site. I have had the honor of being included on the Unicorn Art web site with a scan of a book cover I did about ten years ago. The webmaster contacted me and I was happy to oblige, as long as credit and copyright was given. I did turn down a request to have my Brunhilde image (to the right) used as an avatar on a Wicca discussion forum...
Another fairly recent development for illustrators was the increasing use of stock and royalty free illustration as an alternative to commissioned work. The efficiency of the internet made it possible for instant searching and delivery of art which in turn made the market much bigger for stock illustration. Existing work had more value and a few large companies started buying up rights to illustrators work. Artists are not traditionally the most savvy negotiators, and not unlike early musical recording artists many illustrators signed contracts that put them at a competitive disadvantage. Finally, in 1999 illustrators got together and organized the first ever national Illustration Conference (ICON) held in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The conference was a huge hit, and a new trade group was formed that promotes the rights of illustrators- The Illustrators Partnership. I wrote an article for the IPA called Protecting your images on the Web which allows artists to prevent spiders from archiving their images, if that's their desire. One quality that I did like about Lessig's book was his emphasis on "balance" in the debate, and I believe that to the greatest extent possible artists should decide how their work is used. The Graphic Artist Guild is another non-profit that has worked hard over the years to protect illustrators copyrights.
Inspired by ICON, my friend Randy Lyhus and I launched Folioplanet.com in March of 2000. Our site has provided illustrators a way to market secondary usage of their work on their own, with no middle man. A lot of artists liked the idea and in a way it has helped to prevent large corporations from dominating the stock illustration market. Again, Lessig has it right when he talks about the negative aspects of having a few large corporations supplying content.
Ultimately, I think the core of Lessig's argument is that culture is damaged when access is not clearly spelled out, and people are not able to re-purpose older artwork. The real problem comes when he tries to design a system that's better than the current one. The idea that a new technology requires that our laws be rewritten seems to me a bit like rewriting assault and battery laws to take into account a new weapon. Isn't the real issue not what caused the harm, but is the result of the action harmful?
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