Thanks for that Jim, Im assuming now, probably quite
rightly that I own the copyright, so Ill discuss this
with them.  Quite frankly Im beginning to regret
taking on the job. they asked me to design another
five aliens and draw a small peice of the university.
They gave me that brief on Tuesday, and I got an email
today (friday) asking "where are the aliens, have you
got them done yet?!"   Thats irritating because they
asked my how long I thought it would take to design
five aliens and said probably about 14 working days
should be enough.  Im really only taking the job
because Im a new ilustrator and have virtually no work
on my CV  (resume)  It seems Im being taken advantage
of, or the people involved have little idea of the
time taken in illustration or of copyright.



--- Jim Perkins <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >
Lindsey;
>
> You've gotten lots of good advice, so I'll try not
> to repeat too much of
> what other people have said. However, I wanted to
> emphasize a few points
> and hopefully add something new.
>
> When it comes to copyright, all visual art is
> treated the same, regardless
> of subject matter - scientific illustration, cartoon
> characters, fine art,
> graphic design, photography, whatever. You own it as
> soon as you create it
> and you are the only one who can determine how it is
> used.
>
> The only possible exception in this case, as Britt
> pointed out, is that the
> University might already have a trademark on their
> mascot. If you create a
> new mascot which bears a resemblance to the old one,
> or if it somehow
> incorporates the school name, it may be protected
> under a different set of
> laws. If this is the case, then you still own the
> copyright, but the
> University might be able to prevent you from using
> it elsewhere or selling
> it to another client.
>
> For example, my alma mater has a Big Red Bear as its
> logo. The name of the
> school starts with a "C". If I draw a *different*
> big red bear with the
> letter "C" on it, I may be violating their
> trademark. So my illustration
> isn't much use to me, unless that university wants
> to buy it from me. Of
> course, I could always remove the "C", change the
> color, and sell it to
> Boston University or a host of other schools with
> bear logos.
>
> When designing a logo for a company (including
> universities) it's very
> common for the artist to sell all rights to the
> client. Since you can't
> sell it to anyone else, there's little financial
> incentive for you to
> retain the rights. And since the company wants the
> flexibility to use that
> logo at will, there's incentive for them to obtain
> all of the rights. Of
> course, the company should also be prepared to
> compensate you handsomely
> for obtaining all those rights. Designing corporate
> logos and "identity
> packages" for big corporate clients can be worth
> hundreds of thousands of
> dollars. I realize your client isn't a huge company,
> but they should still
> pay you many times your base hourly rate for a full
> buyout of your work.
>
> A similar situation exists when creating
> illustrations of patented devices.
> A few years ago, I created some illustrations of a
> new type of cardiac
> pacemaker. I insisted on retaining the rights to my
> illustrations and
> licensing certain usage rights to the client. This
> is my right under U.S.
> Copyright law. However, the device itself is
> protected by U.S. Patent law,
> which means the company could prevent me from
> reproducing a likeness of the
> device. For that reason, they thought they should
> get ownership of the
> images. We finally settled on a deal where I retain
> all rights to the
> "non-proprietary" parts of the image, i.e., all of
> the normal anatomy, but
> I agreed not to license any likeness of the devise
> to other clients. I work
> entirely in Adobe Illustrator, so it's easy to
> separate one part from
> another.
>
> Jim
>
>
___________________________________________________________
>
> James A. Perkins, MS, MFA, CMI
> Assistant Professor of Medical Illustration
> College of Imaging Arts and Sciences
> Rochester Institute of Technology
> Bldg. 7A, Room 3415
> 73 Lomb Memorial Drive
> Rochester, New York 14623
>
> RIT office: 585-475-2443
> RIT fax: 585-475-6447
>
> Studio: 585-226-8149
> Studio fax: 585-226-6965
>
> [log in to unmask]





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