Wendy,
Well, funny you should ask THAT question about ethics. I had the SAME EXACT
thing happen to me at my last job. It was very hard!!!!! You work "work for
hire" and those kinds of situations are BOUND to happen!I wish I could have
asked my peers at the time (before the listserv was up and goin!)!!
Actually there were TWO situations. the first time my boss approached me
and asked me to re-work a previous artists painting. I refused on ethical
principles (it would have altered the artists integrety of the peice).
Mainly because I didn't think it was ethical, but it also go to me to
thinking...hmmmmm....what's going to happen when I leave to my artwark? SO
I refused to touch the other person's artwork and did another painting with
the same  specimen in a different position, etc.... It worked that time.
The next time, I was asked to add some spots to a habitus drawing and add
some spines. THAT artist was still working for the same institution at the
time, so I asked him about it. He could care less, and was shocked that I
had even asked. Gave me total permission, so I did it, but ONLY  because I
had the artists permisssion and the changes did not alter the integrety of
the piece. Its a hard situation, particularly for those of us working for
"Work for hire" Both of the artists before were also "work for hire" so
technically the Board of Regents of the University OWNS the artwork and all
copyrights, but I think that the ethics behind these situations are VERY
difficult!

There is a VERY good book called The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of
Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. VERY GOOD!Every artist shoudl read this
book.....particulary when dealing with contracts and pricing. There is an
excellent section on copyright law(in laymans terms!) and I use it as a
reference all the time.

Hope this helps!POlly

"the most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
                                        e. e. cummings

Pauline Tandon
Instructional Technology Specialist
University of Nebraska
402-472-4193
[log in to unmask]
http://itg.unl.edu