To: tweeters at u.washington.edu


Don,
I agree with you completely. Unfortunately this practise is becoming all
too common. I sell my photography thru both traditional stock agencies and
on CDROM clipart collections. My primary work though is designing
computer strategy games. In the computer field we have very similar
problems -- CD publishers approach us and tell us what a great deal they
have for us -- they'll publish our programs for free, and we'll get great
distribution and lots of registrations. Well, it just dont work that way --
especially when there are other publishers who DO pay royalties. In
addition, there have been a number of publishers who dont bother to ask and
just publish our work without permission. In these latter cases we have
started several legal actions, and have even gotten the FBI involved.

Larry Sessions:
>The economic reality is that in order for this amateur
>birding calendar to be feasible, payment must be in
>recognition and with a copy of the calendar only.

The economic reality is that creative artists of ALL types need to
stop accepting 'recognition' and start demanding compensation.

Don:
>>>> They state that, if you're interested in "becoming professional",
this is a way to break in. Note that giving stuff away is also
a way to depress the value of your work, and of the market at
large. There is a glut of nature images available at reasonable
cost, adding a glut of free images is just going to depress
the market value for all. Don't aid and abett these (hmmm)
mammalian fecal droppings masquerading as a publisher.

yep, this is the classic argument, right up there with, "if we paid
royalties to everyone, WE wouldnt be able to publish".

Steve Estvanik