In our continuing advocacy effort, Delanie West, Guild Advocacy Liaison and marketing expert in creative intellectual property with 30 years of experience, delivered a lecture at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) to the students of Professor Carol J. Steinberg. The talk covered essential topics such as non-disclosure agreements, contract negotiations, and understanding royalty rates.  This talk emphasized the significant role of understanding business deliverables’ value in the creative industry, a renewed focus of the advocacy efforts to educate emerging creatives on the business side of their art.

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In a landmark legal confrontation, the Manhattan federal court has issued a judgment for plaintiff, against defendant Richard Prince, an artist renowned for his appropriation art, particularly in his “New Portraits” series. This case, involving the unauthorized use of Instagram photographs, has ignited a critical debate on the intersection of artistic freedom and copyright law, setting a precedent with far-reaching implications for the art world.

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The Graphic Artists Guild applauds the Supreme Court decision in The Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, a case which had broad implications for graphic artists, and is recognized as a landmark copyright case regarding the interpretation of fair use. The SCOTUS opinion rejected 7-2 the Warhol Foundation’s argument that the artist’s use of photographer Lynn Goldsmith’s portrait of Prince was “transformative”, and therefor fell under fair use. In light of confusing and often contradictory analyses in lower court rulings, the SCOTUS opinion provides valuable guidance and  limits on the consideration of “tranformativeness.”.

The background of the case is that in 1984, Vanity Fair licensed Goldsmith’s portrait of Prince for a one-time use as source material for a silkscreen by Andy Warhol. The silkscreen, with a credit to Warhol and to Goldsmith for the “source photograph”, appeared in an article about the musician. Warhol proceeded to make 15 additional artworks from the photograph without Goldsmith’s knowledge, some of which he sold.

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The Graphic Artists Guild has joined the creators’ coalition, Human Artistry Campaign. The Campaign asserts the primacy of human endeavor in the creative process, and seeks to support and protect the interests of creators in the face of the rapid advancement of AI generative technologies. The Campaign originated within the music community, but expanded to embrace creators from all disciplines. It was announced Thursday afternoon at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas. Currently 40 cross-disciplinary creators organizations have joined the Campaign.

The Campaign’s Principles recognize the value AI brings as a tool for creators, but asserts that copyright protection should be withheld from solely machine-created and generated works. They also call on policy makers to consider the interests of human creators when developing policies around AI, and developers to create means to preserve transparency and accountability, and protect works from unauthorized use on AI platforms.

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The Freelance Isn’t Free bill was introduced by New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Harry Bronson on February 17, 2022. The bill expanded protections provided by the New York City Freelance Isn’t Free legislation, passed in 2017, to workers across the entire state. These protections include consequences for hiring entities who do not pay or pay late their freelance workers, as well as for those who engage in retaliatory harassment of freelancers seeking payment. Since its passage five years ago, Freelance Isn’t Free legislation has recovered over $2 million in wages owed to New York City freelancers.

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The Graphic Artists Guild applauds the passage of the Freelance Isn’t Free Act (S. 8369 / A. 9368) in New York State.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Harry Bronson, who introduced the bill in February of this year. Because of their efforts, freelancers and independent contractors will have much needed protections against non-payment, late payment, and retaliatory harassment when they seek to have their invoices paid.

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Full press release here.

The bill will provide vital protections for freelance workers and independent contractors who deal with non-payment and late payment of their invoices, as well as retaliatory harassment against those who seek fair remuneration. This landmark legislation was passed in New York City in 2017; we welcome the expansion of these protections across the entire state.

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