My First Sale Doctrine Testimony

Lisa Shaftel, Graphic Artists Guild's advocacy chair, and me
at the courthouse in New York

On June 2, 2014, I appeared in front of members of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives in a hearing with the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet on behalf of The Graphic Artists Guild, The Copyright Alliance and all visual artists concerning changes to the First Sale Doctrine.

Changes to the doctrine will negatively affect those like me who create, as well as publishers, music and movie distributors and many others. And the ripples from the changes will make their way to consumers and the market at first in positive ways (Yay- cheaper stuff!) and then longer term stifling of creativity and variety of products.

Read my previous post on this topic to get an overview on some of the negative effects.

I was joined by those representing the publishing world, libraries, public knowledge, software companies and a company whose business model hinges on changing the doctrine:

Witnesses

• Mr. Stephen M. Smith President and Chief Executive Officer John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (Smith spoke about the importance of market segmentation in the publishing world. That is, the ability to vary the price of Wiley's books based on the location of the market. In the U.S., for instance, we can (generally) afford to pay a higher price, however in less affluent regions the same books are priced lower so they are more attainable. See this article about Kirtsaeng v Wiley.)

• Mr. John Ossenmacher Chief Executive Officer ReDigi (A main player in the secondary use market)

• Mr. Ed Shems edfredned illustration & graphic design

• Mr. Jonathan Band Owner’s Rights Initiative

• Mr. Matthew B. Glotzer Media Consultant

• Mr. Greg Cram Associate Director of Copyright and Information Policy The New York Public Library

• Mr. Sherwin Siy Vice President, Legal Affairs Public Knowledge

• Professor John Villasenor Professor of Electrical Engineering and Public Policy UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

• Mr. Emery Simon Counselor BSA – The Software Alliance

Read witness testimony or watch the video HERE

Read Chris Meadow's follow-up article on Teleread HERE

Read the Graphic Artists Guild's article HERE

Tomorrow, June 25, 2014, I'll be participating in a roundtable at Harvard organized by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) concerning the proposed changes to the first sale doctrine. 

More about tomorrow's roundtable HERE

New Animation for V.I. Labs

This was our second video for V.I. Labs and this time it's geared for compliance officers of software companies. The software that V.I. Labs has created lets you track who is using your software and on how many machines, to work out whether a company is in compliance with their licensing agreement. It's really fascinating how this works!

I collaborated with Zach at Cut To Create on the writing of this animation and then I created the storyboard. Once the animatic was approved, I then set to work drawing and layering all of the illustration assets for the animator.

Some still images:

Twinventors Book Cover

This is a recent book cover illustration for a chapter book about a brother and sister who like to make things.

I just printed this on postcards- shoot me a message if you'd like me to send you one...