[Woodcarver] Re: Copyights

[Ivan Whillock]

Ned, thanks for sharing that.  One problem  is that your father created his works before 1978--which is the year  the current law went into effect.  Now the copyright notice is not necessary--though still a good idea. 

  Even under today's more liberal laws, it's best to register your copyright. An unregistered copyright can only collect damages, but a registered  copyright can collect attorney's fees and statutory damages, now at $150,000 per infringement.  

Your dad was operating under the toothless 1909 law.  He would probably have had a little better chance of protecting his work under today's law, though the US is still behind the other countries in protecting its artists. And, yes, the law works best for those with money--but what else is new?

 It might be a good idea to check with a lawyer to see if your father's copyrights can be enforced today in light of the new laws.   As I read it, works created and published before 1978 fall under the Copyright Extension Act which increases protection to 95 years from date of U.S. publication.  You may still have legal recourse.  Might be worth checking out.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Megargee at aol.com 
  To: woodcarver at six.pairlist.net 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 8:49 AM
  Subject: [Woodcarver] Re: Copyights


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     In the real world, however, copyright infringement goes on all the time. My father, S. Edwin Megargee (1883-1958)  was a noted artist specializing in domestic animals such as horses and dogs. Copies of his paintings appear on all sorts of things such as playing cards, greeting cards, place mats etc. People buy his books on eBay, tear out or copy the illustrations, mat, frame, and sell them. There is one company that makes ceramic tiles featuring his paintings and another that uses them on jewelry. Log on to eBay, do a  search on "Edwin Megargee" and you will see numerous examples. During his lifetime he never got a nickle for these rip offs and neither has his estate.  As an artist he did not have the funds to hire expensive attorneys; he was advised that if they could produce one print lacking the "co" copyright mark they could get away with it. 
        Edwin I. (Ned) Megargee 



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