Please also visit my other website at:
Art For Sale - Saint Michael Miniature Pen and Ink Drawings
including:
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Our Lady of Guadalupe, stippled ink on genuine sheep skin, a (finished) Work In Progress |
As war escalates around the world, please remember each day to pray for Peace.
including:
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Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Inc.
The Society of Tempera Painters
Marians Of The Immaculate Conception
Copyright Infringement
and what it means
When a person creates an image or text, or photograph, in other words, an "original" in any form, it is protected by copyright. This means that the author, artist or creator must be asked before copying, duplicating, altering, etc. any image or text or creation. As an artist, this is important to me. My paintings, photographs, text, and anything else I create, come from my heart and soul, and quite literally belong to no one else. Even when I sell a painting, by law I retain the copyright. Aside from any emotional attachment to a person's work, since 1886 and the Berne Convention, and upheld in 1976 and 1998 respectively, the law clearly states that as soon as a "work" is created, it is copyrighted and protected by law.
Recently (January 2002) a site based in another country has stolen images from my site, and I have seen images owned by others that I know are not original to that site. What does this mean? It means the person acted unprofessionally and illegally in obtaining text and graphics for his/her site. They broke the law. Not just the laws of the United States of America, but International Law. Not a big deal? Perhaps. Perhaps they didn't realize, and I will pursue finding that out. Happens everyday on the web? Only if we let it. When we protect the rights of one artist, photographer, writer, one person, we protect the rights of all people everywhere.
It may be a small thing to some, but it's my livelihood, and theft is theft is theft.
The most frustrating detail is that I usually am glad to share images of plants and flowers, or even some graphics and perhaps paintings, as long as I am contacted in writing first.
So, if you see an image here that you would like to use, email me. Below I have listed links to help those who feel their rights have been infringed. Also is a statement of copyright law and the internet.
United States of America Copyright Office
Copyright Law of the United States of America (Title 17 of the U.S.A. Code)
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
Dreamweaver Tutorial for Copyright Protection
Lucid Images Wildlife Photography - Image Protection-Copyright
Javascript code to prevent copying at BrownieLocks.com
Network Solutions Search WHOIS
To Translate International Pages:
(allows you to send email in another language)
(allows an entire page to be translated)
Remember, The Official African Violet Website is the
African Violet Society of America
If you want photo references, cultural information, judges' rules, anything about violets, that IS the place to look.
Although anyone interested in violets likes to promote the hobby, it should not be done at the expense of others. I am currently compiling a list of International African Violet Links, but check AVSA first for references and information.
If you are involved in the African Violet Community, you may have had your material stolen by a website at: http://www.fialki-web.narod.ru . At least ten individuals or groups had their copyrights infringed by that site.
Thanks to Isabell of Sweden, we became aware of the problem, followed the steps as shown on the Copyright Infringement Groups website (link above), and after non-compliance by the site owner, informed the web space provider Yandex Technologies. They acted immediately to close the site after proof of infringement.
In particular, Alexander Dilevsky, the Service Representative for Yandex Technologies acted with professionalism and accuracy to uphold International Laws.
You can uphold your rights too.
READ the information at the link above on
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT GROUP'S
website for complete steps to protect your copyright.
INTERNET COPYRIGHT
Anyone creating a web site with original content, written by the authors, has a legal right not to allow illegal copying of the contents and images. There are laws which protect you from illegal copying of content placed on the Internet.
"The Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention provide subjects of signatory countries (among them Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom) with automatic copyright protection. Any work in a fixed material form, published or unpublished, is ruled to be the property of the author, who has the sole right to produce or reproduce the work or a substantial part of that work. In the case of recordings made on "mechanical contrivances," the work itself and the individual recording are different items, copyrighted separately".
This page created January 28, 2002
counter figures lost October 2003 due to a server error
