Julianna Yau’s blog

Next Thursday, The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford is presenting “Innovation Goes Public”, a talk by Bruce Perens on business models for open source software.

Sadly, jetting off to Stanford for a day to attend the presentation isn’t within my time or fiscal budget. I suspect that much of the presentation will focus on shifting from the sale of software to the sale of technical support. But, despite this, I also suspect the very basic concepts behind the shift in business models may be of use to other creators (visual artists, musicians/songwriters, writers, movie-makers, etc).

What is persistently annoying for me is my inability to see how visual artists can rethink their business models in this new environment where distribution is dramatically easier than before. Are we to rethink what influences the value of a work of art? What does influence the value of a work of art? Will multiple copies of a work still decrease its value in the current environment? Does that apply to all media?

OTTAWA, February 26, 2008 — A parliamentary motion to exempt artists from paying taxes on their first $50,000 of income is being applauded by visual artists and institutions across Canada.

The motion—M431—was introduced by Winnipeg MP Pat Martin (NDP) on January 24 and reads as follows: “That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: (a) recognize and acknowledge that artists contribute greatly to the social, cultural and economic well-being of Canada; (b) take note that, in other countries such as Ireland, income earned by artists, writers, performers and creators of art is exempt from income tax; and (c) give consideration to exempting up to $50,000 of annual income earned by artists, writers, creators, and performers who work in Canada’s cultural industries.”

“How many Oscar-winning actors and award-winning painters are languishing and not realizing their full potential for lack of resources?” says Mr. Martin. “We need new economic engines and the arts and culture are legitimate means of economic development.”

Tax relief for artists isn’t new. In 1995, Quebec introduced an exemption on an artist’s first $15,000 in copyright royalties when their total income is under $30,000. Since then, artist associations have been lobbying to bring this exemption to the federal level.

“The income of many artists is already marginal. Mr. Martin’s motion would greatly assist them in improving their livelihood, professional practices and the creative economy as a whole,” says Gerald Beaulieu, National President of the Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC).

Artists in Ireland have enjoyed tax exemption for 36 years, resulting in highly successful artists internationally and increased public appreciation for the arts. In 2002 the amount of tax theoretically forgone to the Irish state because of the exemption was €24 million. The projected cost to the Canadian tax base is currently being calculated.

Comprised of eleven national visual arts associations, the Visual Arts Alliance is committed to advancing the status of visual artists and institutions in Canada.

For more information on the Visual Arts Alliance, contact any member:

Aboriginal Curatorial Collective / Collectif des Conservateurs Autochtones
Steve Loft, Ottawa
sloft@gallery.ca

Art Dealers Association of Canada / L’Association des marchands d’art du Canada
Patricia Feheley, Toronto
416-323-1373, gallery@feheleyfinearts.com

Artist-Run Centres and Collectives / La Conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés
Daniel Roy, Montreal
514-524-4529, danielroy@arccc-cccaa.org

L’Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones
Lise Leblanc, Ottawa
613-244-9584, lleblanc@agavf.ca

CARFAC (Canadian Artists’ Representation) / (Le Front des artistes canadiens)
April Britski, Ottawa
613-233-6161, carfac@carfac.ca

Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization / L’Organisation des directeurs des musées d’art du Canada
Shawn Van Sluys, Ottawa
613-862-5035, shawn.vansluys@camdo.ca

Canadian Crafts Federation / La Fédération canadienne des métiers d’art
Maegen Black, Fredericton
506-444-3315, info@canadiancraftsfederation.ca

Canadian Museums Association / Association des musées canadiens
John McAvity, Ottawa
613-567-0099 x226, jmcavity@museums.ca

Independent Media Arts Alliance / L’Alliance des arts médiatiques indépendants
Jennifer Dorner, Montréal
514-522-8240, dir@imaa.ca

Le Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec
Christian Bédard, Montréal
514-866-7101, Christian.bedard@raav.org

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts / L’Académie royale des arts du Canada
Milly Ristvedt, Toronto
416-408-2718, milly@kos.net

Another CopyCamp is scheduled for April 29 and 30, 2008 at OISE (University of Toronto). The CopyCamp website doesn’t have much on the upcoming unconference, but still has much information from the first one from 2006. I wasn’t able to make it to the 2006 CopyCamp, so I’m looking forward to attending this year.

Pat Martin is recommending a tax exemption for the first $50,000 of artistic income. Ireland and Australia already have tax exemptions in place for artists. With the low incomes of artists, this would be a great asset for artists—particularly emerging and mid-career artists.

Artists’ income are derived from various sources, including, if they’re lucky, government grants. Canada’s handling of artist grants is odd, considering that most grant money comes from the Canada Council or provincial arts councils such as the Ontario Arts Council. If a tax exemption for overall artistic income doesn’t get implemented, the least they could do is make governmental grants a source of non-taxable income. A tax exemption, coupled with the Canada Council’s recent announcement to increase funding for the arts, would be a welcome boost to the arts sector in Canada.

Todd over at Ma.gnolia picked up on a nice little article about the UK’s National Consumer Council’s concerns with unfair EULAs (End User License Agreements) and another about Autodesk being sued for misusing the DMCA to supress resales of software due to EULA terms.

Lawrence from Northworthy and Michael Geist write about a newly formed coalition, the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright.

It seems like everyone is forming a copyright-centric coalition these days: the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, the Creators’ Copyright Coalition, the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights, and now the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright (which, despite having members such as Google, Yahoo! Canada, Rogers, Telus and Tucows, does not seem to have a website yet).

What’s next? The Canadian Coalition of Copyright Coalitions?

Now that we’re done (maybe) creating coalitions, can we get together and actually resolve some of these issues?

Primary Sources on Copyright, a digital archive project for primary sources on copyright, is hosting a two-day conference on Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th March 2008 in London, England. The keynote speakers will be Professor Mark Rose University of California Santa Barbara, Professor Laurent Pfister University of Versailles Saint-Quentin and Professor Karl Nikolaus Peifer Köln University. Professor Rose recently presented a lecture at the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy, which I covered here. The conference will end with the launch of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property.

Today, Crave finally picks up on the fact that DeviantArt exists, and somewhat questionably touts it as “a YouTube for artists”.

Although well-meaning, Ina Fried does not seem to be aware that:

• YouTube is used by artists (although YouTube, oddly, does not have a channel for artists who do not fall under the umbrella of Director), as are other popular websites for user-generated content, like Flickr
• artist-specific websites for content display, such as Saatchi Online and MyArtSpace also exist (although they haven’t been around as long as DeviantArt)

What I did get from Fried’s article was exposure to the Coton v. TVX Films case. This case was initiated last year when Lara Jade Coton found that a self-portrait she had taken when she was 14 was used on the cover of a porn flick called Body Magic. The self-portrait, unlike the growing collection of 14-year-olds’ self-portraits found on sites like MySpace, is sexy but is not sexually-explicit/erotic and doesn’t contain nudity.

TVX Films (sorry, I’m not linking to their website, but you can search for them easily enough) shoot themselves in the foot by (a) removing Coton’s copyright notice from the photo and (b) indicating on the back of the DVD case that “Everyone associated with this DVD is 18 or over”. Although Coton’s website currently indicates that she is 18, she was not 18 in the photo and TVX Films wouldn’t have much to support that they were able to validate her age without having been in contact with her.

With child exploitation and copyright infringement being such hot topics right now, TVX being a big, bad company in the porn industry and Coton being a beautiful and talented young artist, I don’t expect TVX Films to be able to get away with this one.

After quite a bit of work, I managed to get almost everything for my websites back to normal. The main thing which took longer than expected (and continues to be unresolved) is being able to use the Metaweblog API to get my Ma.gnolia bookmarks posted to this blog. I have since discovered that ModSecurity 2 does not play nice with Metaweblog API. This means, although I love Ma.gnolia’s blog posting feature, I will probably not be using it until there is a way for the Metaweblog API to work with ModSecurity active for everything except my xmlpc file.

My bookmarks continue to be available here, and individual feeds are available for the tags.

Here are the links I’ve wanted to post since my server upgrades:

• John Degen on the CMEC proposal
• Lawrence at Northworthy challenges the concept of “fair” copyright
• The Office of the Privacy Commissioner discusses potential privacy issues with the new enhanced driver’s licences (EDLs) available to eligible B.C. residents.
• William Patry argues that a photograph of an object is the depiction of the object rather than a derivative work.
• An article on the “art bug”. This seemed very familiar to me, and I had to check the date several times to ensure it was current. Why was it so familiar? This was something which was discussed at the Visual Arts Summit! Sadly, the article is now behind the pay wall…but is still free to read at your local library.
• More studies on art & culture. This one is from Kelly Hill, a presenter from the Visual Arts Summit
• Art News Blog: Urban Art Auction. The second half of the story covers an exciting collaboration between Banksy and DJ Danger Mouse.
• Counterfeit Chic: But New York Doesn’t ♥ Gucci
• The Art Law Blog notices a recent ruling in the Kurtz case (the one with the bio materials used in art).
• And Maurice Agis is charged with manslaughter because of a malfunction with his inflatable sculpture.

This is a very exciting press release that came through my email from multiple sources today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — February 11th, 2008Following the recent Visual Arts Summit, a new group of visual arts organizations has come together to form the Canadian Alliance for the Visual Arts (CAVA). Rather than an official organization, CAVA is an independent alliance of national visual arts organizations determined to advance the status of visual arts in Canada. Through communication, cooperation and collaborative action this network will achieve common goals, as outlined in the Visual Arts Summit’s Collective Agenda. (www.visualartssummit.ca)

Representatives from eleven of Canada’s national arts service organizations make up CAVA’s membership. These organizations, though diverse in focus, each have a vested interest in the promotion and advancement of Canadian visual arts. CAVA’s main objectives are to speak with a unified voice, to develop a cohesive strategy to improve the socio-economic conditions of artists, and to pursue the health of our art galleries, museums, artist-run centres and commercial art dealers so that Canada’s extraordinary visual arts can flourish.

After two productive teleconferences, CAVA held their first face-to-face meeting in Montreal on February 1st, with another scheduled for the 14th of March. These meetings have set in motion a number of joint projects which will affect change for Canadian visual arts, both in the artistic community and the general public. The group looks forward to the upcoming announcements on the disbursement of new funding by the Canada Council for the Arts, and will be in attendance at the Council’s meetings on February 12th.

For more information on CAVA and their planned initiatives, contact any member:

Shawn Van Sluys, Ottawa
Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization
613-862-5035, shawn.vansluys@camdo.ca

Lise Leblanc, Ottawa
L’Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones
613-244-9584, lleblanc@agavf.ca

April Britski, Ottawa
CARFAC (Canadian Artists’ Representation)
613-233-6161, carfac@carfac.ca

Christian Bédard, Montréal
Le Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec
514-866-7101, Christian.bedard@raav.org

Daniel Roy, Montreal
Artist-Run Centres and Collectives
514-524-4529, danielroy@arccc-cccaa.org

Maegen Black, Fredericton
Canadian Crafts Federation
506-444-3315, info@canadiancraftsfederation.ca

John McAvity, Ottawa
Canadian Museums Association
613-567-0099 x226, jmcavity@museums.ca

Patricia Feheley, Toronto
Art Dealers Association of Canada
416-323-1373, gallery@feheleyfinearts.com

Milly Ristvedt, Toronto
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
416-408-2718, milly@kos.net

Jennifer Dorner, Montréal
Independent Media Arts Alliance
514-522-8240, dir@imaa.ca

Ryan Rice, Kahnawake, QC
Conference Aboriginal Curatorial Collective
514-756-6602, directoracc@gmail.com