Troubles with the Ballet

This might not be common knowledge to a lot of people, but until recently, I served as the Second Life Ballet’s resident artist– that is, I designed some sets for them, made art for their playbills, designed their performance posters and, most importantly, I designed their logo.

Upon resignation of my position with the Second Life Ballet, I decided to draw up an agreement for the director, Inarra Saarinen, to look at and sign to insure that the ballet would use the art that I created exclusively for non-profit endeavors (which, as I understand, would not be a problem, since the SLB is a non-profit company to begin with).

This is the first email I sent on February 28th, 2008 at 9:25 PM:

Hey there Inarra:

The following is a quick and painless agreement in regards to using the posters, playbill images and the logo that I’ve created for the Second Life Ballet. Please read and send a return email indicating that you agree along with your RL name and contact information. Thank you!

The Second Life Ballet hereby agrees to use all materials created by Cyanide Seelowe (posters, playbill images, the Second Life Ballet logo, etc.) for non-profit purposes only. If any for-profit endeavors wish to be made in the future, royalties must be paid which will be agreed upon if the need ever arises for it.

The Second Life Ballet’s CafePress site (link redacted) must therefore cease the sale of its merchandise containing any content created by Cyanide Seelowe by March 31st, 2008.

Copyrights to the posters and logo can be found at the following web addresses:

~”Les Fleurs Rose” poster: http://cyanidebutterfly.deviantart.com/art/Les-Fleurs-Rose-poster-75811469
~”The Nut” poster: http://cyanidebutterfly.deviantart.com/art/quot-The-Nut-quot-Poster-71859393
~”Windows” poster: http://cyanidebutterfly.deviantart.com/art/quot-Windows-quot-Poster-v-1-0-56441425
~Second Life Ballet logo: http://cyanidebutterfly.deviantart.com/art/Second-Life-Ballet-Logo-55885634

Sincerely,

Cyanide Seelowe/Jackie Steffen
(RL contact information redacted)

A little more than half an hour later, at 10:07 PM, I received this notice in my email:

[20:06] Inarra Saarinen: You have been ejected from ‘SLB Productions’ by Inarra Saarinen.

48 hours later, I had not yet received a response from Inarra, so I sent a follow-up email:

Hey there Inarra:

If you would be so kind as to sign this agreement (by “sign” I mean just sending a return email stating that you agree with your RL name and contact info) by sometime on Monday, March 3rd, that would be fantastic. If you have any questions or concerns in regards to the agreement, I’d be happy to clarify. Thanks!

~Cyanide Seelowe
Founder, Virtual Artist Alliance
Admin, VirtualArtpedia (http://virtualartpedia.wikisite.com)

Several days later, without a response, I sent Inarra a Second Life IM (she was offline at the time, unfortunately) requesting that she respond to my emails:

[2008/03/05 14:35] Cyanide Seelowe: Hey Inarra: I need you to sign that agreement that I sent you in email. If you didn’t recieve it, I’d be more than happy to resend it, or if you have any questions or concerns about it, I’d be more than happy to discuss them. Either way, you need to respond to me. Thank you.
[2008/03/05 14:35] Second Life: User not online – message will be stored and delivered later.

I understand that offline Ims are not the most efficient way of getting a hold of someone in Second Life… but I was left with no choice at the point, since I only have one email address with which to get a hold of Inarra.

As of this point, I still have not received any communication or response to these mails from Inarra or acknowledgment of my rights to the work.

This whole situation is making me regret not drawing up the agreement when I first started working with them. The lack of attention, the ignorance of an obviously important issue for any artist– it’s one of the reasons I left in the first place. There was no apparent appreciation for the volunteer efforts, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that I will have to take legal action just to ensure that a simple agreement that is beneficial to BOTH parties gets signed.

Tonight I will be crafting emails and sending take-down notices to Linden Labs, Cafe Press and the hosting service for the Second Life Ballet website asking for the removal of my copyrighted materials.

Now, I realize that there may appear to be a dichotomy between my situation and my previous comments on Richard Minsky’s trademark of the term “slart”– the difference, as I see it, is that the Second Life Ballet logo and all other materials that I created are unique creations. The term “slart” was and continues to be a commonly used term within the Second Life art community that predates Minsky’s attempt to trademark it for his own purposes.

The lesson here? Whether you are a volunteer or an employee, always-ALWAYS- draw up an agreement to protect yourself and your art.

The Cannery Artist Agreement, continued.

Well, it seems as though my last blog caused a bit of controversy in the art world of Second Life… namely with the Cannery gallery and their artist agreement, which is apparently undergoing some rewording and changing around.

I just want to make one thing clear: I don’t have anything against the Cannery, or any of its affiliates, employees, curators or whathaveyou. I was given their artist agreement by a friend, and I thought it to be a prime example of what artists should look for when reading through an artist agreement that a gallery provides. I was in no way, shape or form trying to slander anyone’s name or organization– I was doing what I exist in this world to do, and that is to help artists protect themselves and their work by raising awareness.

Recently, Vint Falken wrote a response to my breakdown of the Cannery’s artist agreement, and I’m going to take this time to defend myself so as to clarify my position on the whole matter:

“Cyanide Seelowe says the old artist agreement is an unfair one, especially compared to First Life artist agreements. I disagree, as – something that all should have learned by now – Second Life is not First Life:

Wait wait… I never once said that the Cannery’s artist agreement was “an unfair one, especially compared to First Life agreements.” I didn’t even make any references to First life artist agreements in the article… I kept my attention focused solely on the agreement at hand. Second Life is not First Life, this is true– but this does not mean that artists should not be aware of what terms and agreements they are getting themselves into when submitting their work to a gallery. Copyrights are still copyrights, no matter which life you are dealing with.

‘… you should never give full perm textures… blablabla‘ – If we really wanted to steal it, we could just as well have pressed ‘print screen’ on 512×512 textures, no?

Grossly misquoted, but a valid point. In fact, Rightasrain Rimbaud (proprietor of the Cannery) made an insightful comment on the blog that I think every artist should consider: “I don’t agree that artists should ‘never ever give away rights’. You have to give to get! It is more a question of what you get in return. We are propsing, promotion, some sales and exposure in SL/Web. People need to decide if it is worth it.” I STILL think artists should be wary about giving full perm work to people they do not know… but this is just one person’s opinion. I do not doubt the Cannery’s honesty, as they have given me no reason to, but artists STILL need to be aware that this is one of the easiest ways for dishonest people to steal your intellectual property, and it should not be common practice in Second Life.

‘… do not email the work…‘ – Well, then Shoshana could not have made the book.

Decent compensation, I suppose. Unfortunately, it was not mentioned in the original agreement, and so artists would not be initially aware of why, exactly, they’d be sending their works to someone they do not know via email– you can understand why that would sound a little fishy to an outside artist. Also, it should be clarified who will be getting the proceeds from the books being sold– are the artists featured in the book getting a cut of the profits, or is it just for the sake of having their works published? Either way is fine, but a little clarification would be nice.

‘... complaining about the 25% the artists receive from the show’s total proceeds…‘ – Real life photographs & stuff sell – in galleries – at USD 100 each at least. Our photographs sold at USD 1.50 each. Yet, the time invested was still enormous. Believe me, nobody is getting rich out of this.

It’s no secret that using the Second Life art scene to get rich would be a questionable endeavor at best. I understand that we all have tiers to pay and events to host– Rightasrain Rimbaud explained that, “our idea on 25% is that we have a lot of costs to run a show and our estimate is that 25% is about half of the profits, so is meant to be an equal share.” Again, clarification is key, and it sounds like the Cannery is taking steps to provide that clarification in their new artist agreement.

‘… it’s unfair that artists who sold less get an even share of the money…‘ – It is fair, if they did not like that idea, they should not have participated. To sell the largest amount of photographs in Second Life: become a virtual pr0n photographer. We wanted to make sure that artists with beautiful yet less commercial – less nude – photographs would get rewarded too.

Once again, grossly misquoted. I actually said “This means that artists who did not sell any works will still be getting a portion of the 25% artist cut made from the show. If your works sell, and someone else’s didn’t, the artist who did not sell any works in the show will be getting a portion of the money that YOUR work earned.” I do agree with Vint in that if the artist does not like that idea, then they should not participate in the Cannery’s shows– this is why my article encourages artists to thoroughly read through artist agreements and make assessments for themselves. I also commend the Cannery’s dedication to encouraging more varied subject matter in SL photography– this is something that’s sorely needed in our art community.

‘… on eligable and distribution of proceeds…‘ – Start complaining about that when you have proof we do not pay. Until then, do something constructive, please.

Vint and I obviously have different definitions and/or concepts of the words “complaining” and “constructive”. I never once in my article stated that the Cannery is dishonest in any way, nor did I accuse them of not paying their artists. In fact, it sounds like they have a very satisfied group of artists that show their work in their establishment. As far as being constructive goes: it is in my humble opinion that my criticisms of the original Cannery artist agreement were quite constructive; so much so, that they are considering changing and/or rewording some parts. This strengthens my respect for the Cannery and its proprietors, because it means that they actually care about what artists in the community think!

‘Your artworks may be used for any promotional materials regarding the show they are in, and you will not be paid for it.‘ – Duh! Promotional means we’re not selling it. Else it would be merchandise and the artists would get their share. Promotional means to promote the show. Which benefits the sales of artwork and merchandise, which benefits the artists.

“Duh” indeed! This is common practice in galleries from both lives– not everyone out there is aware that promotional materials used for galleries are unpaid representations of their artworks, because Second Life may be their first venture into any form of professional artistry. It is within every right the Cannery has to do this, and I encourage artists to embrace this type of promotion, because you don’t have to pay for it (free publicity is always a plus!) Again, my article was written to inform, not to slander.

‘The gallery can use the representation of your works in future promotional materials that have nothing to do with the show that your work is in. You will not be paid for this, either.‘ – Otherwise Rezzable could not even show off posters of the past show without having to repay the artist? Sure you never saw this one appear in real life artist agreements?

Actually, I have. Again, this is within the Cannery’s rights as a gallery, and I highly recommend this to my fellow artists because, again, it’s free publicity.

I’d like to take a moment to apologize if my previous article had a hostile or angry tone to it. That was not my intention, and my goal was to make it as constructive as humanly possible for the benefit of both the Cannery and any artists who would consider showing their works there. That’s fine if you don’t agree with me– in fact, if you do disagree, I can only assume that you actually read through the agreement and compared your own assessment with my own, which is what I was trying to encourage in the first place.

To conclude, I only have one thing to say to the Cannery: Rezz on, my brothers, rezz on.

Never *EVER* Give Away Rights to your Work!!!

Copyrights in Second Life are a fickle thing, but can be easily managed by the magical “permissions” buttons at the bottom of your edit screen. Most artists in Second Life are aware of this– dare I say even paranoid about it– but when it comes to intellectual property, paranoia is sometimes a good thing. Please keep your radar up at all times, and remember to READ THROUGH ANY ARTIST AGREEMENTS ANY GALLERY HAS SET UP!

A fine example of why you should read the fine print was recently brought to my attention by the lovely Sasun Steinbeck, who has proven herself to be one of the sexier living “RSS feeds” for the Second Life art community :D. To save you the trouble, I’ll run you through the “Cannery show artist agreement (02 Nov 07) + conversation” and show you what you’ll need to look out for when reading through artist agreements :

Rezzable Productions LTD presents
A Cannery Gallery Art Show
—————————————————

<<Artist Agreement>>
—————————-
This Artist Agreement is entered into by the Artist by submitting digital artwork and/or photographs (“Artwork”) from his/her avatar to Rezzable owned avatar Tate Watanabe tate.watanabe@rezzable.com

This means that the moment you submit your work to the curator of the gallery, you are bound by this artist agreement.

*Format for materials*

–Artists will need to submit files in size 512 x 512 pixels with full permissions.

NO NO NO!!! YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER GIVE FULL RIGHTS OF YOUR WORK TO SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW! IT IS NEVER NECESSARY! THIS IS HOW WORK GETS STOLEN IN SECOND LIFE!

–Artist will also be asked for original digital versions of Artwork to be submitted via email (may not be necessary)

Again: NO NO NO!!! This will give someone the opportunity to alter, change, or otherwise take credit for your works in your First Life as well! FULL PERMISSIONS ARE NEVER NECESSARY, NO MATTER WHICH LIFE YOU ARE DEALING WITH!

–Artwork which is not square should be centred on the 512 x 512 pixel canvas with either 100% white or 100% black matting (spacers). (Art can now be 1024 x 512)

*Artist requirements*
1) You will be asked to host at least one class or meet-the-artist event.
2) You are invited to the Wednesday dances. They are held at the Cannery dance floor from noon to midnight, SL time.
3) You are encouraged to ask your friends to come visit the event, to vote for their favorite pieces, and to buy stuff. This is **not** a requirement. All art is for sale, and you will get a portion of it!
4) In addition to the picture(s) you are submitting for the show, you are asked to submit a self-portrait. These portraits will NOT be sold, although they may be used for promotional purposes. (They may also be on trading cards, found throughout the sim.)
5) Please submit an artist statement. It should be at least a paragraph and as long as you wish. It should be submitted on a notecard.

*Compensation*

Artist will be eligible to receive a portion of 25% of show actual Proceeds derived from merchandise and sponsorship.

Artists will recieve a portion of 25% of the show’s total proceeds. The other 75% will be pocketed by the owners of the gallery. There are plenty of galleries in Second Life that take no more than 25% commission on each individual work sold, if they take commission at all. Furthermore, you are only “eligible” for the money, as opposed to being “entitled” to it– this means that they could come up with any excuse to not give you your money.

Proceeds will be divided amongst individual photographers based on the number of photographs the individual photographer has in show and the total number of photographs in the show.

This means that artists who did not sell any works will still be getting a portion of the 25% artist cut made from the show. If your works sell, and someone else’s didn’t, the artist who did not sell any works in the show will be getting a portion of the money that YOUR work earned.

All distributions of Proceeds are at the discretion of Rezzable Productions Ltd.

You are officially not in control of any of the money that your artwork has earned. Period.
All Show participants will also be entered into a contest to win additional prizes at the discretion of Rezzable Productions Ltd.

*Artist Release*

With respect to the submitted Artwork, I hereby represent that I am the copyright owner of the artwork and have right for any and all images that appears in the photograph. I hereby grant to Rezzable Productions, its affiliates and licensees, the following worldwide, irrevocable rights:

(1) to use the Artwork without cost for the purpose of presenting and promoting the Show

Your artworks may be used for any promotional materials regarding the show they are in, and you will not be paid for it.

(2) to use and re-use, publish and re-publish the Artwork, in whole or in part, individually or in conjunction with printed matter, or in composite form, and in any medium, for editorial, commercial, promotional, and/or trade purposes associated with the Cannery Art Gallery Show and/or Rezzable Productions Ltd. I hereby waive any right to inspect or approve any copy that is used in connection with the photograph and release and discharge the Rezzable Productions Ltd., its affiliates and licensees from any and all claims arising out of use by Rezzable Productions Ltd., its affiliates and licensees, of the photograph for the purposes described above, including any claims for libel, invasion of privacy or breach of copyright.

The gallery can use the representation of your works in future promotional materials that have nothing to do with the show that your work is in. You will not be paid for this, either.

No Authority to Bind. It is expressly understood and agreed that the Consultant shall have no right or authority at any time to make any contract or binding promise of any nature on behalf of the Company, whether oral or written, without the express written consent of the Company.

Applicable Law. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the England. The parties hereby submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Your works are now governed by the copyright laws of England, no matter where in the world you live. You can read up about England’s copyright laws here.

I am over the age of eighteen. I have read the foregoing and fully understand its contents.

You HAVE read through the artist agreement, right? Fine print and all? Reading through agreements like this is the FIRST and EASIEST step to protecting your intellectual property!It only takes a few minutes to thoroughly read through a document like this, so do yourself a favor!

After submission of Artwork you will be sent and email asking for confirmation of acceptance of these terms and conditions.
Let’s keep honest people honest and not put them in a situation where they could easily steal or take credit for your intellectual property.