Just launched, Digital art and art business tutorials. New look, quicker updates:

http://www.onezumiverse.com/?page_id=1836

Hi all,

We're doing a panel about art and copyright at Katsucon this weekend. If you are interested, the schedule is posted up at Onezumi.com in the top bar. Hope to see some of you there! Spread the word - information is power!

Hi kids! In light of the recent explosion of crackdowns by anime con staffs, it's time that all the mudslinging stop and the FACTSLINGING begin!

While I'm sure that both sides are full of truthiness towards their positions. Let's try to break it down from the disdainful viewpoint of each respective opposing party:

"I made Chii ears out of Fun Foam and hot glue! International copyright law AND the Constitution of the United States of America, USA #1, says that you HAVE to let me sell them at whatever quantity I want or I'll SUE YOU!"

"Your art must be approved by the Central Committee of the Katsucon Socialist Workers Party and the Katsucon People's Congress of Deputies, then reviewed in triplicate by the appropriate subcommittees. At this point, it will be denied becauase this one image of Goku is a hand-drawn piece in the style of Picasso which infringes upon international copyright law as well as copyright laws of the United States."

There are two things in common here: whining and citing law as precedent. I'm sure that artists have a reason to make and sell the same crap that didn't sell at another con (because everyone loves Chii ears, EdxAl yaoi, and Super Saiyans, right?) and I'm sure that con staff have a reason to exert power in a process that marginalizes the people they're supposed to be serving, all the while not having an independent appeal or oversight process (basically acting like Maoist village leaders during the Great Leap Forward or a Republican Congressman), but the citation of copyright law comes in pretty heavy.

In this essay, I intend to accomplish two goals:

1) Approaching from the perspective of an educated Katsucon attendee with no paid stake in either side, to speak on behalf of Artist Alley patrons, artists/creators/artisans and argue that Katsucon has made a policy decision that is irrelevant, unnecessary, and should be retracted immediately and with apologies to all stakeholders,

2) Explain international copyright laws that apply to this situation and why Katsucon is in the wrong. With this being said and possibly gone unheralded, the end result will hopefully be that both parties will STOP THROWING AROUND THAT THE LAW IS ON THEIR SIDE AND IF THEY'RE SERIOUS, RETAIN A LAWYER AND GO BEFORE THE COURTS TO SETTLE THIS THE WAY THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM IS MEANT TO WORK, OR DROP IT AND MOVE ON. Litigate like the rest of the world or organize yourselves and exert your powers. Yeesh. Haven't you people ever heard of Che Guevara?

With that, I present to you AN INTERESTING NARRATIVE IN THE EXPLORATION OF COMMON VIEWS OF INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW AS INTRODUCED BY PUBLIC OPEN SOURCES.

<3 /b

( I'm not a real jerk. See? I put this under an LJ-cut. )

I really looks like people don't get it. Its fan art, as in art by fans. Why do these conventions keep pushing anime fans away?

At least this isn't at bad as otakons original rules last year...

Current Mood: aggravated

By now most everyone has seen the rather shocking Artist's Alley rules that Katsucon just released? Not only does it nvoke the bogus copyright statements made by Otakon that have no relevance to American law, but they also define the AA as amateur and print-media only. They are also preventing a friend of mine from selling her handmade goods which are her own copyright. Why? No specified reason.

We posted our thoughts and questions on their forum. Let's see how they answer.

When we said that this would happen at the other cons, I did hope I was wrong.

Our thread on this topic is here on Harknell.com.

Current Mood: angry

From the Katsucon website's Artist Alley rules section:

• Artist Alley is intended for amateur artists working in a print/paper medium. It is also intended for artists who make 3D renditions of their own art or 3D renditions of licensed Anime characters. In that spirit, artists are required to use 75% or more of their table space for such art.
• Artists may not solely display and sell fan art. It is strongly suggested that fan art should not make up more than 25% of your table space. Fan art prints should be kept to 20 copies or less.
• Copyright infringement laws are to be followed within the Artist Alley. It is the artist’s responsibility to make sure that their art does not violate copyright and must be able to prove it, if challenged.
  • Buttons, pins, hats, or t-shirts bearing the likeness of a licensed character are not allowed. Any such items bearing the artist’s original material are permitted.
• There can be no public display of sexually explicit or suggestive material without the proper checking of ID. If you are going to show adult material you MUST make sure the viewer shows proof of being 18+. This is solely the responsibility of the artist to do so, and as such, the artist will be held fully responsible for any failings to do so.
• Selling or reselling commercial merchandise is prohibited within the Artist Alley. Artists can not sell or resell materials that can be bought in the Dealers room or in a store.
• Artist Alley reserves the right to refuse and turn away any artist selling solely fabrics, trinkets, and other merchandise not appropriate for Artist Alley.
• Bootleg or knockoff items are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: CDs, DVDs, videos, posters, idol cards, and any unlicensed reproductions of any products actually released by an American company.

Thoughts, community?  Is it time for another rallying call to action or should this be left to stand? 

I'm especially enraged by the limitation of fan art copies.  It's bad enough that they're limiting content, but limiting production of content?  Oy.

We've posted our reactions to this year's Otakon here and here.

In short, our opinion was that it was a massive cock up.

Hey everyone,

I've been a long time Otakon attendee, have been attending since 2001 and really like The Alley, it's a nice venue for artists.

A controversial policy amendment has been posted onto the official Otakon website which has made artists very pissed off, a friend of mine has stated that she will refuse to attend Otakon because of all the controversy surrounding The Alley and I informed her to the policy clarification and she became even more pissed off.

Here's the policy clarification posted onto the official Otakon website sometime this past month, in June:

"Our policy is amended to clarify that, for fan art (including doujinshi, fan art prints, and similar items), up to 25 copies of a single piece are allowed, unless that item is otherwise explicitly disallowed by the rules." Source: http://www.otakon.com/alley.asp

I, myself, am upset and fully understand the anger from artists, that policy clarification basically says that there is a clear limit on fan art of 25 copies of a single item, however there is NO limit on original artwork. My view is "If Otakon is a fan-based convention like they say they are, how can they limit fan expression?" I feel that fan art is a form of fan expression and fully support that fan art should be protected legally under freedom of expression under the First Amendment and I fully support this LiveJournal community efforts to return Otakon's artist alley to its previous form.

Are any of you guys going to be in the AA at AnimeNEXT in New Jersey? We'll be there with our Harknell.com crew...

It's your last chance to sign up for our mailing list in time for the first monthly podcast. It's being sent out tomorrow (Thursday 4-26) morning. You won't see this on the website, so once it's sent out, it's gone.

In the podcast we talk about upcoming events for Onezumi.com, including:

- Upcoming conventions - including Otakon, the Artist's Alley controversy, and why we've come to the decision to still attend.

- An update on the development of AWSOM. AWSOM is the Artists Website Simple One-shot Multi-installer, which is basically an insanely easy to configure, launch, and expand upon blog and art gallery website package specifically designed for today's working artist (including webcomics), even if they have very little experience with web design. It will be a free download.

- Alcohol - You can find alcoholic drinks based off of Onezumi characters at http://www.imjustdrinking.com Right now we just have Assmunky, but if anyone has any suggestions for drinks based off of other characters, feel free to suggest them.

Hey guys,

I just attended Katsucon this past weekend (and it was quite wonderful I might add). ANYWAYS I just wanted to pass on some REAL reactions from some of my customers when I passed on the news of Otakon's new policy. In short they were shocked. "What? But that's what I come down here for :///////// " (insert a particularly sad face for one of the customers). I was also quite upset at the fact that 100% of the customers that I told were NOT aware of this new policy, and I urged them to check the Otakon website.

I also had a chat with a few of the other artists on what they sell and how they feel their work will be affected by the new policy. One artist, who sold chibi stickers and magnets, explained to me that without the chibis she wouldn't be able to break even for the cost it took her to get to Otakon. She only sells them for a $1, and we all know that a majority of the people who come to artist alley have already blown 95% of their cash in the dealers room and unusually expensive fast food. So they would be able to spare 50 cents or a dollar on a sticker or button, when they can't spend the 5-10$ some artists charge for prints.

Well I wish I could remember more specifics ... but that was the general vibe I got. I really want to urge other artists who are going to other artist alleys to ask if they have attened Otakon and how they feel about these changes, and if they were aware of them at all.

It seems that we've made a impact, otakon revised its initial policy, and still managed to save face. People are beginning to wonder about the "unofficial" otakon live journal, and other things. The story got out, and its thanks to people like you.

I would have been posting more here but i'm gearing up for finals. I have some phone numbers now for the otakon PR dept, so i can begin to ask questions about the new policy.

1. Drawing licensed characters in a different style and background from the original. (Example: hyper-realistic depictions of Ranma and Akane.)
Allowed. Copyrighted character licenses generally extend only to clear visual likenesses, and these sorts of changes may be considered parody. HOWEVER, it is the artist's responsibility to determine that their work is not infringing on copyrighted work.

So if an artist draws a character in their own style, like say this
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22235102/ to use an example by a community member. Its obviously not an original, but it is a licensed character(s). Its a very fine line here, but there is some leeway. I believe they need to expand on this and spell it out more.

10. Mass produced prints of original art depicting licensed characters.
Not allowed. (The original is, but NOT the prints.)

What defines mass produced, if there are 20 prints for an entire con of 25,000 people, is that mass produced or just a limited edition? thats less then one per 1,000 people.

any comments on any of the other rules.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Fall Out Boy || Sugar, We're Going Down

Well, it's out.

The question we are now faced with is, is it enough? Are we happy with the changes? Certainly, the new position is different from what was originally posted in the Otakon forums. I'm still considering myself.

Comments?

(EDIT: Please note that the "they" refers to Otakon, not ANN.)

There is a website called Anime News Network, which claims to be "The Internet's most trusted anime news source". Well, it looks like it's just a shill for Otakon, and no you probably can't trust the news coming from this "news source". Someone posted something on their forums which referenced my news posts about Otakon (You may read my articles about Otakon here and here and an ongoing thread on Harknell.com here if you are just tuning in.).

They:

1. Quoted me wrong and out of context.
2. Spelled my name wrong (My name is not "Onizuma").
3. Didn't even link to the source material so that people could peruse the article.

It appears to me at this point that it was pretty much a shallow attempt at making me look bad. It does surprise me that their staff, especially their so-called "president" would resort to such petty tactics. At first Harknell thought that it was a mistake so he posted a well thought out post in response to the original poster and included a link to the original article as well as the correct spelling of my name. Well, the "president" of Otakon posts a snarky response to Harknell and basically accuses us of lying about their having deleted numerous posts with contrary opinions from the Otakon forums. We did not lie. We received numerous reports from artists who had their posts modded, deleted, or locked. We have had an influx of new forum members who have told us that they are glad that they can finally be heard through us.

In the same breath, the folks on Anime News Network forums edited Harknell's post to delete all of the links to the original article and my website. They even went through the not-linked text and deleted the ".com" from "Onezumi.com". Onezumi.com is the *name of my webcomic*. My comic is not called, "Onezumi". Then they accused him of spamming. How is simply correcting the spelling of my name and the link to the original article spamming?

Considering we are the ones who broke the story and gave it the coverage it deserves, it seems a bit repugnant. Otakon even went as far as to take a backhanded shot at me and my website in their news post on their main page.

If you are interested in the thread in which this is taking place, it is here. Feast your eyes on what Otakon staff is capable of. Harknell posted a rebuttal, but no matter what is said we are not responding to any further posts. It's a waste of time, which is indicative of the Otakon experience.

For anyone that's interested, I have registered the IRC channel #SaveArtistAlley on irc.irchighway.net.

IRC is a chat protocol that you can connect through from a variety of clients. The easiest to use is mIRC. Trillian and GAIM both contain irc plugs as well.

If you need a guide on how to connect, Click here, keeping in mind that our server is irc.irchighway.net and our channel is #SaveArtistAlley.

See you there!

"Strict guidance" as opposed to "not allowed" is a huge leap forward in terms of official policy.

We can look upon this news post on the Otakon website with optimism.

Onward!

Spread the word, gang! Tonight, Geek Nights is having me on the show to talk about the Artists Alley issue as it unfolds. Don't know if it's going to be released tonight, but I'll be on their podcast and that's the prime issue this week.

They said it's cool to talk about it anywhere, so spread the word! Tell your friends, tell everyone who has anything to say about the issue.

Also, onezumi, I mentioned that you were pretty involved in the issue and if you'd like to be on, they asked me to invite you. E-mail me (mpfeffer at sualum.com) if you're interested. There'll be a follow-up, so if you can't do it tonight, there's another shot.

I'll do what I can to reach out to the Geek Nights audience and get the issue out there... wish me luck!

As of this writing, Onezumi.com isn't just the website that broke the story about the Otakon Artist's Alley Controversy, but we are the only major website that is covering it. If you are just tuning in here, read this, this, and this thread to get caught up. In addition to this, Onezumi Studios, LLC is working in concert with many of the industry sponsors of Otakon in order to get their official stance on the AA controversy. All responses will be posted on Harknell.com as we receive them.

These are the LJ icons we have made in support of our efforts for the community. Feel free to use them freely on LJ, as link buttons, or whatever else.





Obviously, we are not supporting violation of copyright law. We are not supporting people who copy art, make buttons out of them and sell them. We are against an inconsistent interpretation of copyright law which peculiarly affects only the Otakon Artist's Alley and not the rest of the convention. We are against the "my way or the flame war" attitude. I personally do not sell my work in the AA and I don't sell much fanart at all. However, I see a clear case of selective punishment. Otakon, being a leader in the convention world is setting a dangerous precedent in which no contrary opinions are allowed to be heard. Artists as a whole are not trash or thieves and should not be treated as such.

For the sake of our international readers, tomorrow's Onezumi.com news post will be the last main page post we do on the subject unless things get more asinine than they already have. You can follow the action from here on in at the thread and get involved with our (lemonade from lemons) Lemonade Stand Rebellion event that we have planned for Otakon 2006. Harknell.com is an uncensored flame-free zone. Your voice will be heard even if you disagree with us. If we all work together, perhaps we can bring about a positive shift in the field.

Most importantly, we are in support of you. So, if you are planning something noteworthy, tell us about it so that we can tell the world. If you need support or guidance in your journey, we got your back with both Harknell.com and tutorials specifically targeted for AA Artists. Our door is always open and we really do want to see your art. Please note that due to schedule, I am able to read LJ infrequently at best, so it's better to contact me directly or on my forums to guarantee that I will see it.

Sorry i'm still kinda feverish i've been sick all weekend.

• We want to save artists alley
  
• There is no legal pressure on Otakon/Otaku-corp
  
• We would like to remove any clause for mis-understanding.
  
• We would like to understand the pressures from a corporate level (anime company) and try to dispel them as much as possible
  
• We want to continue to sell and distribute fanart understanding that:
  
•  We don’t own the rights to the characters or their likeness’s
  
• Cosplayers can still enter the Mascarade and win prizes
  
• AMV creators can still enter contests and win prizes
• That we put in countless hours of work into creating the fan art
  
• People don’t buy fan art of a show they don’t like, so chances are they’ve purchaced some of a show, or plan to in the future.
  
• For many series there is nothing besides a collector’s box,
  
• fan art allows fans to show how much they love a series.
  
• There are bound to be misunderstandings with power hungry staffers o
•  IE nobody knows every anime ever created, by a recent count on ANN there are like over 1,000 animes out there
• if somthing looks good people generally ask where it came from, and sometimes is hard to believe
  

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Waiting Game - Yellowcard

a basic idea of the letter. There will be more, but this is my planed forward.


Dear X-company,

Fandom isn't created in the corporate boardroom, nor through licensing negotiations, or through dvd replication. Fandom isn't on cartoon network, and it doesn't come shrink-wrapped at Best Buy, Suncoast, or thought the dealer’s room.

Fandom is built by the fans. It's created by fans who work all night to get the latest episode out so that people can know what happened to their favorite character. It's created by scanlators who spend their weekends slaving away with photoshop to release a manga that only 50 people in the world have heard of, but those 50 people love it more than anything. It's created by cosplayers who spend their summer vacations, and many a late night, bent over a sewing table cutting fabric, or over a work bench creating a 150 pound prop which they lug around in feezing cold and blistering hot. It's created by con staffers who work all day without thanks to make sure we're having a safe time. It’s created by wonder companies like you who slave away to make sure that your products are of the highest quality.

And it's most definitely created in Artist Alley.

Fan art is the highest form of flattery anyone can ever have from a fan. It takes many hours to create, and many years for a creator to be good enough to sell even a single print. These creators make these prints with all of their hearts, pouring out their feelings on to the canvas of their choice. They don’t question the rights that you hold on character copyrights. They sell them only to make back the countless hours they’ve slaved into them, and the fees of reproducing them.

Some cons are trying to end this, they don’t want artists to sell fan art for fear of legal procession from the anime industry. We seek to dispel those fears, by asking you to permit the sale of fan art.


What do you think, i stole some of this from a previous post but did a little expanding.

Current Mood: blank

Fandom isn't created in the corporate boardroom, nor through licensing negotiations, nor through dvd replication. Fandom isn't on cartoon network, and it doesn't come shrinkwrapped at Best Buy/Suncoast/Mediaplay.

Fandom is built by fans. It's created by fansubbers who work all night to get the latest episode out. It's created by scanlators who spend their weekends slaving away with photoshop to release a manga that only 50 people in the world have heard of, but those 50 people love it more than anything. It's created by cosplayers who spend the their summer vacations bent over a sewing table cutting fabric. It's created by con staffers who work all day without thanks to make sure we're having a safe time.

And it's most definitely created in Artist Alley.

We must remember that just as much as we are dependent upon the corporations for our anime, they are dependent upon us for their revenue. We have just as much sway with them as they do with us, only they're better organized. We cannot allow them to dictate the ways and means of our fandom. It's ours, and they can screw off if they want to control us.

Should this disastrous policy become official, I'd advocate several moves on the part of the community.

1)Attempt to contact the major anime licensors in the US and encourage them to offer indemnity to all conventions in regards to copyright violations specifically in Artist Alley (not necessarily so in the dealer's room)
2)As an addition to 1), any licensor that refuses to indemnify conventions, organize a boycott of their products until this concession is met.
3)Buy an Artist Alley table and sell “Save Artist Alley Merchandise”.

I would NOT advocate certain other moves in response, such as:

1)Not attending. Come on, Otakon has a capped attendance anyway. They're going to meet it. We might as well all go and have a good time while wearing awesome Save Artist Alley tshirts.
2)Flaming the con staff until we get our way. Simply, it's not effective. Certainly I have rather strong (and highly negative) opinions on the origin of this policy, but voicing them in an inflammatory manner gets us nowhere.

We must always remember that fandom comes from US, and not THEM. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Anime news network has, run an artical on the Artists Alley thing.

http://animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=8273

i submitted this to them last night. So its good that they got to it so fast.

Who else should i submit it to?

I'm an ANN junkie so i don't check many other sites.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Kingdom Hearts 2 OST <3

I think this is an important piece of information that everyone should read.

http://www.publaw.com/parody.html

Thanks chilayse!

Greetings, comrades!

I'm so psyched to see such an organizing force come out of the indignation over Alleygate '06. This is one of those times when we really need to band together and present a united front.

I would say that the one thing to remember is that, by paying our membership fees to Otakon, we become members of Otakorp, Inc. Otakon is technically a corporate entity, a non-profit corporation. As members, there has to be some way we can have our voices heard.

At this time, it's best for everyone NOT to storm Jim Vowles or any other member of the Board of Directors with criticisms. Instead, present leveled, reasoned arguments that convey our point. I would ask, for the sake of our cause, to not rail onward against Otakon or anyone in charge. This is our con and we can make this happen.

For now, we have to spread the buzz. We need to submit word of this to ANN, AnimeOnDVD, Cosplay.com, DeviantArt, 4chan and iichan, etc. Get the word out to the con-goers, to the artists, to the potential members. Argue our cause, because according to the Constitution of the United States, we are right.

Let's take back the Alley, comrades. Spread the word and bring the power back.

Current Mood: Righteous indignation
Current Music: The Internationale

I think a good place to start would be to gather a list of questions. I've already stated a couple in the first post, but let's go ahead and see if we can get these sorted out and possibly some answers to them! Feel free to post questions or try to answer any questions that have been posted.