BRONZE ARTISTS FOR COPYRIGHT

BRONZE ARTISTS FOR COPYRIGHT to save authenticity of bronze art and bronze sculptures, keep the original bronze art

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an artist and her copyright story

original	www.dedeckersculpture.com How we became involved in defending ourselves: 1997 - we approached a U.S. company for alleged copyright for Shortcut. HRO sent a cease and desist letter. Over the past 6 years numerous galleries, clients, associates and the Internet, of alleged likeness to some of Jane's designs, have notified us. We collected these images with question of what to do about it. Gradually more images were added to the file and at this point there are around 19 different design images we feel to be violations of Jane's originals. At the beginning of 2002 the editor contacted us about an article to be published in the summer issue of Sculpture Review magazine pertaining to copyrights and the trouble different artists were having. After the article was published, we received a call from the editor about a letter received from a company complaining about one of the images Jane used as a comparison in this issue. From here we decided it was time to fight back, because now other companies were claiming these designs to be their own. We did extensive research on the Internet and followed up data received from other artists, of several knock-off companies we believed to be alleged. From here we went after our first copyright violator. We hired a lawyer and fought this distributor on 7 different sculptures. This company, claimed innocence at first, but eventually came around to taking these pieces off their website and stopping the sale of some of the items in question. This process took about 8 months and a pile of legal fees, but we were able to recover those expenses and build a small kitty to use for our next battle. Our next attack was partly to support another artist who has been fighting a large case with a distributor / importer, who claims innocence from copying the rights of artists directly. Well they very well may be ignorant and not innocent to the charges as they stand, for they all claim innocence. But they are importing products from a country notorious for piracy and knock-off products. Any way, we are currently in negotiations to settle with them as will, with a long list of rules they must follow for selling any sculpture resembling our designs. Through this process we narrowed our sights on a few distinct organizations that displayed several different pieces similar to DeDecker Sculpture's designs. We want you to know from these brief testimonials that we do have a chance to fight back and we will not get saddled with undue lawyer fees. Our lawyers have been fast and efficient in every facet of handling these cases, and each victory leads us to the golden egg, stopping the foundries from producing them and stop countries from letting them cross their borders. Join us in our fight for the right to be creative and the benefits it may bring. We cannot let these people take our sustainability away from us by using our own ideas. Let them rely on their own imagination for once. This whole process in the beginning was disheartening and depressing, now we have found the energy to keep pursuing these pirates, and forcing them to have better judgments or risk financial ruin. Ultimate goal in deciding to go after these manufacturers and distributors: To find who is producing / casting these products and get them to stop. Get all of the distributors to stop selling these items and be aware of the copyright protection of designs. Let these companies know we are serious about protecting ourselves. Make them pay one way or another to make a statement. To make a stand on behalf of all the artists out there and encourage them to defend themselves in a similar fashion. Some of these companies are alert already from our actions and have passwords only to enter their site, or changed the web- site, so you can not enter anymore ! Artist images I believe to have seen through my research Gary Price, Mark Hopkins, Walt Horton, Rosalind Cook, Tim Cherry, Blair Buswell, George Lundeen, Mark Lundeen, Cammie Lundeen, Glenn Goodacre, Jane Dedecker, Andre Harvey, Ann LaRose, Victor Issa, Impala Lechner.	not original
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