Lately, the thread in ASMP's Seattle email 'forum' is about rights... who owns what. This has been the subject of endless discussion ever since I first joined ASMP back in the 1960's. Just when they thought they had worked things out, along came the digital era. Now who owns what has become almost moot and whether or not there is any real justice is debatable. Here's the latest twist:
The question was posed about who owns the rights to the digital file made of an 'intellectual property' like a picture. If you make your own images that's a no-brainer. But if you are a giclée printing company like Vashon Island Imaging the question comes up regularly (just like at ASMP).
I've been in the business for 50 years and have worn a lot of hats in those five decades... shooter, editor, buyer, seller, artist, printer and now author. Looking at the issues from one perspective doesn't always fill the needs/demands of another. Despite copyright law the 'rules of the road' are not well understood and so the issue remains a murky one misunderstood by many. You know how it goes, ask 10 lawyers and get 10 different opinions. No matter, they make their money no matter what happens to you.
At Vashon Island Imaging we create files and make giclée prints of other artists' work all the time. Our policies are as follows:
1.) We will not print a picture that does not belong to the party requesting the job. Fortunately, we rarely get requests like that.
2.) The intellectual property (picture) belongs to the artist or bonafide representative of the artist.
3.) Film positives, negatives and/or digital 'captures,' scans and printing files of the picture belong to the maker of those things. A lithographer's plate making negatives belong to the lithographer, if not by law then by common law. A copy negative made of a picture belongs to the person who made it. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that.
4.) The prints we sell belong to the buyer. (Duh... who else?)
To keep things clear and simple our charges reflect these policies. We charge separately for 'capture', prepress, printing, and file storage. A typical client will bring us an original artwork from which they want either a file they can use on their computer or a giclée print of the picture.
The making of an image file for printing requires an 'artistry' of its own, as any prepress artist can tell you. There is so much more to it than meets the eye... enough for me to write a 272-page book about it.
People don't generally realize that although they may be getting good results without prepress, they could be getting superb results with prepress. Yet most people think of it working like an office copier... files on demand at the touch of a button. Not yet.
So it can be argued that the digital printing file made of a picture by a prepress artist is a work of art in its own right that should belong to the prepress artist (or their employer) for the same reasons that the original art belongs to its creator.
But then we, the image file creators at Vashon Island Imaging, either 'work for hire' and/or sell the file as if it were a tube of toothpaste... a 'product'. The glory goes with the product into the hands of a new owner. 'Work for hire' means that while you are working for me the stuff you do for me belongs to me, not you. If you paint a 'Mona Lisa' while working for hire, the rights belong to your client.
A curious approach was floated on the ASMP forum by a printing company that made prints for a client who later asked for the files so they could print them themselves (or take them elsewhere to be printed). That company is considering charging a 'usage' fee along the lines of licensing images from stock houses. Good luck. Many others won't follow suit so you will be the expensive one.
We make files for people to take to other printers all the time at Vashon Island Imaging... it's our specialty. Instead of wining about not getting a printing job, we make money selling our knowledge of what is needed to maximize the quality of printed pictures. It is all in my book, Giclée Prepress - The Art of Giclée (ISBN 9780-9865-75112, 272 pages, 477 pictures). But in a nutshell you could equate it with consulting.
We are 'image printing consultants' and make money that way at Vashon Island Imaging. A typical client comes to us with a printing problem and we solve the it with our prepress work for an hourly fee, just like other consultants. In our case the 'consultation' is about how to get the best possible reproduction of the clients picture. Our 'product' is the knowledge contained in the particular adjustments to the image file that we make to get pixel perfect printing. It is a form of intellectual property. You too can become a printing expert and sell your services as a prepress artist cum consultant... just read my book (hint hint).
Who owns what? Who cares? You just made money where you wouldn't have otherwise... and your client is smiling instead of thinking badly of you for being 'petty' about a silly little file.
These days it is especially important to maintain a good profile and that takes considerable PR work and attention to solving customers' problems. Look for ways to help clients who begin printing their own pictures. Training them can generate money that wasn't possible to earn from them before. Your prospect list is colossal. Think about it.
Never before have so many people been involved in printing pictures. Epson and other printer manufacturers have brought pricing down to be within reach of prosumers and advanced amateurs. We are seeing the results of that on Vashon Island where about 10% of last year's printing customers have become prepress students at the seminars I give at the studio about pixel perfect printing. We may have lost their small-format printing business but we pick-up some of the lost money by teaching those clients how to get the most out of the printing machines they invested in. That also keeps them on board for the times when they will want to print something larger than their (usually) smaller machine is capable of printing.
You may actually earn more money doing prepress than making prints... you won't lose money, that's for sure. So does it really matter who owns the printing file? Another one can be made 'on demand' after all.
Speaking of PR, how many times have you been asked by a client for a copy of your printing file for their website? If a client has just given us a nice print job, instead of discounting the money we provide extra value by including a 'basic' internet file at no cost. That opens the door to discuss possible additional prepress to maximize picture quality for the web.
A good giclée printing file won't look as good as it could on the Web... just as a Web picture doesn't make a good giclée print. So there's an opportunity to tack on $5 or $10 dollars to your sale... and every little bit helps these days, eh?
Let the legal Beagles rant on about rights. They are barking up the wrong tree. Arguing about who owns what isn't part of the Zen of giclée.
They say 'expect nothing and you won't be disappointed'. That is easily rephrased to 'own nothing and there's nothing to steal'. You can't enjoy our work if you feel that you are being taken advantage of... so after the 'just do it' part is done, just let it go. You'll feel much lighter as the scales of life tip in your favor.
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