I received an email from Stu Rees. For those not familiar, Stu is an entertainment lawyer that specializes in visual arts – like cartoons. He’s also a cartoonist himself. He also works with the National Cartoonist Society on legal matters. He forwarded me an email he posted on another cartooning bulletin board regarding Reprographic royalties. He makes a good case that if you’re not being represented, it would be well for you to look into it.
Reprographic royalties are money collected from universities, government entities and corporations for a blanket license to copy printed matter. As a cartoonist with work published in the US and abroad, you may be entitled to some of the money. I made a pitch at this year’s Reubens for cartoonists to join ASIP, the organization that would be responsible for collecting the funds on your behalf. The NCS itself is a member of ASIP, and Page 4 of the latest issue of The Cartoon!st has a pitch from the NCS board for individual members to join. Mark Simon has just written a long piece at Animation World Network providing detailed background on the issue.
I urge all U.S. cartoonists (who own at least some of their published work) to join ASIP by completing and sending in the form at www.asip-repro.org/join.html It’s not only free, someday you might even receive a small check!